Caitlin's Corner Dinner Hosting & Our Money - The Minimum Viable "Enough" I recently read an article that spoke to my soul. The writer (Amanda Litman) and her husband had made a bold, yet simple 2025 resolution: for the entire year, they would invite people over to their home every. Single. Saturday. And they did it! What made me so excited about this story (other than the menu they shared) is that the author doesn't have a big, fancy house with endless time to clean and decorate. She paints...
8 days ago • 6 min read
Susan's Scoop Time Moves on Anyway Welcome to 2026! This time of year always leaves me a little conflicted. Culturally, we’re encouraged to set bold New Year’s goals and hit the ground running, yet the cold, dark days naturally invite us inward into a slower, quieter rhythm. By late January, those big January 1st goals can start to feel overwhelming, especially the ones that can’t be accomplished in a single year: paying off student loans, building a seven-figure nest egg, learning a new...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Happy New Year, Reader! We want to make sure you know about a free event we're hosting tomorrow, to help you kick off the new year: Tomorrow: Jan. 7 (2026!) 1pm CT - Setting Values-Aligned Financial Goals in the New Year This isn't just another goal-setting workshop! During this meeting, we'll use effective prompts and scenarios to help you cut out the noise of your day-to-day and get clear on your values and goals.
17 days ago • 1 min read
Caitlin's Corner What Makes Private Equity so Sexy Two years ago, I found myself in the private room of an upscale restaurant in Denver- one my husband and I never would have chosen for a date night. But on this evening, we were enjoying six exquisite courses on someone else’s dime (sort of). Around the table sat eight other people: two couples in their 60s, and four men in their late 50s, three of whom were in business together. I hadn’t known any of them before that night, and I never spoke...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Susan's Scoop My TN Cabin Plot Twist I ended up taking wild ride with the potential sale of my vacation rental cabin in Tennessee, so I figure I owe you guys an update. When I last wrote about it back in October (see that post here), we were debating whether to accept a lowball offer after having the cabin on the market for the past 9 months. (I appreciate everyone who replied to offer feedback and weigh in on the situation!) The quick backstory is we bought the property in 2022 for $486k,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Caitlin's Corner What Our First “Santaless” Christmas is Teaching Us So Far As the holidays approach, I know that not everyone in our community celebrates Christmas, and those who do, celebrate in different ways. Our family’s version is a very secular, winter-marking ritual: a way to bring light into the dark season by connecting with people we love, and celebrating the joys that lift our spirits during these cold months. Of course, if you ask our kids, they’d tell you it’s about one thing:...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Susan's Scoop When Should You Donate? A 2025–2026 Tax Timing Hack I hope everyone who celebrates is enjoying a cozy and restful Thanksgiving! My older son is home from school for the first time in three months, and I’m so grateful to have our family feeling “complete” again. I’m also celebrating a big professional milestone - I passed my final Enrolled Agent certification exam, which means I can now support clients with more advanced tax strategy and represent them directly in front of the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Caitlin's Corner Tax Jargon, Clarified Every year around this time, it feels like the air gets thick with tax terms. They float around in headlines, in HR emails, in conversations we didn’t ask to be part of: "Brackets! Deductions! Credits! Limits…" If hearing all of that makes your eyes glaze over, you’re in good company. I remember when these terms made me want to bury my head in the sand. It so often felt like the tax language itself was weaponized, like- the sheer amount of jargon and...
2 months ago • 7 min read
Susan's Scoop What I'm Learning as our Health Insurance Costs TRIPLE 😳 It’s open season for health insurance right now in the U.S., and it’s been… a ride. Both politically and personally. Caitlin and I have been deep in the weeds comparing ACA plans in our respective states (Colorado and Texas) to find something that fits our families. The cost for my family’s current plan has more than tripled (!!!), so we’ll be switching plans - but even the “cheaper” ones are still more than double what...
2 months ago • 4 min read