A day in the life of a Gen Y financial planner

Mondays can sometimes be the most productive day of the week for me. After having the weekend and allowing myself at least a few hours of “me” time, I typically come back refreshed and ready to tackle the projects ahead. Read on for an overview of a typical Monday in running Workable Wealth.

6 a.m.: Wakeup call from the husband as he’s arriving on base for the day (I’m a military spouse).

7 a.m.: The dogs are walked and I’m ready with my cup of coffee in hand and at my computer (I have a home office).

Since social media is a big part of my marketing, I spend about 15 minutes browsing through the Wall Street Journal, YahooFinance! and Twitter (Being on Pacific time, I feel behind on news or links coming from the East Coast by this time) and then take an additional 15 minutes to update my Twitter, company Facebook page and schedule any ongoing updates via Hootsuite.

7:30 a.m.: I’m into my e-mails, even though I’m already aware of what’s in my inbox because they all come through to my phone. At a minimum, I’ll run through the morning’s HARO e-mail to see if there’s anything relevant for me to respond to and bookmark it for later.

7:30-8:30: I spend the hour responding to e-mails, inquiries, etc. I recently started using Boomerang and I’m getting to inbox zero (and relieving stress) much more frequently.

8:30: A 15-30 minute phone call with my personal coach. It’s a check-in on the items I committed to getting done in the past week or two, a gauge on the items that are weighing on me, and a setting of goals to accomplish for the coming week. This has proven extremely beneficial in helping me to break down big tasks into smaller ones and to see progress.

9:30-11:00: Two Mondays out of each month, I’m on Google Hangouts with my Mastermind group, which consists of six Gen Y Planners from across the country coming together to share ideas, wins, losses and to serve as accountability partners and resources as we build our businesses. This is a commitment that I respect as much as the one I make to my clients.

11:00-4:00: Client focus time. During this time I’ll have client consultations via phone or in person if he or she is San Diego-based. I’ll get engagement letters and contracts sent out along with sending invoices through PayPal. I’ll review client cases for upcoming plan deliveries or creation. This includes checking in on PreciseFP submissions (my clients submit their data online), creating executive summaries, action plans, net worth statements, cash flows, etc. I’m not the kind of person that works off of one long task list, so instead I block off time on my calendar to focus on one piece of a case or client issue at a time. I even have 15-minute segments for e-mails blocked off.

4:00-5:30, I try to get a workout in (if I’m lucky.)

5:00-7 to 8ish: Creative float time. A draft or complete copy for weekly blog posts or other published pieces (such as this) are written. If finalized, they’re copied into WordPress and scheduled to go live Wednesday morning. I block off my time for the following day and look to items for the rest of the week — typically my biweekly newsletter, networking events, client cases and calls, etc.
To me, one of the best parts of starting Workable Wealth in addition to pursing my passion of working with Gen Y clients and helping my peers to make smart choices with their money, is being able to make my own schedule. That allows me to be flexible in meeting with clients and in living a balanced life.

Mary Beth Storjohann is the founder of Workable Wealth, a financial planning firm for Gen Y, by Gen Y. You can find her on Twitter at @marybstorj