Harrison Financial Planning

Things are super heavy right now and I'm still coming off of an emotion filled True/False Film Fest weekend. So.... here are some cute pictures of my boys. My oldest as a dalmatian for the 101st day of school a couple of weeks ago and my youngest as a suave monkey today for Wacky Wednesday. I'm working hard to instill in them what we need more of right now-- honesty, dependability, compassion, kindness, and generosity. #harrisonfinancialplanning #WackyWednesday #101daysofschool #beagoodhuman

"The First Wealth is Health" - Ralph Waldo Emerson For the last three years I have participated in the National Girls and Women In Sports Day put on locally by WIN (Women's Intersport Network) for Columbia. This year, rather than one day, it was a whole week of activities. My favorite part is that you can try out many different local gyms. I challenged myself and visited a new facility each day--API for yoga, Crunch for a Pilates class, API for their Lunch Grind, Lotus Hot Yoga, Jazzercise, and Pure Barre. You can find what is a great fit for you (API, Lotus Hot Yoga, and Pure Barre were right up my alley) and also what is not (Crunch was too fast paced for my balance capabilities and the only one getting much out of Jazzercise would be an ab workout for someone walking by seeing my absolute struggle to keep up with the choreography)! It is so very important to make investments in your health, both physical and mental. It doesn't matter if you are extremely wealthy if your health ends up keeping you from enjoying that wealth. Since I have a job that often ties me to a computer or chair, I try very hard to get in 7 hours a week of exercise, from Reformer Pilates classes, riding the stationary bike while I read, rowing, yoga, barre, lifting weights, playing outside with my kiddos, and lots of walking or rucking, especially to pick my boys up from school on nice days. I encourage you to find exercise you enjoy and things you can work into your everyday. Both your current and future self with thank you! #harrisonfinancialplanning #NGWSD #healthiswealth

Celebrating 4 years of Harrison Financial Planning! As of last month, that is... January was a rough one! Running a business is tough and those early years were quite the grind! Year four was marked by more self-care on my part so I could show up as the best advisor possible for those I assist. I was honored to receive the Westminster College Young Alumni Award along with the wonderful Misty Todd and be named a 2024 Rising Star by Investment News. I'm hitting the ground running in year 5 and am ready for anything that life may throw my way... which may be more than we all imagined! #harrisonfinancialplanning #womanownedbusiness #4years

I saw a post today that in light of everything occurring in our country right now, just hit me wrong. I like this individual and in no way wanted to hijack his post on welcoming a new baby. I am so very happy for him and his wife. However, his experience with how his employer (the same exact one that I had) handled this time was so vastly different than mine that I think it is important to highlight. While he was able to enjoy a month of paternity leave… After 1.5 years of trying for our second child my husband and I found out we were pregnant. This was right after finding out that the bank I worked for would be bought out with 35% of the staff not being retained. We spent our ‘babymoon’ in a cabin making contingency plans in case I was not one of the “lucky” survivors. I was retained for the time being, but there was still uncertainty around if there would be more layoffs. I was worried that if I let anyone know that I was pregnant, I could be let go. I didn’t let anyone know (other than my boss because I had a medical scare) until I was 6 months pregnant, had gotten back from visiting the company HQ, and frankly couldn’t hide it anymore with Covid rearing its head. With new rules in place, I was required to use all of my time I had been saving for my next pregnancy before year end. Any new time I had earned from January to May 2020 had to be used to cover the 1 or 2 week elimination period before short-term disability kicked in. Because I worked a full day before giving birth that evening, I lost one of the short-term disability days. The bank did not spring for the additional coverage for c-sections (which when I spoke to the insurance rep, was pretty unheard of for companies not to do), so rather than getting short-term disability pay (60% of my salary) for the full term of my disability which was 8 weeks, I only got 6 weeks and had no time off left. While I was gone on maternity leave, the advisor watching my clients left along with my assistant. Shortly after, two more advisors left and I was taking on a huge book of new clients and told that I could no longer work remotely (come pump in a small room in the basement of the bank rather than continuing to work like you did at home). More work to do in less time... I literally thought I was going to lose my mind. Also, surprise! The new compensation plan was tied to sales and was essentially a 25% cut in pay. So, I left and started my own firm and they tried to sue me because I called a few of my clients who I was helping through situations (like their spouses dying) to let them know they needed to call the bank for help instead of me. This is how having a baby went for a female at this company. Maybe a little different experience than a male? ? #harrisonfinancialplanning #gottaspeakup #experiencesaredifferent #notequal

I don't know about you, but fall is my favorite season! It's full of flannel, football, and farm fun! This month we attended the Beulah Ralph pumpkin patch, where I found out I was allergic to pumpkins after helping set out about 150 of them. We also hit up Lloyd's in Ashland. I tagged along on a field trip to the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary--though I did not assist with dissecting any of the owl pellets--and one to Peach Tree Farms. Harrison Financial Planning was a sponsor of the Business School Graduate Programs Office Homecoming Tailgate. We also took advantage of the great weather to get some much needed yard work done. Pile this on top of the beginning of my busy season work wise helping with all of the end of the year planning. That leads us back to the first picture... passing out in a chair with my puppy after a little self-care--meditating and getting my reading done for the day! #harrisonfinancialplanning #fallfun #exhaustedbutgrateful

Have you ever heard of 75 Hard? 75 Hard requires six commitments you must complete every day for 75 days. Two 45-minute workouts. One must be outside. Adhering to a diet. You can pick the diet, but you can't cheat. No alcohol allowed. Reading 10 pages of a self-help or educational book. Drinking a gallon of water. Taking a progress picture. Sounds hard right? Yeah, precisely why I didn't do this. But... what I did do was something I coined 75 Custom. It's 75 Hard, but with tweaks that would work for me. Since I get migraines, daily exercise was off of the table. I created a spreadsheet to track my weekly exercise and outside time. As long as I got in the time during the week, I was set. I also knew that 10.5 hours of exercise a week was going to be extremely tough as a mom and business owner, so I lowered it to 7 hours of exercise and 3.5 hours of outside time (which could be spent either exercising or just getting some fresh air). I lowered the water intake to half of my body weight in ounces and gave leeway for certain days that I may not be able to easily access a restroom.... for example driving across Kansas. I already don't drink and I cut out most processed foods, but did allow myself the luxury or eating homemade items and treats to celebrate important milestones like my husband's birthday with a slice of cake. I read for at least 10 minutes or pages a day and also added a couple of other items that were important to me that I wasn't great at sticking to including mediating at least 10 minutes, flossing, and not buying any unnecessary items. Because even as a financial advisor, I am prone to scrolling for deals! I also only took two photos, one at the beginning and one at the end. The results? I was able to completed the challenge and ended up happier and healthier! Why do I bring this up? Because when making changes in your life, including financial changes, if you make rules that are too hard to follow or unrealistic for your situation you are bound to fail. You will likely become discouraged and unmotivated. I made slight alterations that fit me and my life so that I could be successful and continue the good habits I created. And guess what... I'm already on week 2 of my 2nd 75 Custom. This is what I work on with the individuals I serve. We come up with ways to make small tweaks that work for their circumstances that result in progress! #harrisonfinancialplanning #75harddaychallenge #75custom #progressnotperfection

Columbia Public Schools were out Wednesday through Friday last week, so we carted off our kiddos to Grammy's and had a nice little staycation to celebrate 10 years of marriage. We ate a ton, including at ElevenEleven in The Broadway Hotel where we had our reception dinner, Jina Yoo's, Murry's, and a wonderful meal prepared by MJ's Feast. We enjoyed First Fridays in the Art District at Sager Reeves Gallery where we had our wedding ceremony. We got our first "real" couples massage at Riversong Spa. Our first couples massage was on our honeymoon in Aruba. We got there and were promptly led to two separate rooms... not sure how that was considered a couples massage. We also traveled to the Fox Theatre in St. Louis to take in the first show of the season, Back to the Future. It was a great time! We've been through a ton in ten years, but I'm glad to have you by my side for this crazy thing called life! Thank you to my mom and Papa Dale for taking good care of our wild boys and surprising us when we returned from the show on Saturday night! #harrisonfinancialplanning #tenyearanniverary #staycation #somuchfood

Although there are pundits out there who tout you should never even think about using a credit card to pay for your expenses–looking at you, Dave Ramsey—if you are someone who is disciplined and have your spending under control, you can use credit cards to your advantage. There are numerous ways that credit cards can be used as a successful financial strategy, one of them being utilizing introductory 0% interest rate offers. Check out my article in TheStreet to find out how! https://lnkd.in/g9DFH5Xk #harrisonfinancialplanning #moneyisatool #Davecanbetoo

I took the summer off from posting on social media because it was a busy season for us... those posts to come. Yesterday was William's 1st day of 2nd grade and Alexander had his first "real" day of Pre-K. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, William stated, "I want to take over your job." I've been putting him to work shredding, helping scan, and filling up my coffee. :) Alexander's first reaction to what he wants to be is "Daddy!". We got a few pictures in before he lost it. I can't remember why exactly. Maybe it was because he changed his mind and no longer wants to be Daddy when he grows up. He wants to be a banana! Being 4 is hard... Here's to a great school year! #harrisonfinancialplanning #backtoschool #bananawoes