Developed by Gillen Manos, Isabella Floreani, Aaron Bert, CFP®, AIF®, CAP®
Meet your new clients, Susan (07/02/93) and Doug (06/14/91) Rogers. Susan was born in Burnside, Kentucky and moved to Florida to attend UF when she was 18, which is where she met Doug. Susan and Doug have been married for 9 years and have 3 children, Adam (01/20/2017), Bradley (05/30/2020), and Charlotte (11/19/2021). Their youngest child, David, is expected to be born in January. They live in Saint Augustine, Florida where Doug was born and raised. Susan and Doug have self-managed their personal finances and never worked with a financial planner before.
Susan was having lunch with her friends last week and mentioned that her great aunt (born: 07/20/1969, died: 04/15/2024) had recently passed away and left them $200,000. She didn’t really know what to do with it, besides planning a nice vacation with her husband. They suggested that she find a financial planning firm to help invest the money. Doug asked his friend Kevin, who is a CFP at Upstanding Financial. Unfortunately, the Rogers are below Kevin’s firm’s minimum investable assets. He recommended your firm instead, and you have agreed to take them as clients due to their inheritance and Doug’s substantial income potential.
Doug works as a veterinarian. He graduated vet school debt free five years ago and went to work for the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, where he loved learning about animals as a kid. He currently earns about $110,000 per year, including hazard pay. Doug is happy in his job and while he may be up for a promotion in a few years, he’s not sure he would want to take it. He is considering opening a private practice instead, which could allow him to increase his income over time more than if he stayed at the Alligator Farm.
Susan worked in marketing for five years after graduating college to help support the family while Doug was in veterinary school. Once he graduated and started working, she left her job to raise their children full-time. The Rogers are part of a homeschooling group with 4 other families, with each handling the kids one day a week. Adam has been loving his classes and is excited to have Bradley join him next year. Susan also runs a small home crafts business with her friend. They sell their products online and in some local gift shops, and although their income is unstable from month to month, they average roughly $1,200 each. As her kids become older, Susan thinks she may be able to put more time into the business, maybe earning up to $2,000 per month.
Adam loves to build things, play with tools, and help Doug out around the house. He’s also a Cub Scout and enjoys playing outdoors. One day, he wants to be an Eagle Scout like his dad. Bradley also enjoys playing outside, but he’s more of a nature lover than his brother. He loves visiting his dad at work and thinks he might want to work with animals one day. He also enjoys reading stories with his mother and Charlotte. Doug and Susan want to make sure they can set their kids up for success but aren’t sure what the best way to do that is. They plan to keep homeschooling their kids and aren’t sure if college will be the right path for them. Adam’s very early interests got him excited about pursuing a career in construction or engineering, though he still has plenty of time to change his mind. Bradley is starting to talk about saving up for vet school but then his parents remind him that he’s four. Whatever the Rogers kids end up doing, Susan and Doug want to start saving as soon as they get some wiggle room in their budget. They’ve also heard there might be programs they can take advantage of that could help fund some of their homeschooling expenses. If the kids do go to college, Doug thinks they will stay in-state.
The Rogers’ all-in annual living expenses for 2023 were approximately $80,000. They prepared a summary of income and expenses for you to review. They really don’t see a lot of wiggle room in their budget, especially with recently elevated levels of inflation. However, they are hoping to increase their income in the coming years.
Doug and Susan don’t have any life insurance, and getting some is one of their top priorities. Doug knows that the family couldn’t function if either parent were to pass away, but so far life insurance just hasn’t been something he wants to think about. Now that he’s talking to a financial planner, he knows it’s something he needs to address. He’s heard of all kinds of different life insurance products, even ones that might help his kids save for college, but he’s really not sure what to pick or what they can afford. Doug and Susan use Doug’s heath insurance, which he gets through work. He knows it has something called an HAS built in, but he hasn’t really looked into that, besides using the $1200 his employer puts in each year to cover some doctor visits. He and Susan would like to figure out how it works before David is born, since their previous hospital visits seemed really expensive.
Doug has contributed to his 401(k) since he started working. He currently is contributing 5% of his salary, which is the most his employer will match (dollar-for-dollar match). He and Susan don’t really know what they want to spend in retirement or what they would need to save in order to live comfortably. They’re hoping you can help them figure that out and that you can explain what their options for retirement savings might be if Doug opens his own veterinary practice. If possible, they’d like to give generously and pass money on to their children, but they aren’t particular about when they retire. Susan doesn’t know if she will return to a traditional career after her children leave home, if she’ll expand her business, or do something in between. Whatever the case, she expects to retire sometime in her 60s and spend lots of time with her grandchildren. Doug plans to work as long as he can. Even if he has to work less as he gets older, he doesn’t want to stop completely if he can avoid it, at least until his 70s.
Doug and Susan haven’t taken many vacations since their honeymoon 9 years ago. They’d like to take one together before David is born. Once he’s a little older, they’d love to be able to afford to visit some National Parks as a family.
Doug saw how stressful it was for his parents when his grandparents died without a will. His aunts and uncles all fought over the assets for months. After that, his parents made sure to put together a clear estate plan and share it with Doug and Susan so there wouldn’t be any confusion when they passed. To receive an inheritance, Doug’s parents made him promise that he would put together an estate plan by the time he turns 34. If he does this, he can expect to get what is left of his parents’ IRA when they pass. He thinks this will be somewhere in the high five figures. Susan doesn’t expect to receive anything from her parents except for some family heirlooms. They plan to live through most of their assets and donate whatever is left to their local Boy Scout troop.
As part of their estate plan, Susan wants to make sure that their children are taken care of and is willing to dedicate all their assets to their upkeep until they turn 18. Susan’s brother Andy has promised to take care of the kids if she and Doug pass away early.
Doug and Susan have rented for most of their marriage but felt pressured to buy in 2021 when rates started rising and they found out they were going to have Charlotte. They ended up purchasing a four-bedroom two-bathroom house for $285,000 in August of 2021. They put 10% down on a 20-year fixed rate mortgage with a 4% interest rate. They wanted to get a 15-year loan, but they just couldn’t make it work in their budget. For the down payment, they took $11,000 from savings and got the rest from a 401(k) loan against the account Susan contributed to while she was working. Doug thinks they will outgrow the house eventually but wants to stay in town if they move.
Susan drives a 2010 Toyota Sienna that her parents got her when she graduated college. Doug has a 2012 Honda Accord. Susan’s Sienna has 100,000 miles on it, and she’s worried it won’t stay reliable for that much longer. Doug’s Accord has 80,000 miles, and he would like to upgrade sometime in the medium-term.
