Jared Machen, CFP®

The course @MattFizell and I built for new financial planners is open again! We used the feedback from the Beta Group to make it even more valuable. Level up your career for less than the cost of a college textbook ($97). 🚀

What if just the 10 'right' people seeing your content could grow your firm faster than 10,000 random viewers? Growing an advisory firm doesn’t always require reaching the largest audience. In many cases, the right audience—clearly defined and intentionally engaged—can be far more powerful than broad visibility. kitc.es/4d0L4Oo In today's #FASuccess episode, Justin Brownlee, founder of Brownlee Wealth Management, shares how he built a $500 million RIA serving just 75 households by targeting a specific niche and using LinkedIn with intention. In this episode, we break down how he created focused blog and podcast content for his ideal target client, strategically built a LinkedIn network inside target companies, and prioritized quality engagement over vanity metrics. #podcast #financialadvisorpodcast

New Planner Collective has teamed up with Zahn Associates Inc. to offer a scholarship for a live review for the CFP® Exam for July 2026! This scholarship will provide 1 candidate with everything needed for exam prep in-person or virtually: Pre-study Materials, 4-day class, and Post Study Materials. Link in the comments! Share with your favorite future CFP®

Being in college between 2008-2015 was really a peak life experience. Hard to explain it.

@bryanhasling Sorry for your loss. Hate that you’re going through this but grateful your family has you in their corner!

This has been hard to share, but it's time: 2 months ago, my uncle passed away in a sudden accident. The entire family is still shaken up by it, still trying to comprehend if it's real or not. In these moments, no one really knows what to say or how exactly to help. Food? Errands? Sympathy? Welcomed-distractions? No surprise, the grief my aunt is going through is completely paralyzing. And on top of this, she is now slammed with the curse of the financial burdens she was never in charge of to begin with. It's not the dollars-and-cents. But rather, the sheer *volume* of new, revolving information and procedures she needs to wade through while *living in a state of shock and blur*. Phone calls. Jargon. Letters. Death Certificates. When all you want to do is sleep. My uncle managed their finances for the household - accounts, expenses, everything. So on top of grieving a tragic accident, my aunt is in a constant state of operational catch-up while stacks of envelopes keep arriving. I was invited in to help. I felt humbled - a bit nervous - at just how important this work will be. I visit her every couple weeks and wade through the procedures and legalese - it usually takes 3-hrs each time. Always something new, something stressful. It is extremely mentally draining for everyone. But when I leave - battered and hungry - I am usually beaming with pride. Most of my days are spent chatting with multi-millionaires on advanced money topics. I love it - I'm good at it - but this is a completely level of satisfaction. Many advisors vow never to work with family (or friends) - I don't believe in that at all. Yes, it is harder. Way harder, emotionally-charged, for considerably less (or usually zero) pay. But ideally you make a living somewhere else - and you're still able to give valuable gifts of advice to the people who you want to see succeed more than anyone. We live in a world where trust is hard to come by. So if your family trusts you - and needs you - this is your duty.

@danjstefanski Underspending and overspending are both risks to be managed!

This is so spot on, Jared. We want to make sure we use good assumptions in our plans in a sort of "plan for the worst, hope for the best" kind of way. But if you press that too hard, you have no reason to be shocked when those clients finally do retire and your encouragements to spend more fall on deaf ears.

Retirement projections (or a financial plan) that are too conservative are just as dangerous as those that are too aggressive. If your projections are unrealistic either way, they don't really give you any actionable information. Just a false sense of security or fear. The downside of an advisor being overly conservative is that a client may accumulate more than they need. Which is infinitely less painful than the downside of an advisor being overly aggressive, leading their client to run out of money. Advisors often prefer to build plans with a margin of safety, which can be beneficial. But if the margin of safety is unreasonably wide, it can do real damage: - Leave clients working longer than they need to in a job they don't like - Prevent clients from spending money in retirement that would meaningfully improve their quality of life - Create a baseline amount of anxiety as your perception is that you're walking a financial tightrope that isn't actually there This is why the right financial planning assumptions aren't a single set, but rather several different sets, so clients can begin to understand the range of potential outcomes.

@EricBalchunas RH gets more prescient by the day. What are your other top 10 songs?

Now I got the song stuck in my head, which is fine, its in my top 10 RH all time, reminds me so much of the early 00s youtube.com/watch?v=f6ZkWB…

Agree. Nothing is that dif. I think everything was just too good, paranoia rose with each ATH, ppl scared of their own shadow rn. But to quote the great Thom Yorke, "Just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean it's there"

Ideally, none of our employees are operating at 100% capacity. Every person needs time to step back and think through how to optimize their work. Excellence isn't cultivated by people who execute endlessly, but by iterating and ideating endlessly until everything is flawless.

Business isn’t about endlessly optimizing; it’s all about finding the right places to choose friction. "This activity doesn't scale well, but it would really go a long way in making Client X a raving fan of ours." "I could do this and it’d take 20 minutes, or I can delegate this and it takes me an hour." The magic happens through discernment, and knowing when and where to choose friction.

My biz partner @brwnjst saw it in me before I saw it in myself. I always have been entrepreneurial and worked with smaller teams. But only when I partnered with a true visionary did I see how complimentary my skill set was with my energy and value directed at building infrastructure and systems.

@jaredmachen When did you realize it and what was the moment that made you realize?

Every entrepreneur seems to be a “visionary” looking for an “integrator” I’ve NEVER met an integrator looking for a visionary… Why?

@CoFoundersNik Yup!

@jaredmachen Are you an integrator then?

@DallasAptGP The American dream is most alive in DFW! 🚀

I run a company that has hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate in Dallas. When the Mayor speaks, I listen. Cities rarely announce their next decade of growth in one speech. Dallas just did. Here is what I heard in today’s State of the City address: Dallas wants to become the next great American city. The plan is simple: grow the tax base. Dallas may want a lower property tax rate. But it also needs more property to tax. More apartments. More offices. More businesses. The city knows this. Faster permits. Clearer rules. Make it easier to build. Growth pays for everything. Wall Street is moving here. “Y’all Street” sounds like a joke. It is not. The Texas Stock Exchange is coming. Goldman Sachs is building a new campus. Scotiabank is moving operations here. CBRE and AECOM did the same. This is not just buildings. It is jobs. Dallas has created over 100,000 finance jobs in the last ten years. High-paying jobs. Money used to be made in New York and California. Now it is made here. The city is building parks that matter for decades. Klyde Warren Park changed downtown Dallas. It turned a highway overpass into a place where people want to be. Now the city is building more: Harold Simmons Park. Halperin Park. A new convention center. These projects take years to finish. But when they are done, they change how people see Dallas. They change what the city is worth. Dallas wants to keep its big companies downtown. Sports teams. Fortune 500 headquarters. Major employers. The city is fighting to keep them in the urban core. Not in the suburbs. Not in other cities. Here. This matters. When a headquarters leaves, jobs follow. Tax revenue follows. The ecosystem breaks down. Dallas knows this. It is working to prevent it. Crime is dropping. Violent crime has fallen for five straight years. Double-digit declines. A safe city attracts families. It attracts businesses. It attracts investors who think long-term. Safety is not flashy. But it is the foundation for everything else. This is why we are betting on Dallas. At Savoy, we build apartments. We manage properties. We invest in neighborhoods. We are betting on Dallas because the city is making smart moves. If even half of these plans work, Dallas will continue growing faster than most cities in America. We see it in Bishop Ridge. We see it in the capital flowing into Texas. We see it in the confidence people have in this city’s future. We are building for the Dallas of 2035, not 2025. We think that bet will pay off.

Finding the perfect career is overrated. For much of human history, there were two jobs: hunter and gatherer. If the work allows you to be present for your family when they need you, is intellectually stimulating, it gives you the balance to pursue your other interests, and you’re well compensated for it; that’s a pretty stellar job.

What are you going to do in retirement? People make the mistake of thinking it needs to be one big thing. A better way to think about it is "What 6-10 rhythms or activities can I incorporate in my life to enhance it?" The best lists include: Things you’ve already done that you want to do more of (mastry) Things you've never done that you've always wanted to try (trying new things) Things you've never done and have always rationalized away seriously considering (bucket list) Things you lament not doing in your working years (minimizing regret) These lists also put way less pressure on the one thing to check all your needs in retirement.

Surefire way to fail with “finding a niche”. Find a demographic you think you’re interested in working with and start making content. Your prospective niche knows what you need better than you do. So, interview them, listen, ask questions, THEN build to solve their stated pain points.

@SMB_Attorney @BrentBeshore Brents quote is one my favorite biz quotes. Biz ownership isn't about starting when you've figured out. It's about starting with no certanty and continually seeing past the mess of your business to the addressable market that desparatlley needs what your building.

“All businesses are loosely functioning disasters.” - @BrentBeshore This past week I spent time at the Main Street Summit in Columbia, Missouri, the most unlikely of places for one of the most impressive gatherings of entrepreneurs and business leaders in the country. It brought together an incredible mix of people: founders, operators, executives, and even inspiring people like @TimTebow. All of it made possible by the vision and leadership of Brent Beshore of Permanent Equity. If you own a business, run one, or are just in the grind of building something, this is the event of the year. I’d recommend it to anyone, even if it means my ticket gets more expensive next year. Brent and his team put on a first-class event. I was genuinely honored that @KHendersonCo, @smblawgroup and I got to play a small part in it. What Brent has built in Columbia is special. He’s done, at a young age, what so many of us are trying to do: build something lasting, meaningful, and rooted in community. Walking down a street where house after house is filled with Permanent Equity team members, all deeply bought into the mission, was one of those things that makes you stop and think about what really matters. And seeing his office, without even a computer, in a world where everyone is glued to their screens, forces you to zoom out and question how you spend your time and what’s actually important. On the plane ride home, I already had a bullet list of new priorities, a new vision, new focus, and renewed energy that made the time, the travel, and the expense absolutely worth it. The ROI on that event will be immeasurable. Brent, @ClaytonDorge , and the entire team, if you’re reading this, thank you for putting it on. It’s way more than just an event for the people who attend and what you’re doing in Columbia and beyond is incredible.

@KyleSMoore I feel like this legislation is always in a vacuum. We have X billionaires. If we tax Y it will raise Z in revenue. But there is always someone on the other side of that rule that can change their behaviors.

The ultra-wealthy are already highly mobile. Not a surprise that this would happen!