Getting Juiced

We launched this past weekend by spending an hour with our new financial planner, Dana Anspach. She's really quite good. She's nonjudgemental, pleasant, and obviously passionate about her work. Knowledgable too. She writes a monthly blog for About.com, a service of the New York Times. Her blog is appropriately titled Money Over 55. (Hey, not bad: First paragraph and I've already given you three valuable links!)  If nothing else, check out her blog.

At any rate, when you engage Dana's services you start out by having to take inventory of everything you think you have, everything you think you spend, in an effort to debunk everything you think you need to retire. For me, that's already thinking too much. For some, like me, that right there is enough to make you start to feel a little uncomfortable. After you've forwarded your fiction to Dana she sets up a time to meet with you and start the process of getting your financial ducks in a row.

In Arizona every meeting you have-- realtor, attorney, financial planner-- starts the same way: "Can I get you some water?" I guess that's for good reason: You're in a region that receives as much rainfall in a year as Portland, Oregon does on any given Wednesday. Note to Dana: you might want to change up to liquor. At any rate, for the next 60 minutes she very kindly takes you on a tour of your financial self including all the fantasies and misrepresentations you may have sent her way. You get to leave your clothes on but that's about all. She is very thorough and you come away feeling, well, juiced. And that's what she calls it, a Juicing Session.

After embarking on the process I'm not sure in what fashion I've been juiced. On the one hand, I do feel empowered (put that on my list of "never" words) to start moving towards shoring up my financials. On the other hand, I also feel rather like an orange after exiting an attachment to your KitchenAid.

All in all, it was a good start to the weekend even if it did dictate the focus of conversation for the next 72 hours. I realize that many of my friends and family are way ahead of me in this and have been responsible planners for years. For this slightly nicked-up reformed bachelor it was an eye opener and well worth the time.  Best lesson of the experience? My daughter needs to get juiced now. And if you haven't been, you should.