Financial Zen, 600 California Street, 11th floor, San Francisco, CA (2026)

Q: What is the address?

600 California Street, 11th Floor

09/01/2026

How to get a free $4k from your employer... and how to ruin it.

Most people leave this one on the table.

The Employee Stock Purchase Program... ESPP... is standard issue at most publicly traded companies.

Some have more free money buried in them than your 401k match.

So you absolutely want to max it out.

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The math is simple.

Your company lets you buy their stock at a 15% discount.

The IRS caps ESPP contributions at $25,000 a year.

So you put in $21,250... and it turns into $25,000 worth of stock.

That's $3,750 of free money... minimum.

Some plans are even more generous. They'll give you 15% off the stock price either at purchase OR at the start of the six-month purchase period... whichever is lower.

That's a guaranteed return. In any market. Period.

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But you have to sell immediately.

A guaranteed 15% return is a miracle.

The only way to blow it is to hold the stock and watch it tank. If it drops 15% or more... your guaranteed return disappears.

Sell it the same day it's purchased. Lock in the gain. Move on.

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What about taxes?

Same-day sale means no capital gains tax.

The 15% discount counts as ordinary income and shows up on your W2. That's it.

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The fine print.

I've seen companies eliminate the discount entirely during downturns.

I've seen mandatory holding periods that prevent same-day sales.

I've seen a company complete a purchase on Monday, report earnings Tuesday, and by the time the trading window opened Wednesday... the stock had already dropped 15%.

Read your plan documents. Know the rules before you enroll.

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Done right though? One of the easiest guaranteed returns in your entire financial life.

Don't leave it on the table.

08/29/2026

— Mine wore a suit and tie.

One year ago this past Sunday, I lost my dad.

Two days later was my 17th planniversary. The career I built to make him proud.

The timing isn't lost on me.

I wrote this then. It still says everything.

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Not all superheroes wear a cape. Mine wore a suit and tie.

I chose a business major because I wanted to be like him.

I do the right thing, always - no matter what - because he wouldn't accept anything less.

Sales wasn't just a career for him. It was his channel to a higher calling for helping others. Exactly what Financial Zen means for me.

But not even superheroes live forever.

I miss you, dude. Hope I make you proud.

Love,
Sport

08/26/2026

18 years ago today, I walked into the SF Wachovia Securities branch for my first day as a financial advisor.

Cold calls. Strangers in a new city. A headset and a prayer.

I had no clients. No book. No idea what I was doing.

I just knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

18 years later...

$181M in assets managed. 100+ member households. A team of rockstars. A business I could sell tomorrow for millions.

But the number that actually means something to me?

Zero.

Zero bosses. Zero branch managers. Zero corporate quotas. Zero selling out.

But the last 18 years weren't a straight line up.

There was the New Year's Eve in Tahoe where I stood in a Safeway line... a 37-year-old financial advisor... with a lump in my throat because I couldn't afford a $35 bottle of wine for our hosts.

I was managing millions for other people and couldn't buy groceries.

I called my mom for rent money... more than once.

I quit Wells Fargo with $20 in my pocket and a vision nobody else believed in.

I cut my income in half... twice... to protect that vision.

I got it wrong for two and a half years trying to build the right team.

And yet...

18 years. Three phases.

The Unyielding years - surviving the cage and refusing to break.

The Unkillable years - building the fortress one Member at a time.

And now... the Unstoppable years.

The boulder is over the peak.

To everyone who told me I was nuts... thank you for the fuel.

To our Members who took a chance on the guy who refused to sell out... none of this exists without you.

To my wife Nicole... you saw me at my lowest and didn't blink.

18 years in...

NOT EVEN CLOSE TO DONE!!!

LFG!!!

08/20/2026

We do about four AIMs a day. Advise. Implement. Monitor.

And every week I'm reminded of why this work matters.

This week one of our members came to the call sitting on a significant NVIDIA position.

Good problem to have.

Except concentrated single-stock exposure is only a good problem if you have a plan for it.

We do.

The plan: pause the current sell-off and let the position grow to a qualifying threshold.

Then use a SyntheticFi collar to borrow $500,000 against it at a low rate.

That loan gets diversified into the portfolio.

The collar structure marks to market each year... generating $15-20K in annual tax losses we can harvest and bank.

Losses that will offset the gains when NVIDIA eventually gets sold.

Net result: they stay long a stock they believe in, diversify the rest, and the tax bill on the exit gets significantly reduced.

Not magic. Just planning.

Same meeting, different conversation.

The husband asked about hiring a cleaner for $300-400 a month.

He'd read enough of our emails to know we talk about buying back time.

But he felt guilty. Worried it was lifestyle creep.

So I pulled up their workbook live, plugged in the number, and showed him.

$400 a month moves their retirement timeline by 0.2 years.

Then I asked... would you rather spend two hours a week cleaning or spend those two hours with your newborn?

The answer was pretty obvious.

This is what the AIM is supposed to be.

Not a quarterly check-in. Not a market update.

A real conversation about real decisions... with the numbers right there to back it up.

If you've ever wondered what working with Financial Zen actually looks like...

This is it.

08/18/2026

I used to pay off my credit cards in full every week.

4 years ago I started paying off ONLY the statement balance once a month.

What changed? Interest rates.

I now earn 0.011% every day on my cash. (4% annual rate compounded daily.)

And I pay 0% interest on my credit cards as long as I pay the balance by the due date.

By only paying the statement balance, I borrow money at 0% and earn money at 4%.

In large amounts, it's easy to understand.

I paid our taxes by credit card last month on 10/15 to the tune of $30k. (Ouch...sorta.)

The credit card balance isn't due until 11/18. That means I earned $100 of interest without lifting a finger.

I applied the same concept to our taxes last year. The reason we owed so much is because we deliberately withheld as little as possible without triggering the underpayment penalty.

That means we earned an additional $1,200 last year from NOT paying Uncle Sam or Robert California more than they absolutely required.

Money is dynamic and it pays to rechart your money mental maps when the environment changes.

If you're still managing your cash the same way you were 15 years ago, you're probably missing out on some easy money.

08/08/2026

hookey Friday.

08/05/2026

The ultra-wealthy have been doing this for decades. Now you can too.

Bear with me on this one.

It's 1992. You're ten years old.

Your friend Jake walks up to you on the playground and says:

"Hey. I'll give you $100 today. You give me back $105 next year. Deal?"

You think about it for exactly four seconds.

Because you've been eyeing a rookie Ken Griffey Jr. card at the card shop for $100. And you know - you just know - that thing is going to be worth more by next summer.

So you say deal. You shake on it. You go buy the card.

A year later it's worth $110. You owe Jake $105. Instead of selling the card, you walk up to him and make another offer.

"Hey Jake. What if I just borrow the $105 again instead of paying you back? I'll owe you $110.25 next year."

Jake shrugs. Deal.

Your card keeps sitting in your collection. Growing. Year two it's worth $121. You owe Jake $110.25. You make him the same offer again. Year three. Year four. Year five.

Every year your card grows faster than what you owe Jake. Every year you roll the loan and keep the card working.

That gap - between what your investment earns and what the loan costs - compounds quietly in your favor.

That's the whole game.

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Now fast forward 30 years. Same concept. Different instrument. It's called a box spread.

Inside your brokerage account, you buy and sell four options contracts in a specific combination that cancels out all market risk. No matter what the stock market does, the box pays back a guaranteed fixed amount at expiration.

Because the outcome is guaranteed, you can borrow at very low rates - 4-5% when a bank or HELOC charges 7-9%.

The cash lands in your account. You put it to work. If the portfolio earns 8-10% and you borrowed at 4-5%, you keep the spread. When the loan comes due, you roll it. Just like you did with Jake.

Portfolio stays fully invested. Box gets renewed. The spread keeps compounding in your favor.

Financial Zen added this to our strategy early last year for a select group of our Members.

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Here's what most people don't realize: this isn't new.

Family offices and institutional investors have been doing versions of this for decades. Borrow cheap, invest smart, keep the spread, roll the loan. It's been a cornerstone of sophisticated wealth management forever.

What is new is access.

Historically the math just didn't math unless you had millions. Electronic options markets changed that - and today, through our partners at SyntheticFi, you can execute a box spread loan with as little as $10,000.

We're not inventing anything. We're just finally on the right side of the velvet rope.

07/30/2026

I review my entire team every quarter. I never reviewed myself. Until now.

Each quarter I sit down 1:1 with our team for their QOAR — Quarterly Opportunities & Accomplishments Review. We answer the same questions separately, talk through them together, and set individual Rocks for the next 90 days.

This quarter it dawned on me: why don't I do this for myself?

Here are the questions — and my honest answers.

BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Hired our 5th full-time team member
Empowered Amanda to fully run her households — I show up, add my two cents, and get out of the way
Put Taylor in charge of operations and day-to-day
Registered with the SEC

That last one is a big deal. And honestly, so is the second one.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT I have a tough time letting go of the vine. I keep inserting myself into things the team is fully empowered to handle. Classic Resistance — gravitating toward the comfortable to avoid cutting the new path through the jungle. Which is freakin' hard.

The fix: focus on leadership like it's my actual job. Because at this stage of Financial Zen, it's the most important thing I can do for our team and our Members.

LOVE & MEH Love: leading the team, solving complex financial planning problems, building systems that let us punch above our weight class. Meh: day-to-day stuff I can't help getting into, work that doesn't require me, billing and back office.

The answer to the meh column is the same as the love column. The team. Technology. Leverage.

BIGGEST LESSONS Leadership is now my most important role. It's not Rick + Support Staff. It's a first fully empowered, self-sustaining team.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable again. We've broken through to the next phase. Growth is painful — in the best way.

Focus. My bright-shiny-object syndrome is a daily battle. Set goals. Hit them. Add the new shiny thing to the list, reprioritize if it deserves it. Repeat.

FOCUS FOR Q3 One thing at a time. Measure the Dones. Set weekly goals and hit them.

The big one: leadership, not ex*****on. I'm tracking time in the business vs. on the business. Minimum target: 50/50. Stretch goal: 75/25.

That ratio will tell me everything about whether Q3 was a win.

Steal this framework for your own team. Then answer the questions yourself. You might be surprised what comes up.

07/24/2026

Friday.

SERIOUS systematic click reduction happened this week.

Automated our cash management system.

Claude-ified our meeting notes process.

Decision tracking 2nd brain rolled out.

Member cash flow analysis up and running.

07/23/2026

I'd Rather Have an Unanesthetized Root Canal... And Yet.

This weekend, our new block had a block party. About 75 strangers — who just happen to be our new neighbors — all in one place.

I walked in and completely owned it. Didn't think twice.

And the whole time, I couldn't stop thinking about a conversation I had 17 years ago.

"Kevin, I would rather have an unanesthetized root canal than go to a networking event. I'll cold call all day long, but don't ask me to go network."

That was me, talking to my then-branch manager.

We were in the throw-it-at-the-wall phase of building my business. Networking was a tried-and-true prospecting method. The only problem? Walking into a room full of strangers absolutely terrified me. I was decent at public speaking — most people's nightmare — but introducing myself to a stranger? Hell no.

And yet.

My Type A took over. The place of most resistance is usually your most important path.

So I read The Art of Mingling. My ex-wife never stopped laughing at me for that one. But it gave me a starting point. And then I got lots and lots and LOTS of reps in.

Seventeen years later, I'm the guy who owns the room. Steve Rogers before he became Captain America.

This is particularly relevant to a lot of the Financial Zen community. We work with people who walk in the door saying "I'm bad with money."

Our job is to hand them the FZ version of The Art of Mingling — give them a starting point, then coach them until we hear things like:

"When money came up at parties, I would always slink away. Now I'm the one leading the conversation." — Real quote. Real member.

It all starts with one word. Carol Dweck calls it the power of yet.

I'm not good with money...yet.

Yet doesn't change your situation. It changes your story. And the story you tell yourself is the one you end up living.

Financial Zen

09/01/2026

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