Three Years!!! May 9th is Blue Dot Wealth Management’s Three Year Anniversary and it is my 22nd year in the Financial Planning industry. I am sure that many of you will identify with the following sentiment: I don’t know where the time has gone. It feels like an incredibly short period of time when I reflect on it and yet 1,095 days is a long time. One thing continues to be true… I wake up every day looking forward to helping clients and their families. I started the firm because I wanted to create an environment focused on our clients, one that was forward thinking, and based on the partnerships and friendships I have developed over the last twenty plus years. I say this every year – but it is true – I am humbled that I get to help people celebrate the milestones in their lives and help them develop a legacy to pass on.
Last year, we spent a lot of time thinking about our client experience. We broke apart a number of processes and experimented with some new tools that we feel will provide our clients with better context and functionality. You will start to hear us talk more about your eMoney Client Portal and some of the features on it. Using this tool allows us to be more interactive with you as well as more accurate in our planning forecasts (for some details on some of the ways we can use this program, click on this link and to learn more about Riskalyze, click here). We hope the end result is that we provide you with as much information as you feel you need in a format that is both intuitive and comprehensive. We had some good success last year in rolling out some of these tools. I do feel that service is a combination of active listening, anticipating client needs, and of course, execution. As we move through some of these changes, let us know what is working for you and what is not. We need your feedback. Our goal is to leverage the best parts of these technologies to better serve you.
The last few years have been filled with personal growth. When I write these blog posts, I often talk about our firm’s philosophy and its basis in humility and service to others. In my Thanksgiving letters, I talk a lot about gratitude and being truly thankful for all of life’s experiences. As I reflect on our Mission Statement again this year, there are a few other values that I find myself contemplating. Empathy, kindness… and maybe patience. These all go hand-in-hand. The great guitarist Mark Knopfler said, “I don’t know whether your heart ever necessarily changes, but time changes the way that you perceive the world. And you just hope it gives you more empathy and all those other things.” That really resonated with me and I hope on some level it resonates with you as well. As I get older, watch my children grow and my relationship with my wife, Regina, deepen, I think about the small acts of kindness that I share with my family, clients, and community. Our actions do indeed become habits and ultimately the culture that we operate from. I operate from a hope that those acts of empathy and kindness pay dividends in the future for everyone around me. I would encourage all of you to pass on a little kindness and empathy every day. I have to believe those actions will pay dividends forward – we can all use a bit more grace in the world.
I want to thank you all for continuing with me on your journey and allowing me to be a part of your lives. It is an honor to continue to serve you and your family. Until our next meeting, Peace.