A Letter from Michelle

Dear friends,

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just go for it: I’ve decided to move away from investment management and financial planning work entirely by the end of the year, which means shutting down Young & Scrappy as we know it. More specifically, this includes: offboarding all current planning and advisory clients, cancelling all relevant software, and rescinding my firm’s registration with FINRA and the SEC. My last day as a financial planner and investment manager will be December 31, 2025.

I took Young & Scrappy fully independent in January 2020, right before the world shut down for COVID, and for the last nearly-six years, this business has been my baby. Through this work, I’ve had the honor to help hundreds of clients sort through tricky financial decisions, manage their assets, and generally be on call as they navigate life’s twists and turns. In turn, many clients morphed into friends, colleagues, thought partners, and joyful co-conspirators. Opening this business to do this fascinating work, on behalf of such incredibly kind and badass clients, has been one of the best choices I’ve ever made for myself.

As so many of us know, the world is changing, and I have certainly changed with it (and been changed by it) over the years. Even so, I’m sure that clients and friends in the industry may have questions about this seemingly sudden exit. Please know that my decision to move away from the financial planning and advisory space is not one I take lightly, so I wanted to provide below some context and reasoning behind the transition.

Reason #1: My values have shifted.

One of the challenges of growing a Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm is that you have to balance keeping the lights on with how many people you can successfully serve. Take on too many clients, and nobody gets good service; too few, and the firm becomes unsustainable. The way most owners get around this is by raising prices. Comprehensive financial planning and asset management is, after all, a discretionary service, and the more money/complexity clients have, the more value they often get out of the process.

I’ve had to raise prices over the years, and while I stand by the value of my work, I’ve unfortunately had to price myself out of serving the folks who need support the very most. In this strange global and political climate, this no longer feels like a joyful decision for me. I love my clients, but I want to put my time and energy back towards supporting marginalized communities. I want to help more people at a lower price tag and provide values-aligned coaching, financial education, and accountability to those who otherwise can’t afford it.

Reason #2: My interests have shifted.

This is a theme that I’ve danced around and then got more open about in the last couple years. As I began to think more deeply about WHY our financial systems and economy are structured as they are, I wanted to free up time for researching, writing, and teaching about major financial and economic issues.

To try and support this work, I hired an awesome back-end admin firm to handle as much investment minutia as possible, hired my amazing colleague Oriana to help support our ongoing planning clients, and hired my virtual assistant Lindsey to help with process documentation and my own administrative load… and yet, even after all these efforts, the complexity and emotional involvement needed to do this work well was draining me. As a result, I still never found time to move towards the research, writing, speaking, and educating I now feel so excited by.

Reason #3: I don’t want to be a Chief Compliance Officer.

This industry is highly regulated—and rightfully so; the decisions we make as financial planners have a massive impact on our clients’ financial and personal lives. We are legally required to archive emails, monitor social posts, recordkeep everything, and maintain meticulous notes about client interactions. This kind of thing is far from my forte, but I’ve always figured the compliance headache was worth it for the sake of the business.

Recently, however, I had a big revelation that even if I “waved my magical fairy wand” and my team immediately took over all planning client work, I’d still be left with 25-30% of my time spent on compliance work, business oversight, and generally being the Chief Compliance Officer. If I’m the firm owner but doing zero planning/investing work, I’ve outsourced the part I like… only to keep the part I legitimately hate on my plate. Not ideal.

Reason #4: I need to rest. 

Some of you might know that I’ve had too much on my plate for far too long, and I’ll be honest that I haven’t felt properly relaxed and “caught up” since I started this business six years ago. Throughout this period, I’ve witnessed a number of life transitions: I was a caretaker for an ex through their cancer journey, we went through a life changing breakup and shift in our family structure, I married my husband, bought our dream house, experienced some health challenges of my own earlier this year, and now am supporting my parents through their aging journey. With so much still on my plate, shutting down this business feels like one of the most aligned ways I can free up my time shorten my to-do list.

Reason #5: Financial planning is hard when you have ADHD.

Not to TMI y’all, but I’ve spent the last couple years learning about and making peace with my neurodivergence. I’ve developed much better coping mechanisms (and medication has helped immensely!), but the fact remains that I get easily distracted, and I’m not always great at responding to requests and emails in a timely manner.

Financial planning is extremely detail-oriented work, that often produces best results through methodical, repetitive engagement, and I’m learning that that’s simply a weakness of mine. I adore my clients, I love holding space for their dreams and fears, and I can make a pretty kickass financial strategy… but the consistency and proactiveness it takes to run this type of business without burning out is NOT something I have.

Reason #6: I’m tired of delaying Radical Wealth Collective.

Back in late summer 2024, I dreamed up a membership-based group coaching program, one where folks could come together, learn about money in a safe space, and truly align their financial strategy with their progressive values. This program, which I decided to call Radical Wealth Collective, was originally set to launch in January 2025, but my aforementioned health issues, time management struggles, and some family support needs kept popping up.

This entire year has felt like one big treadmill, where I keep running and running and yet still don’t have the time or energy freed up to launch this project that I care so deeply about. Life is all about tradeoffs, and I’m no longer willing to delay this work for a business that no longer fits my values, interests, capacity, and neurotype.

Again, I know that this is a BIG decision (and this is a correspondingly long explanation!), but I want to be clear that I have never felt so grounded and peaceful about this transition. While I get these bursts of anxiety on occasion, I’m more excited when I think about what this means for my workload, my schedule, my to-do list, and my creative process. It feels like a sigh of relief to release this part of my work, confident that the knowledge and skills I’ve gained along the way will support a new wave of folks in the next iteration of my journey.

The bottom line is this: I lecture my clients all the time about living lives of joy, meaning, and alignment. Who would I be if I ignored all these reasons and signs myself?

If you’re a client reading this, know that it’s been truly an honor to work with you over the years, and I hope our paths cross again. If you’re an industry colleague, I hope this is a wakeup call for you to seek alignment in your own career path and do whatever hard thing you know is right. And finally, if you’re seeing this because you were thinking of hiring Young & Scrappy for financial planning, I hope that you find an incredible fit elsewhere (holler at me if you need a rec–I know a ton of baddies in this field!)

I love you all, and hope to see you around the Collective someday.

Abundantly yours,

Michelle Waymire