Our new best friend, Casey

A lot has been going on this week. We officially filed the LLC paperwork for the company which also included having to switch over the bank accounts, insurance policies, etc. It's exciting that all of this is happening but it has also been a little crazy around here.

Lincoln and I have hired a wonderful financial planner. He is not only helping us get our personal finances in order but he is also helping us with the business planning which is fantastic. We interviewed a couple of different planners but Casey is definitely the one we liked the best. He charges us a flat yearly fee (which most of them do) but unlike the others it's not just one meeting to hand over our financials, one meeting to go over what they recommend for us, and one meeting in 6 months to check in and see how things are going. We've been meeting with Casey quite a bit actually. The first meeting was to go over general goals and what we want to accomplish both personally and with the business. After each meeting he assigns us "homework" before we come back for the next meeting.

At the first meeting we were given "dream books" which are pretty typical in the financial planning industry based on what we learned while interviewing them. We each filled out a book of what we want to save for (retirement, college, travel, etc.) and discussed those with him. He also gave us a booklet that required us to pull together all of our financial documents and current budget. All of that stuff is pretty standard stuff if you're meeting with a financial planner. When we finished that meeting he assigned us a book to read on small business planning. Both Lincoln and I read it and we had another meeting (this time by conference call) to discuss the book and start us on our business planning. We have more homework regarding the business planning that we have to accomplish between now and our next meeting where we get the plans that they're putting together for our retirement and college saving plans.

The other thing I really like, which the other planners we met with didn't really offer, is that they're not just setting us up with a bunch of investments and mutual funds but they're also going over our current budget and income and helping us eliminate some current debt and organize our financial lives now - not just down the road.

I think that hiring Casey is one of the best decisions we've ever made and hopefully it will be a long and productive relationship.

Legal documents make my brain hurt

For the past two years Lincoln has been working for a small business that we own. It's a telecommunications business that has been doing fairly well despite the crappy economy and right now we're getting ready to take that business to the next level. Unfortunately that means a lot of legal and financial documents - two things that I absolutely hate. Our life is becoming a constant whirl of financial advisers, accountants, legal advisers, and insurance people.

Years ago there was a website, which probably still exists, where you could type something in English and have it translated into pretty much any language you wanted. There was a bit of an uproar at the time because students were using it to do their Spanish or French homework. You could also type something in a foreign language and have it translated into English for you. Well I've decided this world really needs a website where you could type in a legal clause and have it translated into plain everyday English.

For example: "all subject to the overall control and supervision of the Manager; provided, however, that notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, to the extent that any matter requires agreement."

I just have to keep telling myself that dealing with all these legal and financial documents is a good thing and it means the business is doing well.

It still makes my brain hurt though.