Let me be very clear about this: I am not a financial planner, certified or other. I am reasonably facile with numbers, and I enjoy the financial planning process, but I have no formal training, and will definitely never offer you any financial advice, other than this:
- Always consult with an expert before making major financial decisions;
- Don’t trust everything you read or see on the internet;
- Do your own research (this one comes from crypto, but it’s great advice for any DIY planner).
But I will write about my own financial planning process, including how I manage my investments, how I think about them, and who I watch and listen to to help me with my own planning.
This post is a fairly simple one: I’m going to share with you some of the people and resources who have helped me, with the hope that some or all of them may also help you. And the good news is that some of these people are in fact certified financial planners, so they (hopefully) actually know what they are talking about.
How do I Manage My Finances?
Fundamentally, I’m an Excel guy. I have way too many spreadsheets, tracking way too much data. I try to keep things updated, and over the years, I’ve created some fairly elaborate forms for keeping things organized. In fact, some of the sheets are so complicated that I have no idea how I created them. I’m not an Excel expert, and when I need to do something, I tend to google it, figure out a formula or set of formulas that will work for me, and slowly and painstakingly implement them. It’s not efficient, and I am confident that any true expert who looked “under the hood” of my spreadsheets would shake their head in disappointment. But they work for me, and I don’t anticipate abandoning them any time soon.
But since I started this journey in earnest a few years ago, I knew I needed to up my game. This led me to research and review several financial planning software packages to see what resonated with me, both in terms of what they can track, how they track them, how hard they are to use, and what they cost. After a month or so of research, I eventually landed on my primary software tool: Boldin. (Don’t ask me to explain the name; it was called New Retirement when I first started using it, which made a lot more sense to me.)
It’s not free, but it was robust enough for my needs and simple enough to get started. I use “Planner Plus,” which currently costs $12 per month. I was hoping to use a free program, and there are plenty of them out there, but I kept circling back to Boldin, which just resonated with me and the way I think. They have a free version and a free trial, so you may want to take a look at it if you aren’t using financial planning software and you’re managing your own finances.
I’m not going to try to put a tutorial together – even if I was qualified (I’m not) – it would take way too much time. Fortunately, one of the content creators I like has created plenty of content about it and how it works. Here’s just one video comparing Bolding to another software package, Pralana. (Note that I have never used Pralana, so I can’t offer a meaningful comparison, but Rob certainly can):
Joe Kuhn has also posted a lot of content about Boldin, and I have found many of his videos helpful. Here’s one:
I also purchased another package from Root Financial, their Retirement Planning Academy software. I did this largely because I was watching all of the content James Conole and Ari Taublieb put out, and I really like their style. If I was going to use a financial planner to manage my assets, they would be my first call. But – at least for now – I’m not willing to pay someone to manage my investments, even though there are some areas in which I absolutely could use more professional help. More on those topics in later posts.
Anyway, they have software that they use in a lot of their videos, and you can purchase it and use it yourself. I think it was around $250 as a one-time payment when I bought it, but it looks like it’s gone up to $399 as of October 2025. (I’m not sure I would have paid $399, and it’s probably overkill if you’re also going to use Boldin, but I was really struggling with some complicated concepts, so I bit the bullet and bought it.) It’s been very helpful, though if I had to choose between the Retirement Academy and Boldin, I would choose Boldin.
Who I’m Watching
Aside from my spreadsheets and software, I have consumed a lot of YouTube content the past few years, and there are some people whose content I really appreciate. I can’t list all of them here, but I will provide a sample that might point you in the right direction if you’re not watching anyone yet.
Retirement and General Financial Planning Creators
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Creators
Credit Cards and Points
Keep in mind that just because I like these creators does not mean that you will. More importantly, it doesn’t make them right. In fact, particularly in the crypto space, creators frequently disagree, and the list above is no exception. These are people with very different perspectives, and that’s part of what I like. I don’t want to get all of my information from one place, because in these areas where reasonable minds really can differ, I want to see the broad, varied perspectives, so I can (hopefully) make my own informed decisions.
I’ll have more posts on financial planning, cryptocurrency, and credit cards and points down the road. This is just a broad overview of what I’m doing and who I’m watching.
If there are others you watch and enjoy, please let me know. I’m always looking for additional, different perspectives.
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