Speaker Biography

Margaret Gooley is a planner at heart and is passionate about making complex financial topics easy to understand. She started in the industry in 2007, just before the market crash and the Great Recession. At this time, she was working as a licensed stockbroker, taking inbound phone calls from clients of a large brokerage firm, and was not allowed to provide investment advice. Call after call, she heard from people panicking that they’d lost everything. At this exact same time, her father had been given an opportunity to retire early, and he and her mother were in the process of selling their family home and moving to Florida. Neither of her parents were panicked about what was happening in the stock market because they had a plan. The contrast between these two situations made her want to know more about how she could be on the calm end of the spectrum when it came to her own financial future. Getting into financial services at this time gave her a unique perspective on planning for the best and the worst financial situations, and she enjoys having the opportunity to help people figure out the best path for their unique journey toward financial freedom.

Margaret is a strong believer that knowledge is powerful and that making informed decisions is necessary for long-term success. She is dedicated to helping others work toward financial independence and aims to empower clients and audiences alike with the tools and knowledge they need to meet their goals.

Margaret is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner, a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® professional, a member of the Financial Planning Association, and a graduate of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business with a degree in Business Administration. She has worked with clients in all stages of their financial lives, helping them plan for their future and make sound investment decisions.

Speech Topics

Financial Planning Basics – We all have to start somewhere, and this presentation is all about the foundations of personal financial planning. Margaret will lay out the basics of a comprehensive financial plan and give tips and tricks to help with beginning your own personal financial plan.

Early to Mid-Career Planning – When you are early to mid-career, you will likely face a different set of financial planning challenges than those closer to retirement. In this workshop, Margaret focuses on how to balance paying off debt, saving for retirement, saving for college, and how to make sure your family is taken care of if something happens to you. She will help you focus on addressing these items so you can position yourself for a brighter future.

Pre-Retiree Planning – From mid-career to pre-retiree stage, retirement is finally on the horizon, where it was likely just a distant thought before. Since it’s getting more real now, Margaret will help educate the audience on things they need to know to take the next steps toward the career finish line like investing, making sure you have enough saved, tax consequences of withdrawals in retirement, Social Security, and considering long-term care insurance. Being prepared for the next stage of life is crucial and this presentation provides insight into taking that next step with confidence.

Retirement Planning – Getting to the finish line is exciting for most but can be intimidating for others who are not really sure they are fully ready. In this workshop, we will dig into the tactics of building a solid retirement plan and cover topics like cash flow planning and strategies to make your assets last your lifetime.

Understanding Insurance – Insurance is something most of us don’t learn about in school, but it’s a necessary component of a sound financial plan. In this presentation, Margaret will cover the major types of personal and group insurance plans from the perspective of a financial planner. We do not sell insurance products, so the information here is intended as educational so that attendees can make informed decisions.

Estate Planning – In this workshop, Margaret provides an introduction to essential estate planning documents every adult needs. While she is not an attorney, she can provide guidance and suggestions for the various estate planning documents and tools that come in handy when constructing a comprehensive financial plan.

Employee Benefits – Each year, we all have some choices to make about our employee benefits. In this workshop, Margaret will discuss common employee benefits and educate the audience so they can be intentional in the choices they are making at their next open enrollment period.

Investments – Getting started with investing can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In this workshop, Margaret will cover the basics of various different types of investments, investment accounts, and tax consequences related to investment behaviors.

Women and Finances – Women often face a unique set of challenges related to financial planning. Decisions related to time away from the workforce, saving adequately for retirement, investing, and Social Security claiming strategies can all affect long-term results. In this workshop, Margaret will cover what women need to know, so they can make confident, informed decisions about their financial future.

Fees

• No booking fee for virtual (webinar) or in-person events

Travel

• Travels from Indiana

• Travel expenses reimbursed