FDS Newsletter: Third Quarter, 2025

by Financial Design Studio, Inc. / September 10, 2025

Each quarter, we share our most recent or most timely content to keep you informed . . . at your leisure. You shouldn’t have to stay up late searching for answers or tracking the latest financial changes—that’s our job. This quarterly newsletter is one more way we help you, our clients, stay confident in your financial plan without adding extra work to your plate.

Scroll to the bottom (or click here!) to download the full PDF that we mail to our clients.

A Note from Michelle:

“This summer for vacation we decided to try something different: camping. We ambitiously decided to complete the Lake Michigan Circle Tour. We pulled a camper and stayed at six different campgrounds. We would all do it again, so I’d say it was a success!

After this trip I have so many more questions for all of you who camp. At each campground there were large, beautiful RVs and then others who opted for a tent. With such a variety I couldn’t help but imagine what each person or family was doing and how often they camp.

As we traveled along I was trying to describe our trip. I struggle calling it a vacation because that implies it was restful and relaxing. There were certainly times where it was, but camping is also a lot of work so I think it’s better called an adventure.

The overarching thought I’ve processed is that when you’re going to a place like Florida or Hawaii, those places are the destination. But when you’re camping the whole journey, and everywhere you stay, is the destination.

Being a financial advisor this is the perfect metaphor I could come up with to describe your financial journey. Getting to retirement, sending your kids off to college or buying your house is not the destination, rather, the whole journey to and through these is.

I hope you’ve been able to have a summer adventure of some kind, whether that was vacation with friends or family, or maybe your kids trying a new sport or hobby! We try to live out the same advice of living life to the fullest, too. I can’t wait to hear more about your adventures as we meet this fall!”

— Michelle Smalenberger, CFP® and CEO