Tim Maurer

The Financial LIFE Planning email newsletter has a new home--on @substack! You can learn more, revisit (hundreds of) old posts, and subscribe to receive new editions every Sunday morning at 7am here: timmaurer.com/about

Wow

For years I have been talking about something I call a "Real Financial Professional." 📈 Not a product salesperson. 🗺️ Not a defender of an outdated map. 🥾 A guide in a changing landscape. Someone who helps people align their time, money, energy, and attention with what actually matters to them! That work is harder than most people realize. It requires technical skill, emotional awareness, and the ability to sit with uncertainty alongside your clients. It is not about being precisely right today. It is about helping people be less wrong tomorrow. A few years ago I wrote a Manifesto about what this work really means. If you care about the craft of advice, I think you’ll appreciate it: 👉 thesocietyofadvice.com/manifesto

You can’t make it too simple. Most of us in this industry are really good at complex things. We’ve “Kitces-ed” it to death. Big spreadsheets and more and more technical precision. That’s required. But here’s what’s easy to forget: Most clients don’t know what you mean when you say volatility. And they won’t tell you. They’ll nod. They’ll say yes, yes, yes. Then they’ll go home and think, “I don’t know what she just said, but she seems smart.” 🤷 We use words like "risk" and mean standard deviation within known bounds. A dial we can turn up or down. Our clients hear risk and think, “Am I going to end up under a bridge?” Same word. Completely different meaning. Keeping jargon out of conversations is like weeding a garden. It never ends. You have to stay vigilant. There’s a difference between simplistic and elegantly simple. Simplistic ignores complexity. Elegantly simple earns its way there. You’ve been through the edge cases. You’ve done the hard thinking. And you come out the other side and say, “Here’s what matters.” 🎯 That’s what clients pay Real Financial Advisors for. If you’re tired of hiding behind complexity… If you know you’re good at the technical work but want to get better at the human work… If you’ve felt that gap between what you know and what your clients actually hear… 💥 That’s exactly what we work on each month inside The Society of Advice. The Society of Advice is where financial advisors gather to practice the craft that can’t be automated. It’s a live, monthly conversation curated by me and featuring a guest worth paying attention to. Advisors who care about this work show up for it. No extra noise, just the REAL work on how to make things clear, human, and useful. If that’s the kind of advisor you’re becoming, you’ll feel at home here. Join us for the next live conversation: 📆 Thursday, March 26, 2026 ⏰ 11:00 a.m. Eastern for 90 minutes 👉 Register: thesocietyofadvice.com

If you’re a financial advisor and something about this industry feels off to you, you’re not alone 🖤 I wrote The Manifesto as a line in the sand. ...We are not salespeople. ...We are not asset gatherers. We are stewards of decisions that shape lives! If that lands with you right now, I'd like you to read the digital copy of The Manifesto: thesocietyofadvice.com/manifesto It's free and I think you'd love it.

@TeamYouTube I understand; my point is that my Google account specialist sent me to YOU because this is a YT issue. They can’t help me. I’m just trying to talk to a person. Can you please DM me with a path to do so?

@TimMaurer Unfortunately, we're not Google account specialists, you can contact your administrator to help with your account! Here's how: goo.gle/3Z2n1X8

@TeamYouTube, I’m a Google Workspace customer locked out of an old YouTube channel of mine. I’ve tried the recovery tool and Workspace support, but both failed despite the channel clearly featuring my face, name, and domain—because I don’t have the user/password info (because I was working with a now defunct PR firm who helped me manage the account). Can you please help me with a manual identity review? #YouTubeHelp

@TeamYouTube Sorry, already done that, too. I've exhausted all of the options not including talking to someone. I chatted with my Google Workspace help extensively, but they said I need to talk to a human on the YT side to complete this task.

@TimMaurer You can check this troubleshooter instead, for options to recover your acct: goo.gle/4apLV7H You can also find other support options from our community forum: goo.gle/4amixiM

@TeamYouTube Can you help, @TeamYouTube?

@TeamYouTube Thanks for the quick reply; unfortunately, I've already tried all of these avenues multiple times to no avail. Could you DM me so that I could chat with a human to prove the account is mine? My face, videos, and personal website are all over the YT page, so it shouldn't take much

If you are an overachiever, this is worth paying attention to: Many of the most successful people struggle with enjoyment. This is not a motivation problem. It is a structural one. High achievers tend to be very good at satisfaction, the joy that comes from achievement after struggle. Hitting goals. Overcoming obstacles. Moving the scoreboard. That reward system works, until it begins to crowd everything else out. When satisfaction becomes the primary source of reward, enjoyment slowly fades. Activities done for their own sake start to feel unproductive. If something does not advance a goal or register as progress, it feels like a waste of time. Over time, value shifts outward. Outcomes replace experience. This is why many people who are exceptionally good at building companies, careers, or wealth find it difficult to enjoy simple pleasures. Not because they lack the capacity for joy, but because their reward system has been trained to overlook it. A life organized entirely around achievement can succeed in many ways, and still feel joyless.

Early specialization is overrated. Generalists excel over time. Data on >34k stars in sports, music, science, and chess: Focusing on a single field predicts a faster rise, but cross-training foreshadows a higher peak. The most successful adults start off as well-rounded kids.

Change arrives whether we invite it or not. Loss, disruption, and transition are part of the human story. What determines how much we suffer is often not the change itself, but how we interpret it. Reframing change does not deny pain. It asks a different question. What might this moment make possible that was not possible before? When change is seen only as tragedy, we carry the pain without learning from it. When it is seen as an opportunity, even reluctantly, growth becomes possible. You don't have to want the change. But you can still decide what it gives you.

Thank you, Coach Harbaugh, for 18 tremendous years.

"One of the challenging things about the really important stuff in life is that they’re endless battles. If you do a good job focusing today and prioritizing today, if you pick the right thing to focus on, it earns you no bonus points for tomorrow. Tomorrow you show up, and if you spend all that time on YouTube or getting distracted or whatever, that day is gone. Other things are like that, too. Just because you worked out two weeks ago doesn’t mean you don’t need to do it today. Or just because you were a good spouse yesterday, that earns you no bonus points for today. You still need to show up for them. And so I’m trying to get comfortable with the endless nature of those things. A lot of the time we try to resist the endless nature of that stuff. “Oh, I wish it wasn’t that way.” We try to convince ourselves that it’s like a finish line. “If I just do this 21-day cleanse, then I’ll be a healthy person and I won’t have to think about it anymore. If I just buy her something nice for her anniversary, then I can stop worrying about it and I don’t have to [do other things].” No, it’s not like that. It’s endless. As soon as you accept the endless nature, you start looking at it differently. You say, “Okay, it’s not about getting to a particular finish line; it’s about living a daily life that feels sustainable and that I like and that I’m fully engaged in. So it’s about liking my days." James Clear on The Knowledge Project

It’s time to take back excellence from the grifters, gurus, hackers, optimizers, and everyone else who reduces the human spirit to monetizable clickbait, marketing gimmicks, hacks, secrets, and quick fixes, none of which actually work. Here's 24 ideas to help: 1. Caring is cool. There is nothing to celebrate about an attitude of nonchalance. It’s a cop-out. A protective mechanism. A way to avoid stepping into the arena and risking failure. There are things worth caring deeply about, and you should care deeply about them. 2. Never sacrifice your values. Your values are your North stars, the qualities toward which you aspire. Regardless of what you are pursuing, do it in a way that aligns with your values. ​ 3. The things you work on also work on you. You aren’t just shaping the table, manuscript, marathon, scientific discovery, canvas, or song. Those pursuits are also shaping you. 4. Select big goals but climb where you are. Once you know what peak you’re aiming for, you’ve got to shift your attention to the day-to-day ascent; you’ve got to climb where your feet are. The bigger the goal, the smaller the steps. 5. Embrace a process mindset. Outcomes matter, but they are always the byproduct of a sound and attentive process. Focus on the process. Let the outcomes take care of themselves. Learn and adjust. Rinse, repeat. 6. Nothing great happens without focus. You’ve got to set aside time and space without distraction so the important projects in your life can receive your full attention. 7. Prioritize consistency over intensity. Anyone can crush themselves and have a heroic day, a heroic week, or maybe even a heroic month. But excellence is about generating a heroic body of work. Some days will be great. Some days will be terrible. Most will be somewhere in between. Become known for your consistency. Keep showing up. ​ 8. Abide by the law of compounding. Little by little it becomes a lot. 9. Use technology, but don’t let it use you. A good question to ask yourself regularly: Am I in charge of this technology, or is this technology in charge of me? 10. ​“Balance” is an illusion. You can’t do it all. Trying to is a surefire way to be miserable. You’ve got to make tradeoffs and adjust over time. You can emphasize different pursuits in different seasons of life. 11. Keep the main things the main things. Hacks, fads, and quick fixes have been cycling in and out since the beginning of time. In the fifth century BC, Herodotus searched for the Fountain of Youth as a way to live forever. Thousands of years later, we’re still searching. 12. The secret is there is no secret. The driving force of excellence is hard work done the right way with the right people at the right time. 13. Practice true discipline. Not the chest-thumping machismo performative variety, but the real thing: show up and do what you need to do, with care and integrity. Doing the hard thing today often makes tomorrow just a little easier. ​ 14. Make time for renewal. Stress plus rest equals growth. If you never step away and allow your mind-body system to recover, then you’re guaranteed to stall out long before you reach your potential. It takes discipline to keep going. But it also takes discipline to rest. ​ 15. Confidence comes from evidence. If you want to believe in yourself, you’ve got to give yourself evidence for that belief. Put in the reps. 16. Own your seat. Do the training. Then have the courage to trust it. 17. Stay patient. There is no such thing as an overnight breakthrough. Most good things take time. You can’t rush the process. 18. Stick-to-itiveness is key. The rare quality of staying power in a world that is obsessed with instant gratification is a secret weapon. 19. Motivation follows action. You don’t always need to feel good to get going; sometimes you need to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good. 20. Create rituals and routines. It does not mean a series of 27 elaborate steps to start the day. It means having a few anchors to keep you grounded in an increasingly chaotic world. Your routine should work for you, not the other way around. 21. Curiosity is a powerful antidote to fear. Whether you play basketball or cello, repair cars or build tables, write books or coach teams, your craft can be a vessel for self-discovery. When you are driven by a genuine curiosity to see what’s possible, nothing can stop you. 22. Don’t go at it alone. Every modern science and every ancient wisdom tradition tells us that the people with whom we surround ourselves shape us. Going at it alone will make you angry and resentful, irrespective of what the internet bros say. Find your people and work together. This is the way. ​ 23. Intensity and joy can coexist. One of the greatest joys is working toward your aspirations with great intensity. ​ 24. Excellence is an infinite game. The goal is the path, and the path is the goal. So much of success simply comes down to staying on it.

Money does not determine your happiness. The reason you earn it does. When money becomes a way to prove your worth or keep score against others, it reliably undermines well-being. When it is oriented toward people, relationships, and responsibility beyond yourself, it can support a good and meaningful life.

@TeamYouTube Thanks for the quick reply. I've tried these steps, and the problem is that I don't know what email address was used to get into the particular YT page I'm trying to reference. When it was created, I was working with a PR firm (no longer in existence), who helped me manage it.

@TimMaurer Try following these steps to get back into your account: goo.gle/4jgm5HI Do this from a known device/browser that you typically use to access your account. More tips here: goo.gle/3YhUc8Q

@TeamYouTube, there is a YouTube account that I created years ago, and regardless of many attempts, I can't recover the login information. Can I work with you to help recover the account so that I can revive it? Could you please DM?

A Christmas morning reflection… 95% By the time your child turns 18, you've spent ~95% of the time you will ever spend with them in your lifetime. There are specific windows, much shorter than you care to admit, during which certain people and relationships will occupy your life. You may have only one more summer with all of your siblings. Two more trips with that old group of friends. A few more years with your grandpa. A handful of encounters with that coworker you love. One more long walk with your parents. If you fail to appreciate these windows, they will quickly disappear. Time Wealth is about an awareness of these windows. But more importantly, it’s about taking action against that awareness. It's about recognizing that you are in more control of your time than you realize. That you can take actions to create time with the people you love most. That you can bend these curves. That 95% is an average—and you’ve never wanted to be average in anything your entire life. So, show up to that recital. Plan that trip with old friends. Grab that quick coffee. Go on that walk with your parents. Have that meal with your sibling. In the end, it's not about the journey, it's not about the destination, it's about the company. The people along the way. Cherish the people and the rest will fall into place as it should.

Uhhh, @Ravens??