How to Think Like a Financial Planner with Cristina Livadary and Stephanie Bucko

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In this episode of Weird Finance, host Paco de Leon, along with Stephanie Bucko and Cristina Livadary from Mana Financial Life Design (@manafld), dive into the essentials of thinking like a financial planner. They discuss targeting clients with growth mindsets, particularly those in helping professions and the sandwich generation. Stephanie explains the trade-offs for business owners aiming to keep taxes low versus paying more into Social Security and retirement plans. Christina shares insights on mastering personal finance and emphasizes the importance of understanding financial numbers. 

Cristina is a Certified Financial Planner® and Registered Life Planner®. Before Mana, she led sales and consulting efforts as a Regional Director with Russell Investments, where she consulted for and worked with over 10,000 financial advisors. After years of experience in the industry she grew dissatisfied with the wide disparities in knowledge, empathy, and skill within the advisor population. Cristina is a Bucknell University graduate, with a BA in Political Science and Spanish. She launched Mana with Stephanie in 2018 based on the belief that even greater success can be achieved by solving issues holistically - with individuals and their families. Since founding Mana, Cristina has been recognized for her accomplishments within the industry by leading organizations such as Investment News’ 40 under 40 in 2020 and Investopedia’s Top 100 Advisors in 2023. Cristina is living her own life plan, working in her dream career as a business owner and a financial life planner who does everything in her power to positively impact the lives of her clients. When she’s not hard at work, you can find Cristina in the great outdoors. She is passionate about surfing and adventuring around the world with her family and friends.

Stephanie is a Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst®. She graduated from Bucknell University with a BSBA in Accounting. Following her undergraduate education, she audited hedge funds in New York City with PricewaterhouseCoopers during the 2008 financial crisis, and then joined Man Group, the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund. At Man Group she served as a risk manager for six years, handling $15 billion in hedge funds. After years of serving banks, pensions and endowments, Stephanie became interested in bringing institutional quality services to a broader population. In 2018, Stephanie launched Mana with Cristina out of the realization that investment management is only a small piece of the services that individuals truly need in a financial advisor. Since founding Mana, Stephanie has been recognized for her accomplishments within the industry by leading organizations such as Investopedia’s Top 100 Advisors of 2023. She is also a regular contributor to MyStockOptions.com, the financial advice industry’s premier site for equity compensation. When Stephanie isn't educating herself on the markets or building complex spreadsheets, you can find her outside. Her favorite days are spent on the ski slopes, riding horses, and bird watching.

A special thanks to the talented and generous Ramsey Yount for producing, editing, and sound designing this episode. 

The theme music was written and performed by Andrew Parker, Jenna Parker, and Paco de Leon.

If you’d like to contact us about the show or ask Paco a question about finances, call our hotline at 1-833-ASK-PACO, email us at weirdfinancepod (at) gmail.com or submit your questions here. We’d also love your listener feedback about the show; here’s a short survey.