Why You Should Care About Financial Planning?

Do you know why you make the financial choices you do? Not sure, or not happy with your honest answer? That is where financial planning can make a difference and that's why we're here.

The most important part of financial planning is listening. We begin here. We listen to your hopes and dreams and can help you define or refocus your goals. It is our job to know the tools to use to help you succeed, and sometimes, even suggest goals we see as achievable that you haven't considered. It is impossible to achieve a goal that you haven't even defined yet, so you must start there.

Feel like all the financial stuff is mumbo jumbo or written in some other language? Feel like you've made the wrong choices so far and don't know where to start? That's how most people feel deep down! All you have to do is let us help and start somewhere. Oh, and in case you are wondering about the qualification stuff, yes, all planners on our team have their CFP®, yes, we all have over 10 years of experience, and yes we are happy to share some references of happy clients we have worked with.


Our Process



Determine Your Current Financial Situation



Together, We will determine where you are today. This Involves collecting information about your assets, debts, living expenses, and legal situation. We make the process as easy as possible by giving you a checklist to guide you. In our consultation, we'll check the boxes that apply to you and you gather the documents.



Goal Setting



This is usually the hard one. We'll ask you how you feel about money and why you feel that way. We ask the goals you want to accomplish, when and what they look like. We will even ask you to prioritize things like paying for your kid's education, retirement, and that beach house you have dreamed of.



Develop the Plan



We put together the information about where you currently are, consider your goal setting to see where you want to go, and use our knowledge to tell you how to get there. We still work as a team during this process, showing you some of your results, getting your feedback and fine-tuning your goals as a result. In this step, you will get a list of things to do, some immediate, some long term to help you on your way.



Implementing the Plan



This is the step where the rubber meets the road. You have done your homework, identified your goals, and made a plan. Now you need to actually do it. Some clients do it on their own, some ask for our help, it is up to you.



Monitoring the Plan



Planning is done at a point in time. You finish your plan, then life goes on, so you have to monitor and update things or you might not get to where you are going. Life is going to throw you curveballs, but if you have a base plan and a partner that can help you react, it doesn't have to be scary.
























Retirement



Unexpected Money



Planning for Women



Financial Independence



This is just a fancy way to say, exactly when can you stop working for the purpose of earning money and starting doing exactly what you want to do every day, regardless of how much you earn? Tell us your goals and we will help you answer this question.



Make the right choices



Whether you inherited something, sold some real estate or a business, or even won the lottery, the challenges are the same. How to adjust your perspective to newfound wealth and make it last. Let one of our planners help.



Is planning for women really different?



We believe the answer is yes. Women live longer than men are more likely to be single parents, and on average earn less than their male counterparts which means they are likely to have different decisions to make.







Let's Get Started

UPstream believes all financial advice should start with a plan. Financial decisions are more interconnected than we sometimes realize, so it's important to know the whole picture to make sure both that we are aligned as a team and working toward the same goals and that there are not any unseen pitfalls that could take you off track.



How Does it Work?

Our first consultation meeting is always free. We spend as much time with you as needed to figure out where we can help, then we propose a plan. We provide fee for service financial planning, much like your attorney or CPA might do, that provides you with a financial plan you can take with you and implement as you see fit, on your own or with the help of any advisor. We also provide financial planning for our investment advisory clients who choose to do the planning and the implementation with us. The choice is yours. Our job is to present you with your options and let you decide.



Then What?

Since Financial Planning is a snapshot in time, it does require to follow up. Our planners will be available to help answer questions or complete updates anytime in the first year after the plan. After that, you can choose to continue or not. Our goal is to help you accomplish yours, whatever that may look like in your life. Just give us a call and let us help.