Emotional Balance Sheet with Paul Fenner

What happens when life transitions occur and what was working, suddenly stops working?  What if you ask yourself, even though I am good at this work or career, do I really enjoy doing it? These are a few of the types of questions that Lisa Mallis has asked herself and her clients on her own journey from being a high school math teacher to a coach focused on time management. Lisa shares her insight...

Do you feel like you're "not good enough" or "take things too personally" at work?  Or, do you feel overworked and on your way to burnout? If so, you may be a sensitive striver. Melody Wilding, a licensed therapist, turned coach, helps highly sensitive and high-achieving professionals overcome the emotional challenges of leadership, management, and success. Her goal is to empower people to produce...

What if you had a heart attack, but instead of calling your spouse or partner to get medical attention, your first thought was, "I need to meet with my manager tomorrow; this isn't convenient?" This is precisely what Jonathan Frostick, an IT lead at HSBC, experienced and explained in a LinkedIn post that went viral.  A post that caught the eye of Sarah Green Carmichael, an editor with Bloomberg, a...

Have you ever wondered what a health coach does?  If you are like me, you may have assumed that a health coach primarily deals with food, nutrition, and eating.  I was wrong. Cristin Wipfler, a registered dietician and health coach, put it this way, "health coaching is to help you feel your best, and is not a one size fits all process." Cristin takes a unique approach and is focused on helping peo...

For parents, have you ever thought about how your child has made you refocus your own life?  For Dr. Paula Ruffin, an unexpected pregnancy forced her to re-evaluate her own life, which brought her to the brink of bankruptcy as a single mom and business owner.  While not seeking any empathy for being a single mother and entrepreneur, there is a difficult balance to be struck that all working parent...

What if you had a heart attack, but instead of calling your spouse or partner to get medical attention, your first thought was, "I need to meet with my manager tomorrow; this isn't convenient?" This is precisely what Jonathan Frostick, an IT lead at HSBC, experienced and explained in a LinkedIn post that went viral.  A post that caught the eye of Sarah Green Carmichael, an editor with Bloomberg, a...

Do you know what financial aid optimization is or means?  Or, what about the tax and financial aid implications that taking money out of a retirement account could cause? In part three of our three-part series focused on our college planning process, we dive deep into the financial aspects of sending your child off to college.  Specifically, we will address saving, how schools optimize financial a...

Do you know the right questions you should be asking schools for how they will be teaching your kids to learn at their institutions?  Or how the skills they may learn will translate into the working world? In part 2 of the college planning process, we build off part 1, where I spoke about the cruel optimism we face as parents when balancing all the financial and lifestyle challenges facing us.  In...

Are you concerned about the rising costs of college?  What college or university would best fit your kids? Or curious about how critical a mentor for your kids in college could be? This week I kick off a special three-part series focused on the college planning process.  It's not just about saving, financial aid, or loans.  The college process that I am building at TAMMA is a comprehensive look at...

What is the difference between seizing an opportunity and not?  The ability to take action in the face of fear and anxiety? Husband, father, and serial entrepreneur, Justin Bright, has believed in himself to start not one but three businesses within the last ten years.  One of which he launched in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.  Justin felt that he had some to offer in starting each of the three...

People often ask me what it is like raising triplets?  However, I have often wondered what it has been like for a mom with a full-time career to raise six boys ranging from age 29 down to 7?  Leah Nauseda is just the person to help answer this question. Transitions have been a way of life for Leah as she talks about going through a divorce, being a stay-at-home mom, and then slowly working her way...

Have you ever heard the phrase, "never let a good crisis go to waste?" Whether it is a global pandemic, a housing crash, or a great financial recission, recognizing and seizing an opportunity can be a life-changer. This is precisely what Chris Dyer decided to do back in 2009 amongst one of the worse recessions we have seen since the great depression.  Faced with cutting costs and laying off people...

Did you know that financial planning is more emotional than it is financial?  That your cognitive biases help to shape your lifestyle and financial decisions? Daniel Crosby is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who wrote the book on investor and financial psychology that dovetails into our individual biases.  In our conversation, we talk about Daniel's New York Times best-selling book, T...

What if you were about to make a massive investment but were unsure what you would have to pay for the investment?  Add on the fact; this investment would be one of the most emotional decisions that you would make not only in your life but the life of your child. This is the situation that most parents find themselves in when determining what they will pay for their kids to attend college.  Mark S...

You often hear the phrase, "when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade." We don't need to be in a global pandemic for this phrase to ring true.  Imagine a doctor staring you in the eyes and says, "congratulations, you are having triplets." As much as we try to plan for our futures, I often tell my Family Office clients that financial and lifestyle goals will take a back seat to unexpected prior...

What if you found yourself 20 years ahead of a curve that no one saw coming?  Could you imagine what working remotely full-time was 20 years ago? This is precisely where Kim Shepherd was at the turn of 2000.  A common theme with this podcast is discussing both the challenges and opportunities that life transitions can bring.  Kim found herself in the middle of a life and career transition from bei...

"Have you filled a bucket today" is a book that I read to my kids growing up about being kind and giving back to others?  When it comes to your professional and personal networks and relationships, how much are you giving back?  How full is your bucket? Brenda Meller is a person who believes strongly in helping to fill people's buckets.  A lover of pie, Brenda's social media pie, which is also the...

80% of jobs come from networking.  And 80% of those jobs come from a third level connection.  A friend of a friend of a friend.  Then why is it that 95% of people are not good at networking? Someone who knows a great deal about the human side of networking is Rich Spriggle, a net-giver focused on meaningful work, helping people who are "between successes." Rich is a Senior Vice President at Challe...

Research shows that parents are the most influential factors in their kids' money life development.  What you model to your kids growing up lays the foundation for how they think and treat money into adulthood.  So how do you model good financial decision making for your kids?  How do you even begin to talk with your kids about money? Rebecca Maxcy is director of the UChicago Financial Education I...

How does a husband, father of two girls, and entrepreneur whose business pre-COVID required him to be on over 150 planes a year crisscrossing the country be the light that his family needs him to be? Knowing who you are and what you want as a person, spouse/partner, and parent are the critical elements that help people keep stress and financial strife out of their relationships.  An essential comp...

No matter if you are in a job transition, looking for a new career, trying to grow your business, or simply wanting to expand your knowledge, networking is a skill that should be in your toolset.  But how do you network in the age of CVOID when most everything is virtual? Terry Bean, a foremost expert in networking, especially within LinkedIn, discusses how to utilize social networks best to help...

Am I going to be okay?  The question—not explicitly about money is posed by everyone from the ultra-wealthy to the just-getting-by, from the retiree to the just-getting-started.  No matter the lifestyle, accent, politics, or favorite sports team, everyone I meet wants to take care of their families, remain or get healthy, be generous to others, enjoy their hobbies, and excel at work. These words s...

The fastest way to create strife within your finances is to marry or partner with someone who has wildly different spending expectations.  Layer on considerable amounts of debt, either from student loans or credit cards, can be a recipe for disaster. Mike & Lindsay Dillon may have been headed down this road, but then something changed.  They changed their mindset and decided to partner together ra...

Timing in sports, just like life, can take you to places that you would never think twice about.  When one door of opportunity closes, do you have the courage to open another door? Today's conversation with former professional baseball pitcher turned family entrepreneur Anthony Tomey is focused on Anthony's story to take a risk and open a new door of opportunity when he decided to end his professi...

How worried should we really be about kids and tech?  With kids on devices more than ever due to virtual learning, where is all of this heading? And what should we actually do about it? Today I speak with Anya Kamenetz, the author of The Art of Screen Time: Digital Parenting Without Fear.  Anya is also an education correspondent for NPR, and her work can be found in The New York Times, The Washing...