Who We Are
Our Story
The Coleridge Group is a financial life planning company that believes everyone is entitled to professional financial planning and investment management services. We employ a life-centered approach to financial planning that encourages you to live intentionally today while planning for tomorrow’s hopes and dreams. Our personalized discovery process involves getting to know you first and helping you discover your true self. Our goal is to help you create a vision of your best life and confidently achieve it.
Our mission is to empower you to maximize your resources to live a meaningful, purposeful life. Your life, not your money, is our focal point.
How I Started
Namaste, I’m Francisco! I’m originally from a border-town in northern Mexico called Agua Prieta (look it up!) where my family owned a bakery. That’s where my love-affair with numbers (and pastries) began. I never learned to bake, but I was fascinated with the money side of the business. I knew at a very young age that finance was my calling.
Like many, my relationship to money had been a roller coaster. Early in my career, I couldn’t make enough of it. I was making a fantastic income but still managing to spend most of it. This led to a cycle of endless consumerism and constant comparison. It was soul-draining and only led to short-lived happiness. Then, as a real estate investor, I very quickly lost it all and then some in the Great Recession. I was forced into bankruptcy. It led to a period of regret, depression and second-guessing everything. I suddenly viewed money as a source of corruption and greed and I didn’t want anything to do with it.
It wasn’t until a long period of self-reflection (lot’s of meditation and yoga) and discovering my personal values that I discovered what role I wanted money to play in my life. I realized that money was just one tool (one of many and definitely not the most important one) that I could intentionally use to live the life that made me truly happy. I also realized that most of my happiness lies outside of things that money can buy: my health, my family and friends and the beauty that nature provides. With this newfound perspective, I began aligning my money with my values and living a more minimalist life focused on worthwhile experiences and the wellbeing of others. I finally found financial peace. Now I am motivated to help others align their money with their values.
The Professional Me
My educational and professional career has taken me across all aspects of finance, business and investments. I have a degree in Finance from the University of Arizona, an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, and the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) certification. Yes, I love learning and personal finance is my passion. I have worked in financial services for more than 20 years and have experience in banking, lending, investments and personal finance.
When I had the opportunity to lead The Coleridge Group, an independent, flat-fee, fee-only firm that’s been around since 1974, I jumped at the chance. There is nothing more rewarding than using my experience to help clients achieve their dreams, without any other hidden agenda. No products to sell, no commission targets to achieve, no assets to gather. Just unbiased advice to help our clients lead fulfilling lives. In my opinion, this is only possible because we have no other incentive than to provide the very best service to the families we serve.
I am part of organizations that align with “real” financial planning like the CFP Board®, the CFA Society of Phoenix, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), XY Planning Network, Fee-Only Network and Phoenix Fee Only. I also volunteer with Junior Achievement of Arizona and the SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game essay competition to provide financial literacy to school-aged children.
The Me Outside of Work
I live in Phoenix with my wife, Daniela, and two children, Penelope and Emilio. We love traveling and have committed to visiting a new country each summer. We’re looking forward to taking a yearlong sabbatical in a few years to travel to southeast Asia (birthplace of yoga and meditation) to learn new perspectives. We also enjoy hiking, the beach, riding our bikes, doing puzzles and having family movie nights.
On a more personal note, I love everything about mindfulness. Learning about my true self and being able to increasingly live in the present has been life-changing for me. It’s given me the opportunity to live a more joyful life and with fewer regrets. Where I travel, what I buy, what I experience: it’s all based on the values I cherish. I keep reinforcing mindfulness with daily meditation, daily-ish yoga and devouring books and podcasts on the subject. Minimalism, altruism, environmentalism, and social-consciousness all flow naturally from this. In my experience, when the ego is softened, your focus turns outward. It is these ideals that I love to bring into financial life planning.
A few of my favorites:
Places Traveled (so far): Machu Picchu (spirituality and nature at its finest) and Buenos Aires (amazing food, culture and architecture).
Food: Indian (Dahl Makhani is my favorite dish)
Beer: IPA (right now it’s Fateful IPA from Fate Brewing, a local Phoenix-area brewery)
Movie: Rocky (the original has little to do with boxing and more about believing in yourself)
Book on Finance: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel (“Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave.”)
Book on Mindfulness: The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer (I finally realized that the voice in my head is not me)
Meditation App: Waking Up (It takes on a more philosophical approach to meditation and taught me how to soften the ego)
Show: Seinfeld and Frontline (Yin and Yang)