Susan's Scoop Economic Chaos = Emotional Chaos. What Can We Do? There’s a phenomenon I’ve seen play out in every career I’ve had - across airports, government, coaching, and investing. When the world feels chaotic, people latch onto something tangible to direct their frustration, even if it doesn’t make logical sense. Back when I worked as an airport planner, I noticed a strange pattern: whenever there was heightened news about war, economic downturns, or political upheaval, our office would...
9 days ago • 3 min read
Caitlin's Corner What... Just Happened? Well- there I was about to queue up a newsletter on what to do when market tailspins are driving friends and family to pull their assets OUT of the stock market. And then… the S&P rebounded in a massive way. In fact, yesterday it recorded the highest trading volume in history- all due to news of temporary tariff rate drops (for most countries). April 9 gets on the podium of single-day gains since WW2. Because I (personally) don’t expect this to be all...
16 days ago • 2 min read
Susan's Scoop Brokerage Hacks: Build Wealth Without the Stress One thing it seems we all have in common, especially as women, is often a lack of bandwidth to take on anything ‘extra’. Most of the women we meet are eager to build wealth, but many don’t have the time (or patience) to plunge toilets in a rental property, wait in an endless Costco line for gold bars, or wrestle with a clunky government website to buy a treasury bond. Even so, we shouldn’t have to miss out on the diversification...
23 days ago • 3 min read
Caitlin's Corner Our Ideal Working Decades Many of you know that last summer, my husband and I decided to move our family to the mountain town we fell in love with fifteen years ago. Our timing wasn’t by mistake. We knew that the time we have- with our children, with our bodies, and with our personal ambition- is precious. We wanted every shot to live our best lives, and we wanted to do that with our kids. Since being here, (and being insanely grateful for the time we spend together, the...
30 days ago • 2 min read
Susan's Scoop An Update: 2 Years into Early Retirement Two and a half years ago my husband Brian and I were living lives full of stress headaches, status meetings, and time sheets. We had made it through zoom-schooling our two boys through the pandemic while both working full time W-2 jobs, and we were exhausted. Due to the economic recovery, we had hit our financial independence number; we had been working towards this for years, but until then, we hadn’t really considered what ‘early...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Caitlin's Corner Staying Grounded in Turbulent Times The markets—and the world—feel incredibly volatile right now. Conversations about investing, the future, or designing a life on our terms are inevitably intertwined with uncertainty and fear. While no one can predict exactly what will happen next, we can anchor ourselves in a few key truths: 1) Fear-Driven Decisions Rarely Lead to Good Outcomes When the market fluctuates, it’s natural to crave control. This often leads to behaviors like...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Caitlin's Corner Bubblegum vs. Piggy Bank A few months ago, our two kids (5 and 8 years old) squealed with excitement as they stuck two dry-erase chore charts on the fridge. Yes, they were excited about chore charts. But it wasn’t the chores that thrilled them—it was the drawing, the check-marking, the coloring, and the erasing. That’s their motivation for now. Well, that and the allowance. A couple of years ago, we decided to start giving our kids an allowance. They weren’t doing much to...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Susan's Scoop Zero-Tax Early Retirement: The Ultimate Wealth Hack Recently, I was running some post-early-retirement scenarios for a client - a married couple with two kids - and I showed them a tax strategy that allows them to make over $150k a year, all while paying absolutely zero in taxes. Yep, you read that right - $0 in taxes. And it’s not some rare exception; this is a strategy that many early retirees use to keep their tax bills at zero while building the financial freedom to live...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Caitlin's Corner Financial Freedom Can Make 💘... or Break the Love 💔 When my husband and I were both working full-time jobs, side-hustling our real estate business, and raising a toddler and a newborn, I often daydreamed about how wonderful life would be once we achieved financial freedom. I especially imagined our partnership strengthening when we finally had time to sleep and enjoy hobbies together. Fast forward two years, and we reached financial freedom. Burned out, I left my job and...
2 months ago • 4 min read