FAQ

Yes! Ruby Pebble Financial Planning® and its associates owe our clients a fiduciary duty to give you prudent advice that puts your interests ahead of our own.

In our name, Ruby represents the shiny ideas and dreams in your life that prompt you to reach out to a financial planner, while Pebble represents how important all sizes of the pieces in your financial planning are, gathered together to see the whole picture.

These words also have personal meaning to Jamie as they use a software tool they wrote in the programming language Ruby to manage parts of their own personal finances. Pebbling is an important part of preparing the curling ice for play.

Ruby Pebble Financial Planning is a fee-only firm, which means we only get paid by the fees you pay us directly, not by selling any products or making any referrals to other providers. There are no asset minimums for our investment management services, nor is it required that we manage your assets.

Your fee is estimated based on expected time involved, at our hourly rate of $350 per hour. The fee will shift over time based on how much you need us. Other than for initial financial plans, there are no time minimums, however, we do our best work when we can be proactive with your financial planning, rather than reactive.

We will start (together!) by understanding your goals and taking stock of where your finances are today, looking at the entirety of your financial life: your income, expenses, savings, debt, investments, retirement accounts, real estate and housing, education funding, employee benefits, taxes, insurance, and more. Here you will find a safe space to:

• Ask essential questions about your goals
• Align your finances and life plan 
• Feel the freedom to live the life you want 
• Find an approach to finances that fits your needs 
• Enjoy a positive financial planning experience, so you continue to seek, learn, and grow your wealth
• Receive expert guidance with no requirement to move your investment accounts
• Make your dreams a reality, in some cases beyond what you thought possible

Keeping your data safe and secure is our top priority. All Ruby Pebble Financial Planning employees avoid sending sensitive information in emails and encourage clients to similarly refrain. We believe that using an online portal to transmit and receive sensitive information and documents is more secure than email.

We operate almost exclusively with web-based software. We use dual-factor authentication when available and select app-based over SMS-based when available and review this annually. We use strong passwords for all applications, including our encrypted firm hardware.

To read more about the security policies of our providers, please see the detail provided in the links below:

• • 1Password (password security)
  • Altruist (investment management)
  • Calendly (scheduling)
  • DocuSign (electronic signature)
  • Google Workspace (calendar, file storage, email)
  • Harvest (invoicing and time tracking)
  • Holistiplan (tax planning)
  • Jotform (encrypted questionnaires)
  • Mailchimp (email newsletter)
  • QuickBooks Online (bookkeeping)
  • RightCapital (financial planning)
  • Wealthbox (client relationship management)
  • Zoom (meetings and phone)

Our investment recommendations are not tied to a particular custodian or products- we work with you to find the choices that work best for you. We aim to develop close, long-term relationships with a limited number of clients and have built our services with you, our client, in mind.

We believe in holding a diversified portfolio of low-cost, broad market based index funds encompassing stocks and bonds from the whole world, instead of trying to pick the next hot stock.

Wherever possible, we choose investments with no transaction fees at your custodian.

We will integrate existing holdings of individual stocks, but will not recommend you buy individual stocks.

If impact investing is important to you, we will provide you with investing recommendations that minimize exposure to the gun and prison industries. 

Depending on your preference, we can either provide recommendations for you to manage your investments on your own, implement via screen sharing, or Ruby Pebble can manage your investment accounts for you with our partner Altruist.

That’s up to you! We work with your preferred communication method. Our default is email and scheduled Zoom calls. We can use phone calls or Google Meet if you prefer, depending on the topic of the meeting, and SMS. For reminders, we offer both email and SMS options.

Nope! We believe that everyone can benefit from financial planning and our pricing is not related to how much money you have.

Jamie is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and has been working in financial planning since 2020. They previously worked at a fee-only RIA in Seattle, WA.

Most likely! We are built as a virtual firm from the ground up and can work with people who reside in the United States. Please be sure to indicate your state of residence when scheduling a call.