Eric Garland - Ameriprise Financial Advisor

02/09/2026

I’m proud to announce that Forbes has included Eagle Rock Wealth Strateiges on their 2026 Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list. What an incredible honor – one that recognizes our entire team’s commitment to providing financial advice that helps our clients focus on their goals in both the short and long term. Thank you to my extraordinary team and clients. You inspire me each and every day. https://bit.ly/3McqrUr

01/22/2025

I’m proud to announce that Forbes has included Eagle Rock Wealth Strategies on their 2025 Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list. What an incredible honor – one that recognizes our entire team’s commitment to providing financial advice that helps our clients focus on their goals in both the short and long term. Thank you to my extraordinary team and clients. You inspire me each and every day.

Eric Garland is an Ameriprise Financial Advisor serving the Colorado Springs, CO area. Get the personal financial advice you need to achieve your goals.

04/10/2024

It's Wednesday, you have been meaning to check up on your financial situation.

- Review your family budget
- Review your 401(k) investments
- Adjust your 401(k) & Roth contributions for the year.

You made a goal to have this done over the last weekend.

Didn't get to it.

You remember a time you were able to do this but now with your kid's soccer practice, caring for your parents, your demanding job, and trying to spend time with your spouse, your financial organization has taken a back burner.

This is where our team can come in and help. You never felt like paying for advice or management of your assets, but now it's becoming obvious you need help.

Our team has helped many individuals and families just like you.

No better time than now to find some quality advice and take a load of your plate.

03/27/2024

The key question I get most from my client's is "Can I retire early?"

Most clients would expect me to tell them that they need x million in their 401(k)... but that is not how this works!

I have a client that I just met with. She is in her 40s, great job at the railroad with good income, but started a little late saving for retirement.

Sound familiar?

She wants to retire early and kept asking the question "How much savings do I need to retire early?"

However, the main problem is not how much money I need to accumulate, the problem is how much do I expect to spend. In other words, how much is enough?

If my client spent $6,000 per month in retirement, she would need less assets than if she spent $12,000 per month.

If she can solve the "how much is enough" question, then she can feel confident in the amount of retirement savings that she is building towards.

03/20/2024

There are two types of people in this world.

-> Those who love their job and would do this "forever."
-> Those who can't wait to leave their job and retire immediately

The funny thing is I had two meetings back-to-back with two clients who are in these different camps.

One client works as a professor at a med school and could retire tomorrow if she chose but is staying on another year. She said that last year to!

The other client wants to retire next year from his government job and will do "whatever it takes" to make sure he never works again.

The key piece of my conversations with each of them is helping them find value & purpose. For the professor, she finds her work meaningful and wants to continue to do it for as long as she can. For the other client, it's about retiring so he can volunteer and support his community nonprofits here in Colorado Springs.

Yes, as a financial advisor we talk about money, but most often we help clients find their value and their purpose.

This is the most rewarding part of the job.

12/20/2023

If you meet with an advisor and they say they need to manage your assets in order to do financial planning... that is simply not accurate.

Financial Planning is a completely separate service to investment management... or at least it SHOULD BE!

I have many clients who have their investments at Fidelity, Vanguard or Charles Schwab and yet they find value in our team's financial planning process.

So let me say this again for those of you in the back... Financial Planning is a separate service!

Gain insights into financial planning before becoming a client. Sign up today and get a sense of the financial advice you'll receive from my practice.

12/11/2023

If you have a "financial plan" that just goes over your investments and reallocates your 401(k)... that is NOT a financial plan. That is a partial investment plan!

Financial Planning starts with your end goals in mind and covers so much more breadth. Here are some things that should be included:

1. Long-term goals, projections, and values based conversations
2. Investment and cash flow planning
3. Protection planning (life, disability, long-term care, property and liability, etc.)
4. Tax planning
5. Estate and legacy planning
6. Employee Benefit planning

Am I missing anything?

Eric Garland is an Ameriprise Financial Advisor serving the Colorado Springs, CO area. Get the personal financial advice you need to achieve your goals.

11/29/2023

Your financial goals should be tied to your values!

Let me say that again. YOUR financial goals should be tied to your VALUES.

I talk with many clients and prospects that have financial goals which are wonderful, but they are unmotivated to take action. The reason? The goals have nothing to do with their identity of who they are. So how does our team help solve this? We take them through the process I will lay out below:

1. Think about what makes you, well YOU!
- Are you a believer in Jesus?
- Do you love to travel?
- Do you love to give?
- Do you love to be at home and work on your garden?

This will begin to take shape on what is important and how our financial goals can start to take some shape.

2. Jot down some short/long-term goals.

If I love being at home and tending to my garden, and I don't have a greenhouse, then maybe this can be a short-term goal. "Build a small greenhouse."

If I love Jesus and I always want to give more but haven't. Short-term goal could be "Plan to give 10% of my income to my local church AND have a $5,000 giving fund".

3. Align your budget and your financial resources with these goals and values.
Once you have decided on your financial goals, we can allocate resources to achieve them. This can be done while saving for other items like your children's education, retirement, or a new car.

Start planning for 2024 with this process in mind.

Happy Planning!

11/22/2023

There will always be competing priorities when it comes to your financial life. You may want to travel now, save for your children's education, remodel your home, and then retire early.

The fact of life is you cannot do this all at once effectively! If you tried, then it may take you years or even decades to accomplish any of your goals! I usually help clients prioritize their goals based on their values. If you want to learn more on how to do this and a whole lot of more helpful information to get you started, request my free e-book down by the link below.

Happy Planning!

Gain insights into financial planning before becoming a client. Sign up today and get a sense of the financial advice you'll receive from my practice.

11/15/2023

I am excited to announce the release of my very first e-book! After years of talking with clients, I realized that many felt intimated or unsure of how financial advisors help their clients. This e-book walks through the basics of how advisors help their clients through financial planning. Think of it as a starting guide to your first financial plan that you can do yourself!!

To access the eBook, click on the link below!

Gain insights into financial planning before becoming a client. Sign up today and get a sense of the financial advice you'll receive from my practice.

11/01/2023

Take time to enjoy traveling now!

That’s what I love to tell my younger clients. If you are in your 20s, 30s, or even 40s, it’s a perfect time to be seeing the country or the world 🌎

One of the things I hear from my older clients who are retired is that they wish they traveled more. Now, they are just simply tired and can’t do the length of trips that they wish they could.

By the way, Ireland is lovely and would highly recommend!

Happy Planning!

05/31/2023

The last few weeks I’ve been asked by clients how I budget for my wife and I.

So today I will show you 3️⃣ things that I do to create my budget. I hope this helps 😄

1️⃣ Choose your medium.

- Much like an artist 👩‍🎨 you need to decide where to track your budget. Is it Excel? Is it an App? Is it good ole fashion pen and paper 📝?

- Once you decide you will be more attached to the budget because you like looking at it 😎

2️⃣ Start with the Yearly look.

- Review your yearly income, expenses, taxes, saving, and giving from a year perspective.

- This can help frame what you expect to spend and it will also incorporate your goals such as more travel, buying a home, or contributing to your children’s education.

3️⃣ Save for the non-monthly expenses

- Many clients know their monthly expenses but many forget or do not account for expenses that come up in specific months of the year.

- Here are some examples:
Property Taxes
Car Maintenance
Clothing
Gifts ( Birthdays, Weddings, and Christmas)
Travel

- Once you make a list, you can save for them throughout the year on a monthly basis through a savings account what I like to call a sinking fund.

Now you are ready to redo and retool your budget!

Happy Planning!