The Origin Story: Why I Started Mindi

The first draft of this blog was a recap of my career to date, explaining how each step led me to the decision to go independent and launch my fee-only RIA Mindi Financial earlier this year. It made sense to me. But then I showed it to my husband, who said, “Why are you recapping your resume? People can visit your LinkedIn and get all this info. This isn’t why you’re doing it. Tell them why.”

So here goes. If you’re curious, you can check out my LinkedIn here for all the details, but the short version is this: I started in the most misaligned-for-me role possible back in 2006 and have been moving closer and closer to the kind of meaningful work I actually want to do ever since.

The best job I ever had (until now) was working in the Portfolio Consulting Group at OppenheimerFunds. My team helped financial advisors understand the portfolios they were using for their clients. Every week, I met with a handful of financial advisors and discussed what they were trying to accomplish with their investments, whether there were any hidden risks or unseen exposures, and how they could improve their portfolios. The approach was in-depth and truly consultative. No one expected us to push products or offer anything other than helpful advice.  We were there to build trust and it worked. The advisors were appreciative and the salespeople loved us. And I felt great about going to work every day.

My time in that group shifted my perspective on a lot of things, but I’ll save the rest for a future post. What’s important is that when I started Mindi years later, I knew I wanted to work with my clients the same way I had worked with advisors back then. It’s effective and it’s the right thing to do, simple as that.

That meant a few things: obtaining my CFP® designation, being bound by the ethical codes of CFP Board and NAPFA, operating under a fiduciary standard, remaining fully independent, and adopting a fee-only business model. In a nutshell, this means I always put my clients’ best interests first, I never sell products or insurance, and I accept no third-party compensation, which minimizes conflicts of interest.

Being independent means that I don’t have to compromise how I work with clients because of directives from above but it doesn’t mean that I’m doing this alone. I launched Mindi with the help of XY Planning Network (XYPN), which provides technology, compliance, and training support, among other benefits. Most importantly, it’s a veritable hivemind of like-minded financial planners who want to help clients and other advisors alike, and the network has been one of my greatest resources so far.

I’m doing this because my financial planning and investment management experience and skillset allow me to help people. Sometimes it’s just about running the numbers, setting up accounts and investing funds. In the short time since I launched, I’ve found thousands of dollars in tax savings for clients, set up a self-employed plan so a consultant client (newly on a 1099) could continue saving for retirement, and helped a client figure out whether they could afford to move closer to family (they could, it was actually cheaper!). But the real value of financial planning goes beyond that.

Money is only worth the life it enables you live but people are often held back from making full use of their assets, either because they fear not having enough or because they face financial issues that are solvable but feel insurmountable. I get it. I’m what you call a worrier. In the financial industry, you might say I’m more of a bond person than a stock person. I know how it feels to carry around stress. In my years of working with clients, the best moments are when I can lift the burden of worrying about money for someone. Whether it’s showing them that they have more than enough to retire (or even just walk away from that toxic job) or that their debt can be managed, seeing the relief and sense of freedom that follow is worth everything it took to get here.

I feel extremely lucky to be able to do this for a living, and I’m incredibly grateful for all the support and momentum so early on. I can’t wait to see how this grows. Thanks for reading.