Financial Referrals & resources

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We've compiled a list of resources, organizations, podcasts and books that we think are helpful when looking to dig deeper into your relationship with money.  This is just a start, so let us know what you think, and/or what other information you're interested in seeing here!

 

 

FINANCIAL PLANNERS

As unlikely as it may seem, Modernist Financial might not be the perfect fit for everybody. If you find yourself in this category, we still want to make sure you get the help you need! Check out the resources below to aid you in your search.  

We generally recommend that you search for an advisor who is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner (CFP) who applies fiduciary responsibility to their advice. Their practice should be grounded in financial life planning so you can develop a comprehensive understanding of your money and your goals, i.e. financial self-efficacy. They should be geeky about your daily cash flow structures, tax planning, as well as insurance, estate and charitable giving planning as needed.  We think a passive investment strategy is the best solution for most people's portfolios; they should take your desire to invest in accordance with your values (i.e. ESG investing) very seriously and offer low-cost efficient methods to do so. We also encourage you to find an advisor who practices their business in a manner that is in alignment with the values you hold dear (fee-only, fiduciary, B Corp, volunteering, charitable and political donations, as well as the gender and racial diversity of their firm's leadership and staff).

For other suggestions on what to think about as you interview advisors, check out our FYI page. 

 

The XY Planning Network is an organization of fee-only CFPs who are focused on working with Generation X and Generation Y clients. They offer a variety of affordable retainer and flat fee models. Check out this article on them from Ron Lieber of the NY Times: Yes, You Can Find a Financial Planner Even if You’re Not Rich

If you use the search engine on their site, we recommend you look for: Financial life planning, Cash flow, Passive investing, and Tax planning. These are the specialties that we believe drive the best results for most people.

 

Money Quotient is a Portland-based nonprofit that develops financial life planning tools that advisors can use with their clients. (Modernist is a big fan because we're one of these advisors and Georgia sits on their Advisory Board!) 

Their website has a directory of financial life planners that you can peruse (you should still make sure they are CFPs and fiduciaries).   

 

The CFP Board "benefits the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for competent and ethical personal financial planning." We believe that CFPs are the minimum designation a financial advisor should hold before they give financial advice to individuals.

The CFP's search tool is a good starting point if you just want to see a large number of options.

 

 

MONEY COACHES

If you think a Money Coach is a better fit for your needs right now, check out these options. This is a growing field, so this list is by no means exhaustive!

Ashley Feinstein Gerstley of Fiscal Femme is a financial wellness advocate and money coach.  She empowers financial wellness via her one-on-one coaching and online courses: the 30 Day Money Cleanse, Savvy Investor Course and Tackle Your Debt Course.

Marques Lang is a Financial Wellness Coach at Paradigm Consulting & Coaching in Hood River, Oregon.

Jason Mirabella of Henfruit focuses on First Step Cash Management, Modernist's preferred cash flow tool.

Megan deBoer of Tended Wealth focuses on clarifying goals and day-to-day cash flow, but she doesn't use First Step.

Dominque Broadway offers a variety of services from one-on-one virtual money coaching and financial planning to web-based classes.

Financial Gym is an organization in New York that provides goals-driven financial coaching through a membership program.

 

FINANCIAL THERAPISTS

We also like to recommend that people work with Financial Therapists if they think they can use a little extra support before diving in to a traditional financial planning process.

The financial therapy association has a directory, but here are a couple folks we like in Portland:

 

 

Tax Resources

Tyee Carr Advisory - Great articles on cash flow and tax planning for business growth 

June Walker - Tax Advisor to the Self-Employed

 

DO IT YOURSELF

For the Do-It-Yourself crowd, here are some excellent books and sites on finance:

Smart About Money is a resource from the non-profit National Endowment for Financial Education.  This site provides a wealth of self-guided information on a range of personal finance topics.

Manisha Thakor offers an online course called 7 Steps To Financial Wellness over on grokker.com, as well as a ton of helpful resources and links on her website.

 

Classics Books about Financial Life Planning

The Feel Rich Project by Michael F. Kay, CFP, is a DIY guide to Financial Life Planning.

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin

Seven Stages of Money Maturity by George Kinder - considered the grandaddy of Financial Life Planning

 

Books that get us excited about our work at Modernist:

Mindful Eating by Jan Chozen Bays - because money and food hold similar sway in our lives.

The Gift by Lewis Hyde - “No one who is invested in any kind of art . . . can read The Gift and remain unchanged.” —David Foster Wallace

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown - Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change.

 

 

Some great resources in media:

Marketplace.org is on a mission to raise the economic intelligence of the country.

Georgia sends them money and listens to their shows most every day. They have some great video economic explainers about big issues like, you know the Federal Budget.

Over at the New York Times, we’re big Fans of Ron Lieber’s and Paul Sullivan's writing.

They write on a variety of topics, from the basics investing to advanced financial planning concepts, as well as investigative reporting on the financial industry (thank you, Ron!).

VOX provides great intersectional general media coverage, as well as some helpful video EXPLAINERS about the economy.

Planet Money is a podcast that finds creative, entertaining ways to make sense of the big, complicated forces that move our economy.

The Indicator from the team at Planet Money, is a shorter, more frequent podcast that takes a number or a term from the news and finds context and big ideas behind it.

Refinery29's Money Diaries, personal essays about how different women spend their money every day.

How I Built This is a podcast about "innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built."

Brain Pickings - An inventory of the meaningful life; weekly essays on writers, artists, and scientists that inspire us.

The On Being Project is an independent non-profit public life and media initiative that pursues deep thinking and social courage, moral imagination and joy, to renew inner life, outer life, and life together.

Civil Conversations Project - a project from On Being that is a conversation-based, virtues-based resource towards hospitable, trustworthy relationship with and across difference. A huge inspiration for our Money Stories project.

 

 

And one last topic that deserves special mentioN...

Aging and end of life. We all have to face this reality some time (and the sooner you start thinking about it, the more prepared you will be).