Joe Martin, FBS®

Q & A

• What does “living your best Bay Area Life” mean to you?

  It means taking advantage of and sharing it all with family and friends. One of my favorite activities is playing tour-guide when family or childhood friends come to visit because I’m reminded (as if this is necessary) that we actually get to live in a place that is a Destination (with a capital “D”); a place that people around the world want to visit. I love to drive my guests around to all the sites in San Francisco, enjoy crab cioppino at the Crab House on Pier 39, cruise across the Golden Gate Bridge and take a hike in Muir Woods… then cruise up to Napa and Sonoma for some wine tasting the next day and then circle back to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay Aquarium on days three and four. You really need more days, but living my best Bay Area life means packing it all in… and doing it over and over.

• Discuss a solution you provided for a client that you’re extremely proud of.

  We went through a financial planning exercise with a long-time client which provided him: 1) with the freedom and peace of mind he needed to leave a position he held at a local tech firm which he no longer enjoyed, but earned $1M/year for a position he is loving despite his income being more than halved along 2) with the confidence he and his wife could still stop working when they wanted to (for traveling) plus cover college expenses for their three daughters and care for their elderly parents to the extent they may need it. This is just one client, but what I’m really extremely proud of is the opportunity we get every day to help our clients reach their goals and achieve new heights – whatever they may uniquely be for them individually.

• If you volunteer for a charity, which one(s) and why?

  Erika, Alex, Dominic and I volunteer with LifeMoves, an organization whose “mission is to provide interim housing and supportive services for homeless families and individuals to rapidly return to stable housing and achieve long-term self-sufficiency.” We appreciate that LifeMoves creates opportunities to volunteer as a family helping other families in need get back on their feet when they’ve been adversely impacted by difficult situations. Our family recognizes how blessed we are and how important it is to share our fortune with others, and the fact is we receive as much by volunteering with LifeMoves as we give.