Monday, December 19, 2011

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. – Charles Dickens

What was true in David Copperfield’s time still remains true today. If we spend more than we earn, the result is misery. Misery in the form of guilt, stress, lying, rationalization, denial, and the list goes on.

I have interviewed many people throughout my career as a financial planner, and I have come across different money personalities and philosophies. By far the most successful people financially and the most satisfied in their life overall have the money philosophy of not spending more than one earns. How simple a concept, but difficult in reality.

Our modern culture idealizes excess consumption, accumulation of “stuff” as being superior to meeting the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. It provides status to own designer labels, bigger houses, eat at expensive restaurants, own luxury cars, etc. This is not inherently “bad” if your income will support that lifestyle; and allows you the opportunity of not spending all you earn. Often that is not the case; people justify living beyond their means for varied reasons, most of which involve some form of rationalization.

I’ve met people over the years with high incomes, multiple mortgages, and expensive toys living paycheck to paycheck. On the other end of the spectrum I have met secretaries who saved 10 cents of every dollar they earned, who accumulated over a million dollars. I’ve met housewives who were in charge of the finances accumulating hundreds of thousands of dollars over time. The people who saved had less stress and more options as they approached “retirement.”

I am generalizing here, but it has been my observation that those who live beyond their means and accumulate “stuff” instead of saving money for a rainy day, lead a less balanced, more stressful life. They may be one paycheck away from a disaster.

This type of money personality has an attachment to money that prioritizes pleasure and enjoyment now over the potential misery that will be created by the loss of a job, a health crisis, or premature death.

If you are in a situation where you feel you are living beyond your means sit down by yourself or with your spouse/partner and ask these questions:

1. Are you using credit cards to buy groceries or other items you used to buy with cash?
2. Are you using savings to pay monthly bills you used to pay from checking or taking cash advances on your credit cards?
3. Are you spending more than 28% of income on your home mortgage?
4. Are you saving less than 5% of you income?
5. Is your credit score below 600? – If your score falls below 600 you are probably over your head.

Many people get in trouble during the holiday season by over-spending. These may be a warning signal that it is time to make some changes before your money situation gets out of hand.

In my years of yoga practice and teaching yoga, I have been taught and try to teach others to apply the principles of self-observation and the cultivation of balance in our life. It’s exploring where you need to be to be able to tell yourself, “I have enough,” rather than feeling victimized by the belief that “I’ll never have enough.”

We must take the time to really explore what is important to us and to our loved ones. And then set a plan in place to achieve what will make you feel confident and in charge of your future. This holiday season, instead of accumulating “stuff,” let’s accumulate experiences; a walk in the woods with your children, baking cookies together, helping out at a food pantry with your family. Once we truly know what is really important, we can find the balance in our money life as well.

Note: Due to industry regulations on communication, we are unable to allow for public comments on this blog. Please feel free to email me your questions and/or comments to kathy@fishandassociates.com. Thank you.

Securities and Investment Advisory Services offered through NFP Securities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. NFP Securities, Inc. is not affiliated with Fish & Associates.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Life Insurance Is Not A Religion (and neither is yoga)

I have been a financial planner for over 20 years and a yoga teacher for 8. I have heard the statement “I don’t believe in life insurance” many times in my career and it always baffles me. Life insurance is not a religion; life insurance is a tool. Life insurance is an asset that provides an instant estate, upon death, if you have not had the time to accumulate an estate (translated estate = money in the bank which can become investments that can create an income stream if the breadwinner dies prematurely).

It is not a matter of “believing;" it is a matter of looking at your financial situation and determining if you could continue to live the way you live today if your spouse or partner is no longer here, or if you are a single parent with a child who depends on you, that your child could be adequately cared for.

If you or your spouse feels this way about insurance then you may not understand it. Let me tell you two stories. Many years ago, I met with a couple in which the husband was a television executive making a high six figure income. They had a nice house with a big mortgage and very little savings. His wife did not work outside the home and they had no children. When I recommended that they purchase life insurance to pay off the house and provide an income for his wife he told me, “I don’t believe in life insurance,” and referring to his wife “Sally” he stated that, “she could just move back in with her parents if something happened to me, they will take care of her”. Sally was in her late forties and just sat there not saying a word. I asked her if that was a solution she was comfortable with. She said no, but he wouldn’t budge. I often wonder what happened to that couple. I think it is very selfish and short sighted to not care enough for your spouse to make sure he or she is taken care of should a premature death occur. I encourage couples to talk this through and make an informed decision on how to insure for a loss like this. Too many people don’t think about planning for an unexpected death until it is too late.

I will share another story. One of my clients referred her sister and brother-in-law to me for some financial planning. Let’s call them John and Jane. John had retired early and he and Jane had not saved as much as they hoped to save for retirement, but with his pension they determined they could live comfortably. John had chosen the highest payout, a lifetime annuity with no survivor benefit (this decision was made prior to meeting me) because this provided a larger monthly benefit. Jane signed off on this option, but she did not understand that if he died, she would no longer receive any pension benefits at all, ZERO. She was upset, but relieved that there was a solution. I recommended a life insurance policy to replace the pension should John die prematurely. John applied for a policy, was approved, and when I went to deliver the life insurance policy he had changed his mind and no longer wanted to spend the money. It was “too expensive”. I tried to talk to him about the ramifications of this decision, and I encouraged him to come back in along with his wife Jane to discuss what I felt was a poor decision. He refused and said it was a joint decision between him and Jane. About a month later, John was killed in a motorcycle accident. Jane and her sister contacted me to see if there was anything she could do since the insurance had been approved so recently. They had done some research and knew about the free look period an insurance policy provides, but since Jane and her husband had refused the policy, nothing could be done. I felt horrible, but I could not take responsibility for the decision they made. I ended up losing the sister as a client too.

Lesson here: Don’t let anyone else make decisions about your financial future without a full discussion of all the pros and cons as well as looking at the worst case scenarios. These “beliefs” may be completely misguided and could have a negative impact on your life. One thing I have learned from my yoga practice is that we are responsible for our own well being. Sometimes you have to take charge and insist that these things be discussed so you and your family are cared for. Take the time and make the effort to insure that you can live your life the way you want to, no matter what happens.

Don’t stick your head in the sand and hope for the best. Take care of yourself today, as tomorrow is promised to no one.




The case studies are based on actual client situations but are meant for informational purposes only. The case studies are in no way intended to be used as a primary basis for insurance or investment decisions. Similar results are not guaranteed and will vary based the individual client situations. Clients should consult with their own financial, tax, legal, and accounting advisors before implementing any insurance or investment plan. Neither the information presented nor any opinion expressed constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product.

Note: Due to industry regulations on communication, we are unable to allow for public comments on this blog. Please feel free to email me your questions and/or comments to kathy@fishandassociates.com. Thank you.

Securities and Investment Advisory Services offered through NFP Securities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. NFP Securities, Inc. is not affiliated with Fish & Associates.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Young and in Debt

I recently received an email from a reader of A Man Is Not A Plan about a situation so many young people get into during college and afterwards, credit card debt. As my reader, let’s call her Beth, put it, she truly believed that after college she would be RAKING IT IN! After all that was how the world was supposed to work.

For a while that was how the world worked, young people going into law or finance, banking and marketing were being offered fabulous salaries, but the catch here is that credit card debt is NEVER a good thing, no matter how much you earn and that is because, unless you pay off the balance each month you wind up paying so much more for the item you bought.

In an article by Rosemary Carlson, a professor of finance, she gives this example: Let’s look at just one card with a balance of $3,000 and an interest rate of 19%. Let’s assume you must make a minimum payment of 2.5% of the balance each month. That means the minimum payment is $75 per month. Of course, that minimum payment goes down as you pay off the balance, but that assumes you NEVER charge anything else on that card.

If all you ever pay is the minimum payment each month, it will take you 283 months (over 23 years!!) to pay off that $3000 and you will pay an additional amount of $4,729.44 in interest. This is NOT GOOD! And that’s just for one card!

So if Beth has more than one card and continues to charge, getting out of debt is incredibly difficult. Add student loans and a possible mortgage and the debt continues to add up.

Let’s break down Beth’s debt and see what can be done.

$2,500 – Interest rate of 9.99%
$2,300 – interest rate of 9.99%
$ 700 – interest rate of 19.9%
$1,700 – interest rate of 15.9%
$7, 500 – student loans 6.9%
$7, 500 – student loans 9.75%
$300/mo – car loan

Salary $38,000 - $2,200/month after taxes

Beth, if you could dedicate 10% of your income or about $325 per month, you could have your cards paid off in 2 years. If you are really serious, you could take 20% or $650 per month and pay them all off in a year! At $2200 take home, less your car and student loan payment and mortgage payment, that would leave you with 500 dollars per month for all other expenses. You have to decide what you can afford to do. But setting a goal and sticking to it is so very rewarding, and when you start to realize how long it takes to pay back a vacation you couldn’t afford, or a dinner or a new dress that you charged when you didn’t have the money, you may start to become more conscious about how you spend your money. You also may want to consider a part time job dedicated solely to paying off your debt.

The main thing is to make a commitment to yourself that you will think about a purchase before you buy it. If you don’t have the money, you have to learn to walk away and say no. Practicing mindful behavior is a basic tenet of yoga, and this includes thinking about how you spend your money. Your emotional health is tied to your financial health. There are many people completely stressed out by financial issues that affect their work, their marriage, their physical health and other relationships. The time to take control is now. Here is some incentive for paying your debt off sooner rather than later and in larger amounts.

If you only pay $50 per month on each credit card, it will take you 65 months, 58 months, 16 months and 45 months respectively for each of the 4 cards listed, based on the interest rates you stated. The interest payments will be $2000. ( vs. about $600 if you pay your 4 credit cards off in a year.)

If you only pay $25 per month on each credit card it will take 211 months(that’s 17 years plus) , 172 months (14 years +), 38 months and 168 months 14 years, for a total amount of interest of $7475 vs $600 if you pay it off in one year. The banks get rich and you pay double, triple, quadruple, you get the idea.That is a high price to pay for items that you probably didn’t need anyway.

Good Luck, and please keep the questions, comments and situations coming and I will help make sense out of your financial situation.

Note: I really want to hear from you, but because I am a financial planner and what we say and the things we write are highly regulated, I may not be able to fully reply to your comments or questions. I have to submit my responses through my compliance department, so I plan to respond to broad inquiries and comments rather than personal questions. Email kathy@fishandassociates.com.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Assessment Process – Part 2: Taking Control

Now that you have kept your appointment with yourself (and with your partner, if you have one) I hope you feel lighter and more self-confident about your ability to take control of your financial life, now and for the future. No matter what you found out about yourself, you can take the necessary steps to design a plan that works for you. Some things I hope you came away with are:

• A belief in your own ability
• A sense that you can overcome obstacles
• Involvement & participation in your own life
• A sense of independence (married or not)
• No longer being kept (or keeping yourself) in the dark
• Being empowered
• Understanding that you are responsible for yourself


The big rewards for taking control of your financial life are primarily twofold:

• No more fear
• You’re a great role model for your daughters, sons, nieces, nephews and other young people you know

Think about living without fear. It means no more sleepless nights, no more anxiety as you keep your head in the sand. It means confidence that you are present in your own life and it means MOVING FORWARD.

Being a role model for your family means that a whole generation will grow understanding that they are responsible for themselves and that being in control is a wonderful feeling of freedom.

As we move forward with this blog, I will be talking about specific issues relating to women and how they can take control of their financial life. Whether you are a single or married career woman, a stay at home mom, or a divorcee or widow, there are steps you can take to make sure your financial life is centered and free of stress. I call it the HOLISTIC APPROACH to your financial life.

I hope you stay with me on this journey. I invite you to share your story with me via email at kathy@fishandassociates.com We can help each other help ourselves!



Note: I really want to hear from you, but because I am a financial planner and what we say and the things we write are highly regulated, I may not be able to fully reply to your comments or questions. I have to submit my responses through my compliance department, so I plan to respond to broad inquiries and comments rather than personal questions. Email me at kathy@fishandassociates.com

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The Assessment Process – You and Your Money Part 1

The practice of yoga is integral to my life, physically the health benefits are well documented; it gives me a stronger, more flexible body as well as a way to relieve the stress of our daily lives which is good for the heart and mind.

It is also a way to connect with our inner self. The self that asks basic questions: what is my purpose, what am I connected to from the wider world and how do I achieve happiness?

Yoga is not competitive. It is about being present in your own life and living it the best way you can. It is NOT about who can stand the longest in tree pose, or bring their head closest to the mat.

Each class is like an assessment of where you are at that moment and the intention you set for your future.

To take care of yourself financially the process is not very different. It is about your life, where you are at the present moment and your goals for the future. Just as in yoga class where we assess our own strengths and vulnerabilities - in the same way you have to be honest with yourself about your financial situation.

Here are some things to think a about:

• What does money mean to you? How do you see the role of money in your life? Is it a tool or something more?
• How do you feel about money, are you a spender or a saver? Do you want a lot of money, just enough or somewhere in the middle?
• What are your values, what is important to you?
• Where do you see yourself in 10, 15, 20 years?
• How do you want to be remembered? To your children, your friends, your community?


These questions are more ephemeral. Not the typical way we speak about money, but they are key to how you will proceed with your financial plan.
Once you know where you are and how you feel, you can begin to decide where you want to go, decide what your goal is. Those decisions become the basis of your financial plan.

More concrete questions you may want to ask yourself are:

• What is my current financial situation?
• Am I just starting out in my career or am I somewhere in mid-career?
• Am I single? Have a partner? Children?
• Do I have savings? How much?
• What are my options to create more income if I want or need to?
• What is it I need to learn about my finances to move forward?
• What are my expenditures? What is fixed and what is discretionary
• How do I spend my money?

This is a big job. You need to do what we do in yoga class, set an intention for yourself and move toward it. So your first step is to set up an appointment with yourself or with your partner to answer these questions. Dig deep, breathe in, breathe out and focus. This is the hard work, but like all hard work it is incredibly rewarding. And just like in yoga, it is NOT a competition! Do not compare yourself to your neighbors, or your siblings or even your partner. Work from your own strengths. From your own heart’s desire. This is your life, make the most of it!

CONGRATULATIONS! This is the process of starting to take care of yourself.

Note: I really want to hear from you, but because I am a financial planner and what we say and the things we write are highly regulated, I may not be able to fully reply to your comments or questions. I have to submit my responses through my compliance department, so I plan to respond to broad inquiries and comments rather than personal questions. Email me at kathy@fishandassociates.com

Monday, September 12, 2011

The First Steps in Learning to Take Care of Yourself - Start Where You Are

In an ideal world we all would have started as children and teens to begin to learn how to take care of ourselves. There are a dozens and dozens of magazines for young women that teach us how to dress well, find the best cut for our hair, line our eyes and blush our cheeks. But I don’t know of a single magazine for young people (girls and boys) that talks about how to take care of yourself financially.( I’ll share what I have done with my children in another blog.)

So now that we are grownups we find various ways to deal with our money, but many of them don’t really include the thought “I am responsible for myself”.

Many people live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t just mean not earning enough, I mean not looking at your paycheck as a part of your whole life. It’s the person who pays all their bills and then when there is something left over, “rewards” herself (or himself) with something she may want but not need (and that’s a whole other blog!). Consequently, the paycheck is gone till the next one comes around.

The idea is that our money should be part of a plan that we have developed to reach specific goals. You have all heard the pay yourself first strategy.

This is true if you are married, single, divorced or widowed. A paycheck can be household income from a partner’s salary, income from a career, a pension. Whatever, you need to take care of yourself by developing a life plan.

I hear you. But I’m in my 40’s, 50’s – how can I do that now?

As in yoga, take a deep breath, concentrate on that breath, let your mind become centered and focused and follow the words of one of my favorite authors on life and meditation, Pema Chodron. “Start where you are.”

Starting where you are if you are married or in a committed relationship but have opted out of your financial life it means sitting down with your partner and saying that it is time the two of you figure out where you are going financially and what has been done to date. That it is time to be an active partner.

If you are not in a relationship, it means sitting down with yourself and being very honest about your situation.

So here is where you begin, with a conversation with yourself.

Ask yourself what it is you want in your future? The answer is not just “a comfortable retirement”. Ask what that retirement looks like. Where are you living? Are you traveling, playing golf or tennis? Taking up yoga, painting dancing? Doing charitable work in your community? Pursuing a second career? Living in a different country? The possibilities are endless. Ask your significant other the same questions, it is important to take your partners plans into consideration.

Then ask yourself, “What do I have to do to get there? Back up a bit. It’s not just about retirement goals; it’s about the next 5 years or 10 years too. It’s about your health ~ physically, spiritually and financially.

Here’s the hard part – you have to look at your income; now and in the future. You may have to adjust your goals or your income situation. If you are only going to earn $50,000 annually, you are not retiring to the south of France and making wine. That's probably not what you really want to do anyhow.

Don’t panic! The reward here is that when you start to be true to yourself, take care of yourself, be honest with yourself, you become empowered and can do anything!

This is a lot to digest, so more in the next blog.


Note: I really want to hear from you, but because I am a financial planner and what we say and the things we write are highly regulated, I may not be able to fully reply to your comments or questions. I have to submit my responses through my compliance department, so I plan to respond to broad inquiries and comments rather than personal questions. I can be reached at kathy@fishandassociates.com

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Learning to Take Care of Yourself Even If You’re Married

I have told you that I am a certified yoga instructor. My yoga practice has been a journey of discovery that has mirrored my journey of self-reliance. It is about reaching into your mind and body to find your highest potential physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

Yoga teaches you to understand that the mind and body are joined in union with each other. You learn to take care of both your body your mind, and your spirit and so become responsible for yourself. There is a great strength that comes from being in control of the only things we can control, our thoughts and our actions.

That statement is true whether you are married, single, divorced or widowed. Being with a partner does not allow you to abdicate your responsibility to yourself and your future. I cannot tell you the number of times I have met with a recently widowed woman who assumed that her late husband had taken care of everything only to find out that his plans were not in the best financial order and now she was not as financially secure as she thought.

It happens because she thought her husband (who was kind and loving and generous) knew what he was doing and she didn’t have to bother with their finances. After all he was the man, right? Here’s a newsflash – not all men are financially savvy, but they won’t admit it to themselves and they won’t admit it to you. So, they “go along” with what they are told by friends or advisors, never asking their questions and since you don’t question their decisions, bad things can happen when something goes wrong or they die.

If you are a married woman, think of that marriage as a business partnership in your life. Whether you are working or you are able to stay at home with your children, be an ACTIVE PARTICIPANT in your financial life as a couple and a family.

As a couple you should:

• Clearly understand your total income
• Decide on goals together – not just retirement goals but vacations, schools, types of houses, etc.
• Set a realistic strategy to reach each of those goals
• Re-think that strategy as life happens around you
• If you have a financial advisor, go together and make sure he/she knows you are a team.
• Discuss what you want to happen if either one of you died prematurely. One of the questions that is often asked at a funeral is , “I wonder if he had any life insurance?” I have been asked several times over my years as a financial planner by the wife “Am I going to be okay?” The time to ask these questions of your spouse is now, not after they are gone.

You know, in this country money is still the last taboo, we would rather spill the beans to our friends about our sex lives, than speak about our money situation. I’m not sure if this is a holdover from the days when to speak about money was rude and unmannered or if we are just so embarrassed about how little we actually know about our money. The effect is the same, we put our heads in the sand and cling to our ignorance.

Don’t be the wife I was in my first marriage. Dumping all that responsibility for your happiness and well being on even the best of men is not fair. Think of life as a little red wagon that you should both be pulling forward.

The truth is that marriage is not forever, death happens and so does divorce. When the unthinkable has never been spoken about, our future becomes precarious.

If you haven’t been an active participant, start now. Come back to this site, pass it along to your friends and we can all help each other find our strength.

Note: I really want to hear from you, but because I am a financial planner and what we say and the things we write are highly regulated, I may not be able to fully reply to your comments or questions. I have to submit my responses through my compliance department, so I plan to respond to broad inquiries and comments rather than personal questions. Please email me at kathy@fishandassociates.com.

Friday, August 19, 2011

A Lesson Learned the Hard Way

I told you I was on a journey. My journey started out a lot like many of yours, thinking that my man was my plan.

Turn back the clock over 20 years ago. I was just entering financial services as my second career. I was married, had a four-year old daughter and was under the impression that my husband was responsible for making sure we had a roof over our heads, money in the bank, a growing nest egg to retire very comfortably after he had paid for good private schools and college for our daughter. Plus, he had to make sure that if he died, I wouldn’t have to worry about the mortgage, the car, or the schools.

When I got nervous that we weren’t on track, I expected him to work harder. Not much to expect from the man, after all he was my plan.

There was just one little kink in my “plan”; these issues were important to me but not important to him.

I grew up in a family of eight kids, a stay-at-home mom and a dad that worked twelve hours a day. Even though I graduated in the 1970’s when feminism was breaking out all over the place, I still believed that men were here to take care of us – after all a “good” man would take care of you and make sure you never had to worry about all that stuff. That is what my father did for my mother. Right? I mean you could have a job, but it was your husband who was still responsible for “taking care” of the responsibility of the family finances.

So there I was in 1990, starting a career that promised a salary for six months (but not one that would support my lifestyle) but that had “unlimited potential”.

Then six months later my husband decided he didn’t want the “responsibility” of a family. He had a different plan.

Suddenly I was a single mother, $40,000 in debt (my first year’s salary was $18,000 before taxes), and responsible for me and my daughter. So much for my pursuit of financial security; a man, indeed, was not a plan.

Epiphany time! I sat and took stock and I realized that by ceding that power to someone else, I had hurt myself. I vowed never to be dependent on a man (or anyone else) for anything. Not my happiness, my security, my self-respect or my money.

Fast forward to 2011. I am a successful financial planner, I have two beautiful daughters, and I am remarried to a wonderful man. My small business manages over eighty million dollars as of August 1, 2011 of other people’s money, and I have met my goal of being one of my own top twenty clients.

It was not easy and there were many challenges but when I EMPOWERED MYSELF, when I took responsibility to meet the goals important to ME, not allowing others to influence me, I found nothing could stop me.

I am fully convinced that I would not have the family I have, the solid marriage or a business that allows me to do all the things I love, without that journey of self-empowerment and discovery.

You can do it too. More to come.

Note: I really want to hear from you, but because I am a financial planner and what we say and the things we write are highly regulated, I may not be able to fully reply to your comments or questions. I have to submit my responses through my compliance department, so I plan to respond to broad inquiries and comments rather than personal questions. Please email kathy@fishandassociates.com






Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Welcome to “A Man Is Not A Plan"

I’m a woman, a wife, a mother, a Certified Financial Planner, a Certified Yoga instructor and a meditation practitioner and I’ve been thinking about writing this blog for a very long time but I wasn’t sure where to start. So I decided to take the advice of one of my favorite authors on life and meditation, Pema Chodron.


“Start where you are.”

Where I am at this moment is realizing that I want to write this blog to communicate with women (or men who openly admit to accessing their “feminine side” – yes there are lots of them out there!) about the importance of taking control of their lives and that includes their financial future.
So all of this comes from a purely personal viewpoint, one that has been bolstered by years of working with women and men to help them take control of their own financial futures. It is also informed by my yoga and meditation practice that upholds my “holistic approach” to my life and my work.
One of the things I know for sure from both my financial services practice and my yoga practice is that women are not good at taking care of themselves and when it comes to money, we not only don’t take care of ourselves, we abdicate responsibility.
So many women look outside of themselves and want someone else to be responsible for their financial well being, their happiness, their success, their validity as a human being. This is so strange as most of us have read, been told or have heard the very true statement that we only have control over two things in our lives, our own thoughts and our own actions.

So as I stated above, this blog will be about the importance of taking control of your financial life. What do I mean by that? It meant that whether you are married, single, divorced, or widowed, a committed parent or a caretaker for a loved one, you are responsible for making sure that you will be as financially secure as possible

It means understanding your financial situation, how your actions and ideas impact your current status and your future; it means looking at your financial issues head-on and looking honestly at the path you are on and what you need to do make sure you are heading in the right direction.

In future posts, I will tell you my story, the stories of other women who have taken control and give you ideas and support on how to do it as well.
This is a journey, an exploration of how you can be in control of your future. I have been on my own such journey and it is scary but it is also exciting and exhilarating.

Please join me as we take this journey together.


Note: I really want to hear from you, but because I am a financial planner and what we say and the things we write are highly regulated, I may not be able to fully reply to your comments or questions. I have to submit my responses through my compliance department, so I plan to respond to broad inquiries and comments rather than personal questions. You may email me at kathy@fishandassociates.com.