Helping you live the best life possible with the money you have!
February 2020 Financial Focus
Dear Readers:

It's the calm before the storm... the breath before the plunge... the tranquility before chaos...

...the week before tax season!

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes
Some of you have already brought in all of your tax documents. For the rest of us lesser mortals, Anabel has prepared a tax organizer to get started. If you're having us do your taxes, you should have gotten yours by now in your email; let us know if you didn't and we'll send it out again.

Whenever you get your nerve up to start doing taxes, here are some options, ranked in descending order by preference:
  • Upload all your tax documents to Sharefile and email us once it's all in there.
  • Bring in a folder with all of your tax documents for us to scan. Easy peasy!
  • Upload all your tax documents to Sharefile without emailing us once it's all in there. 
  • Upload half your documents to Sharefile and then wait until we finish your return before telling us that oops, there are more things you need to upload.
  • Stagger into the office with a giant cardboard box carrying everything you think might be tax-related, throw it on Moana's desk, and run away shrieking.
Any of these options is fine, according to Chris. The one option that is NOT okay:
  • Wait until April 14th, then show up on Chris's doorstep with an itemized list of deductions handwritten on a cocktail napkin.
Fun Articles on the Web

Here are a few interesting articles we've shared on social media in the past month. Are you Facebook friends with us yet? No? Well, now's your chance to make us Facebook Official - you can like our page here. We only share fun stuff. And stuff about taxes. Which are fun to some people, okay? Don't judge us!

Dos and Don’ts of Spending Wisely in Retirement
Knowing how to spend your retirement money is often harder and more confusing than knowing how to save it. At Natural Bridges, we talk about retirement being made up of the "Go-Go" years, the "Slow-Go" years, and the "No-Go" years. In the first part of retirement, it's important to spend consciously on the things that you really value. 

New Trend: Grandparents Vacationing With Grandchildren
With so many grandparents living hundreds of miles from their grandchildren, some are turning to a fun way to bridge the distance: vacationing together. 

How Pottering About in the Garden Creates a Time Warp
Gardeners know that being outside with your plants makes time seem to fly by. But there's a reason that gardening is so engaging, and it's related to the psychological concept of "flow" - being so absorbed in an activity that you don't notice anything else.

Modesty Means More, Not Less 
For the philosophically inclined, this essay discusses the virtues of modesty. Is being modest about not knowing - or admitting - just how good you really are? "This view of modesty makes it, at bottom, about the deep sense that not everything that happens is about you." At Natural Bridges, we know exactly how awesome we are, which makes us terribly immodest.

Natural Bridges Blog Posts

Morning Commute from Felton to Santa Cruz
Dilettante photographer Moana drives down the 9 and occasionally takes pretty pictures. 

How To Get Your Adult Children to Stop Relying on You Financially
Chris may have some personal light to shed on this as well if you ask him. I'm still trying to get my three-year-old to stop relying on me to put on her pants in the morning.

Have You Gone Solar Yet? 
Four questions to decide whether it makes sense for you.
Moana is also now a dilettante pianist.
Natural Bridges Personal Updates
Moana got a piano! She also took a calligraphy class with Carolyn Fitz, who is fantastic. It's also the Chinese Year of the Rat, which is her year (born in 1984). So far, 2020 is a great year. Even if her husband insists on only playing variations of the Sesame Street "Rubber Ducky" song, which no piano deserves.

Anabel got bit by a horse! She was trying to feed it grain and the horse “just wanted more” so he tried to eat her hand. “It’s just a little bite.” What the heck! Apparently they do this “all the time.” Another reminder that horses, not sharks, are the most dangerous animal to watch out for.

Anabel's perils continued when she went to the firehouse to donate blood...

Anabel: "It was my first time donating, and I was so excited. The lady came over and poked me and yelled 'I need an adjustment over here!' So I thought it’s okay, people make mistakes in poking. Another person came over and poked me again and said that I had to keep squeezing the ball so that there wasn’t a clot, so I freaked out because I hadn’t been squeezing it because it hurt, so I started squeezing it a lot. And then they came back over a few minutes later and poked me again and then air got into the tubing so they had to stop the flow... So I only donated half a bag. But they had cookies and I got a free T-shirt.”

Chris: “Well now you know how voodoo dolls feel.”

Chris went to the AICPA conference in Austin this month. The most interesting part was his visit to the Lyndon B.Johnson presidential museum. "LBJ had the hardest job as a president. He started Medicare, which was super controversial, as was all of his work on civil rights." He was the last US president who didn't seek re-election. Chris also went on a riverboat cruise on Lady Bird Lake, and all he would say about that was "it was 40 degrees out."  

We hope you're having a wonderful February! Please make sure to email us when all of your tax stuff is uploaded!

Much love,
Moana & the Natural Bridges Financial Advisors Team
831-421-0700
P.S. If you know anyone who wants to know more about taxes, or retirement planning, or how dangerous horses are, please feel free to forward them this newsletter. 
Natural Bridges Financial Advisors, LLC provides fee-only fiduciary financial planning without product sales. The Natural Bridges Financial Advisors, LLC newsletter is published using copyrighted material with permission from the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners. 

Contact Information:
(831)421-0700
info@naturalbridgesfa.com
www.naturalbridgesfa.com

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