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

Q: What is the address?

600 California Street, 11th Floor

07/18/2026

We pretty much every week.

But some weeks, like this week, have serious meat on the bone.

This week we helped FZ Members...

- Buy a house
- Select employee benefits
- Revise their estate plan
- Restructure their monthly cashflow strategy
- Form an LLC

So yeah, big time .

07/16/2026

There ain't nothing like quitting for the LAST TIME!

In 37 seconds, I describe the experience Financial Zen is working you towards.

We want you to have this same experience and get the goosebumps I still get retelling it 18 years later.

07/15/2026

If Gold Is So Great, Why Are They Selling It Instead of Keeping It?

Amanda had a discovery call yesterday with a prospect looking for an "advanced investment strategy. You know, one with alternative investments and hedge funds."

We've heard this before. And we respectfully decline.

It always reminds me of something Ric Edelman once said — one of my professional heroes and founder of one of the most successful independent RIAs ever built.

When Ric had his radio show, a caller asked whether those gold coins they hawk on late-night TV were a good investment.

"If those coins were such a great investment, wouldn't the company be keeping them instead of selling them? They make more money off the commission than they ever would off the gold."

The caller paused.

"Huh. So... no gold coins?"

"No. No gold coins."

The same logic applies to most "advanced" alternatives and hedge funds.

Some hedge funds do outperform the market — candidly. But by the time they take their cut (historically ~2% annually plus 20% of profits), most of that outperformance is gone. According to S&P Global's SPIVA research, most actively managed funds fail to beat the market consistently, net of fees.

Here's the real tell: Renaissance Technologies' Medallion Fund has returned roughly 66% annually before fees since 1988 — arguably the greatest investment vehicle ever created. According to Gregory Zuckerman's The Man Who Solved the Market, it is completely closed to outside investors. Renaissance keeps it for themselves.

That's what you do when you actually find something that works. You don't sell it.

So if they're selling it to you, it's the commission talking.

Simple. Boring. Deliberate. (Sounds like Financial Zen, don't it?)

Amanda pointed them toward firms that might be a better fit. We wish them well.

All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. SPIVA U.S. Scorecard published by S&P Dow Jones Indices.

07/11/2026

!!!

07/09/2026

I forgot how much I love going live!

Amanda and I had an amazing time at the fireside chat on Tuesday.

It was totally awesome, and it made me remember how much I love being live in front of people.

You may not know this, but my most successful marketing strategy back when I was at Wells Fargo was… steak dinners. Yup. The exact kind you’d associate with cheesy financial advisors. But the truth of it was, a) they worked, and b) more importantly, I learned that I absolutely love teaching people live.

It felt incredibly aligned with the idea that even once you are doing what you love, you can keep iterating until you are operating entirely within what Dan Sullivan calls your “Unique Ability.”

A classic example is when Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the Google founders) brought in Eric Schmidt when Google grew too large to be managed by a couple of tech nerds. Designing the engine and building the thing was their unique ability.

Eric, on the other hand, had the executive leadership, operational experience, and management structure to actually scale the company. His unique ability was providing the “adult supervision” they desperately needed to take over the world.

Another example is one of our own Financial Zen Members. She is currently trying to figure out her next move post-paycheck and realized that her product management background is the perfect fit for a clothing brand creative she knows.

The creative established an amazing brand and is ready to take it to the next level. They realized teaming up with her product expertise might just be what the doctor ordered. Their partnership is in the early stages, but it looks like it might have legs.

So, what is your unique ability? What are the one or two things that you are naturally better at than almost everyone else?

Pull on that thread. That might just be the exact clue you’re looking for as you design your "paycheck liberation" years.

07/07/2026

I’m super excited for our Fireside Chat tonight!

As a planner, I couldn’t not do a little prep for it, and it turns out to make for pretty good content, I think. A little expansion on our backstory.

QUESTION 1: You started your financial planning career in 2008 when the market was in freefall. Most people would've run the other direction. What did starting in a crisis teach you about building something from scratch?

"So actually — I didn't start my business in the freefall, I started my financial planning practice in it. And thankfully so, because it meant I got a front-row seat without any skin in the game. I didn’t have a single client of my own since I was just studying for my licenses.

But back then, the headlines were getting worse by the day, the markets were in freefall, and public panic was deafening. Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns had gone under, which, for context, would be like if Amazon and Google disappeared overnight. It was complete pandemonium.

But when I looked around the office, I didn't see advisors hiding under their desks. I saw them pounding the phone, calling client after client after client doing the incredible heavy emotional lifting of calming people down, saving them from making catastrophic irreversible mistakes, and most importantly giving them the security that someone had their back through all of it.

And that's when it registered that as a financial planner, I was in a position to have the opportunity to directly and deeply impact other people's lives. That is meaningful beyond compare. That is worth sacrificing for. That is worth all the sleepless nights that would follow.

I knew then that this was what I was put on earth to do.

And that would carry me through some very dark days.

So I'd say — whether you're starting a lifestyle business or setting up for world domination like Financial Zen is, make sure it's something that has real meaning for you.

Because when you inevitably hit that wall, building something bigger than yourself is what helps you scale it — literally and figuratively."

📍 Pillar Cowork, Lafayette
🗓 Tuesday, July 7
🕕 6:00–8:00 PM
🎟 $15

07/02/2026

Never bet against America.

Warren Buffett has been saying that for decades.

And every decade, someone thinks he's finally wrong.

He never is.

America turns 250 this weekend. And if you want to understand why your investment portfolio has any shot at all of working - not just this year, but over the course of your lifetime — you have to understand what this country actually is.

It's not just a place. It's an experiment.

No country in human history was founded on an idea. Most were founded on geography, conquest, or bloodlines. America was founded on a bet - that ordinary people, given freedom and the chance to build, would do extraordinary things.

250 years in? The bet is paying off.

Not perfectly. Not without pain. Not without chapters we're still working through. But the direction? Always forward. Always.

And here's the thing about a country built on ambition: it builds ambitious systems.

The American capital markets are the most sophisticated, most liquid, most accessible investment infrastructure ever created in the history of civilization. There is no close second.

You can own a piece of thousands of companies across the globe - automatically, tax-advantaged, for the cost of a streaming subscription - because this country built the systems that make that possible.

The NYSE. The SEC. The 401(k). The IRA. FDIC insurance. The rule of law that makes a contract actually mean something.
None of that exists without 250 years of an experiment that refused to quit.

Buffett says he won the ovarian lottery by being born American. He's right. Not because America is perfect - it isn't - but because no other country on earth combines ambition, infrastructure, and sheer forward momentum the way this one does.

That's not a bumper sticker. That's our country’s investment thesis.

When you contribute to your 401(k) this month, you're placing the same bet the Founders placed in 1776. Think about that.

Ambition compounds.

It always has.

Happy 250th!!!

07/02/2026

One Country. One Goooaaaallll!!!!

340 million Americans will be cheering on our boys tonight.

Whether they're watching USA vs. Bosnia live or reading about it in the papers tomorrow, we're all rooting for the same team.

No matter where you live, no matter what you believe, no matter what your politics - tonight we're all bleeding red, white, and blue.

(And what fitting timing with America's 250th birthday this weekend.)

Call it a stretch, but something else we all share from sea to shining sea: we deserve nothing less than living life on our own terms.

It's not about how much you have in the bank. It's not about where you live or what car you drive. Success is not a number. It's a life.

Warren Buffett famously said he tap-dances to work every day. We all deserve that - whether you're tap-dancing to work, to your cause, or to ________. Fill in your purpose.

Money is a means to an end. Trading time for a paycheck is not what we were put on this planet to do - unless, of course, you believe as deeply in your company's mission as we do here at Financial Zen.

After 18 years, our purpose is simple: help our people - and even people who aren't our people - leverage their resources at optimal levels so they can cross the finish line... and then start the real race.

Go USA!!!! 🇺🇸

07/01/2026

PSA: We're Halfway Through 2026. Do You Know Where Your Money Is?

(That's one for my late 70’s / early 80’s babies. If ya know, ya know.)

But seriously - if you don't know what your money's doing right now, it might accidentally stay out way after the street lights come on.

So halfway through the year, you want to check two things:

- Your taxes
- Your 401(k) & HSA contributions

If you're reading this, you're probably in the Max It Out Club on the paycheck savings front. Meaning you want to contribute the full $23,500 to your 401(k) and $8,750 to your HSA ($4,400 for singles).

And if you're really Ms. Jackson - aka Nasty - you're also maxing out your Mega Backdoor Roth contributions (~$46,500, depending on your plan).

On the tax front: your taxes may be withheld every two weeks, but they're actually due every quarter. If you don't withhold or pay enough, Uncle Sam hits you with an underpayment penalty - currently 8%. That's meaningful, and we want to avoid it.

For our Financial Zen members, we collect pay stubs three times a year to run tax projections and track 401(k)/HSA contributions. That way, our members don't get hit with underpayment penalties and don't have to go paycheck-less in December while cramming all their savings into their last two pay periods.

Not a member? You can still do a gut check on your own. AI tools can actually help here - I've tested them, and they're accurate-ish. They won't nail it to the penny, but they'll tell you if you're WAY off course.

For our members, we use purpose-built tax planning software that's still primarily directional, but gets you a lot closer to the runway.

Don't let your taxes or your 401(k) wake up in a gutter in December.

Check where they are today.

06/30/2026

They're not as rich as you think they are.

Comparison is the thief of joy. (And your comparison is wrong anyway.)

Your neighbor, your buddy, and your kid’s friend’s parent? They’re not as financially successful as you think they are.

Promise. And here’s how I know…

After 18 years of looking under the financial hood of hundreds of families, I can tell you definitively: we all suffer from financial dysmorphia when it comes to the people we know.

And I’m not talking about the d-bag at your kid’s school flexing with a leased Macan Turbo.

I’m talking about when you’re sitting in a dark room late at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering why so-and-so is so much further ahead than you.

They just bought that rental property. They’re sending their kids to that private school. Their job title sounds so much more important than mine. How are they doing it? What am I doing wrong?

Just stop.

As a financial advisor, I naturally end up working with clusters of people who all know each other. (And yes, we take our privacy policy deadly serious.)

But here is what happens behind closed doors: when a Financial Zen Member introduces us to their buddy, sibling, or coworker, the intro almost always comes with the Member's casual estimation of that person's financial well-being.

And that estimation is usually double the reality. Sometimes less. Sometimes more. But no one has ever been introduced to us whose finances are equal to or better than the referee’s estimation.

Not. One. Single. Time.

It is ALWAYS less.

The person you think is completely crushing it is not nearly as well off as you think they are.

Believe it or not, THEY’RE worried about how their buddy is so much further along than they are, while hoping no one can detect their imposter syndrome.

Whatever you think you know about someone else's income and net worth statement is almost certainly wrong.

Stop running a race against an illusion. You are on your own journey. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind, but in the end, the race is only with yourself.

Financial Zen

07/18/2026

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06/30/2026

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