“I dislike all this money talk. It isn’t refined.” – Meg, to her sisters, in the film Little Women

The workshop is now full. If you’d like to be added to the waitlist and/or the mailing list to be notified about future workshops, fill out this form.

Investing and Retirement Planning Workshop: Spring 2026
For Writers, Artists, and Other Creative Types

If you identify with any of the following statements, this workshop might be for you:

  • I don’t know if I’m saving enough for retirement, and it’s stressing me out.

  • I ran a retirement calculator and it told me to save an impossible amount of money. Now what?

  • I invested my money in a target date fund, but I don’t really understand what’s in the fund and whether I’m doing it right.

  • I’m nervous about investing in the stock market.

  • My parent/sibling/friend/coworker told me I should do XYZ, but I don’t know if I should take their advice.

  • I desperately need motivation to get my finances in order.

  • I want to pursue a big passion project/go on a creative sabbatical/pivot to a new career/take time off for caregiving, but I’m worried that the temporary drop in income will throw me off track for retirement savings.

  • My spouse/financial advisor handles all our investment decisions, and I want to understand what they’re doing.

Many writers, artists, and other creative types don’t feel confident in their investing skills and retirement planning projections. Why? No one taught us how to do it, it’s considered impolite to talk about it, and the industry is bound up in silly, unnecessarily complicated jargon.

What we’ll cover: In this workshop, we’ll break down the following topics with simple language and concrete examples.

Investing

  • Investing 101: Stocks, bonds, returns, indexes, and mutual funds

  • The “small” fees that can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars (that’s not a typo)

  • Your biggest decisions: Risk tolerance and asset allocation

  • Choosing the target date fund that’s right for you, not just the default

  • Retirement accounts galore, including SEP IRA vs solo 401(k), the secret spousal IRA, and the Roth-ification of everything

  • Nuts and bolts: Brokerages, fund providers, and DIY portfolios

Retirement planning

  • How to calculate your nest egg target: Your two most important numbers

  • Whether (and how much) to count on Social Security

  • There’s no way I can save that much, now what?

  • Pitfalls of retirement calculators

  • How to find a trustworthy financial advisor

You can read a more detailed syllabus here.

What you’ll leave with: Participants will be given homework to get a handle on their finances and retirement plan. You’ll come up with:

  • An estimate of your target nest egg and how much to save per year to reach that target

  • An estimate of how much you spend each year

  • A plan for how much you need to increase your income and/or cut expenses to meet those annual savings goals

  • An estimate of your Social Security benefits (accounting for possible benefit cuts)

  • An understanding of your risk tolerance and appropriate asset allocation (% stocks/% bonds)

  • A big-picture view of your overall finances, including assets, debt, taxes, and investments

I’ll assign people to small groups to provide accountability and motivation. There will be three assignments, and each will likely take a couple of hours (but possibly more, depending on the complexity of your finances). The homework is for your eyes only; I won’t be reviewing it, and no one is expected to share numbers or private data with the class. However, we may discuss the assignments in a general way and questions/issues that arise.

Extras: You’ll receive a packet of resources, including “money snapshot” and retirement planning spreadsheet templates, asset allocation guidance, sample lists of funds, calculators, and further resources/readings on the topics above, as well as on long-term care, annuities, reverse mortgages, taxes, saving for college, and general personal finance.

When: The workshop will have four sessions:

Thursday, March 12 from 1-3pm PDT/4-6pm EDT
Thursday, March 19 from 1-3pm PDT/4-6pm EDT
Thursday, March 26 from 1-3pm PDT/4-6pm EDT
Thursday, April 2 from 1-2pm PDT/4-5pm EDT

The first three sessions will have 1.5 hours of instruction and 30 minutes of small group discussion and/or virtual coworking on homework assignments. The fourth session is a shorter “office hours” session where I’ll answer any final questions that come up from the last assignment.

Where: Zoom. (Please note that I do ask participants to keep their cameras on if possible. I like to connect with the people I’m teaching, and that’s hard to do when I can’t see them.) The sessions will not be recorded.

Who: For writers, artists, and other creative professionals, including freelancers and employees at organizations. The group will be limited to 12 people.

Testimonials: Here are a few from past participants. More are listed toward the bottom of the page.

“Roberta's workshop was a fantastic overview of the many important financial topics we freelancers need to stay on top of. This is not someone reading from a script about basic finances; this is insightful and compassionate nerdery about how those of us with variable incomes can assess whether we're on track with our financial goals — and if we're not, how we can get there in a thoughtful and workable manner.” — Alexandra Witze, freelance science journalist

“Roberta Kwok is exactly the kind of reassuring, knowledgeable guide you want leading you through the maze of retirement planning, especially if you are a creative professional. Roberta's vast research and science writing background make her uniquely positioned to translate technical material to a layperson with humor and warmth. She is never condescending or confusing, and her only agenda is to support her clients in financial literacy and mindful retirement planning.” — Megan Savage, writer and educator

"This was supremely useful. I came away from this feeling more prepared and less freaked out than I thought I would. It's empowering to have that new knowledge, but beyond that, to know where to look for additional next steps now that I know I have a handle on the basics. I’m blown away by how much time and expertise you put into creating these resources — I know I will be coming back to them in the future!" — Jane Hu, freelance science journalist

"This was so amazing! I so appreciate the way you've organized all this incredibly useful info. I loved your dynamic, genuine, and funny delivery, and your approach was very reassuring too. I feel much less nervous about digging deeper into the morass of retirement planning now!" — Deirdre Lockwood, poet, fiction writer, and journalist

“Roberta did an incredible job making an overwhelming amount of anxiety-producing information accessible and provided very practical tools to help me make a better, actionable plan.” — Freelance journalist

Instructor bio: Roberta Kwok is a freelance writer who regularly covers investing, economics, and finance for publications at the Yale School of Management and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She has written stories about topics such as margin trading, private equity, meme stocks, Federal Reserve policy, ESG investing, financial crises, market volatility, debt relief, antitrust rules, bankruptcy systems, and corporate loans. Roberta is also a science journalist who has contributed to NewYorker.com, NYTimes.com, Nature, Hakai, Audubon, U.S. News & World Report, and many other publications. Her nonfiction book LOST IN CURIOSITY: Field Notes From Scientists’ Adventures into the Unknown, funded partly by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Program, will be published by Sourcebooks in July 2026. Roberta holds a B.Sc. in biology from Stanford University, an M.F.A. in creative writing (fiction) from Indiana University Bloomington, and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently teaching her 11-year-old daughter how to invest.

Why I teach: Although I'm a writer, I’ve always liked math and am by nature a type A planner with a deep love of spreadsheets. After many years of covering finance, I’ve become the type of person who enjoys spending my evenings learning about topics like exchange-traded funds and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. At some point I realized that although this knowledge was readily available to anyone who wanted to read about it, most people probably didn’t, and I could help my fellow creatives — that’s you.

Cost: In order to make the course more accessible, I charge on a sliding scale. However, because income is only one factor in each person’s financial situation (among many others such as cost of living in their area, number of dependents, health care expenses, and so on), I use qualitative rather than quantitative criteria.

Tier 1 is the true cost of the class; Tiers 2 and 3 are discounted. In the descriptions below, the term “discretionary expenses” refers to nice-to-haves such as eating out, vacations, new clothes, cultural events, technology, leisure activities/hobbies, and kids’ extracurricular activities. “Basic needs” refers to expenses such as groceries, housing, transportation, and health care.

Tier 1: $350. For people who can comfortably afford to pay for discretionary expenses on a regular basis.

Tier 2: $210. For people who must adhere, by necessity, to a tight budget for discretionary expenses.

Tier 3: $70. For people who spend nearly all their income on basic needs and have very little money remaining for discretionary expenses. Limited to 2 slots.

Tier 4 (Pay It Forward): $420. For people who can afford to contribute more and want to offer additional support. The extra payment helps keep this endeavor sustainable for me and allows me to continue offering the class to people in Tiers 2 and 3.

The sliding scale is based on trust and an honest assessment of where you are financially. But please don’t agonize over which category you belong to; your initial gut feeling is probably correct. (For those hyper-conscientious people who are still stressed out about choosing the “right” tier, feel free to use this quantitative method to determine your tier instead.)*

Payment plans are available; you can split the fee into 3 monthly installments.

As a business based in Washington state, I’m required to charge state and local sales tax to customers who also live in Washington. The total sales tax can range from 6.5% to 10.6% depending on the customer’s location.

* My approach, and some of the language used above, is drawn from Alexis Cunningfolk’s thoughtful guide “The Sliding Scale: A Tool of Economic Justice.”

Registration: Fill out this form to sign up. If the class is full, I’ll add your name to a waitlist and notify you if a space opens up.

Refund policy: If you cancel your registration at least 2 weeks before the workshop begins, you’ll receive a full refund. Less than 2 weeks before the workshop begins, I can no longer give refunds.

Absence policy: In order to keep the sessions more relaxed and allow people to feel comfortable asking questions, I don’t record the sessions. If you have to miss a session due to illness, emergency, or some other unexpected conflict, please contact other participants in the workshop to ask if you can borrow their notes.

What we won’t cover: I can’t give legal advice, tax advice, or financial advice about your individual situation; I can only teach general principles. Many other personal finance issues will be outside the scope of the workshop — for example, paying off debt, buying a home, credit scores, taxes, insurance, saving for college, supporting aging parents, and estate planning. While we may touch briefly on some of these topics as part of our discussion, the focus will be on investing and retirement planning. Also, the workshop will cover saving for retirement, but we generally won’t cover what to do during retirement, which can involve some very complex decisions.

The official disclaimer: This workshop is for educational purposes only. It doesn’t create an advisory, fiduciary, or professional services relationship, and it’s not a replacement for getting personalized advice from a certified financial planner, certified public accountant, or lawyer.

Questions? Email me at robertakwok (at) gmail (dot) com.

More Testimonials

“Roberta's course gives you everything you need and more to make important decisions about your retirement savings. Her thorough research and deep financial knowledge really come through in the talks, and she has answers to pretty much any money question you can think of, from basic to niche.” — Rachel Tompa, freelance science writer and editor

"Roberta's webinar is invaluable for anyone who, like me, has been embarrassingly naïve about planning for retirement. She broke down complex concepts with clarity and practicality. I now feel far more empowered to take control of my finances and my future." — Lynne Peeples, author and journalist

“Roberta's workshop was incredibly helpful, especially as someone is a complete novice to all things finances! She did a great job outlining the nuts and bolts in a way that doesn't feel patronizing. I now feel much more equipped to navigate the confusing mess of investing and planning for retirement.” — Freelance journalist

"There are always a million tasks that seem more pressing (and exciting) than retirement planning. But Roberta helped me break down the top ways I could be doing it better right now. I used the whole experience to light a fire under me." — Ashley Braun, freelance science and environmental journalist

“On nearly every topic, there was an aspect or nuance which deepened my understanding. I learned a lot and made some immediate financial moves of benefit.” — David, author and artist

“This workshop is a great primer on how to think about money and retirement. Roberta makes things easy to follow and not too intimidating.” — Christie, freelance writer

FAQs

Do you have any formal certifications?

No, I’m not a certified financial planner (CFP), certified public accountant (CPA), or registered investment advisor (RIA). I’m just a massive personal finance nerd who likes helping other people understand money.

Do you earn commissions?

I don’t sell investing or insurance products, and I don’t earn any commissions. I’m not affiliated with any banks, brokerages, or other financial institutions. I also don’t actively manage investments.

How are your services different from a certified financial planner (CFP)’s services?

I see myself as an educator who acts as a bridge to a CFP. I particularly want to help early- to mid-career workers get on the right saving and investing trajectory; at this critical stage, compounding returns can still make a tremendous difference to their future financial security.

If you're looking for help with the following areas, I would recommend hiring a CFP and/or CPA:

  • A thorough, holistic assessment of your entire financial situation, including areas such as paying off debt, buying a home, credit scores, taxes, life/disability/umbrella insurance, saving for college, supporting aging parents, and estate planning

  • Help with tax planning issues such as tax loss harvesting, Roth conversions, and managing taxable vs tax-deferred vs tax-free accounts

  • Advice on more complex retirement decisions, such as when to claim Social Security, whether to purchase an annuity (and what type), how to plan for long-term care, how to navigate Medicare, whether to consider a reverse mortgage, and flexible withdrawal strategies to mitigate sequence of returns risk while optimizing your standard of living

What is your teaching based on? Where do you get your information?

I read books by a wide variety of experts from different fields, synthesize their knowledge, and land on reasonable, middle-ground strategies. These include books by:

Couldn't I learn all this stuff on my own then?

Yes, you absolutely can! I’d suggest reading books by the authors listed above, most of which should be available from public libraries. I also like the podcasts MoneyWatch and Jill on Money with CFPs Jill Schlesinger and Mark Talercio.

What’s your personal investment strategy?

I prefer a portfolio of low-cost index funds that is simple to understand and maintain. I don’t buy stock in individual companies, I don’t try to time the market, and I hold investments for the long term. During market downturns, I continue buying stocks in line with my planned asset allocation, ignore the news, and wait for the recovery.

I make a moderate effort to be smart about tax efficiency (that is, placing assets that are likely to be taxed more heavily in tax-advantaged rather than taxable accounts). However, I don’t tie myself in knots to minimize taxes because I find that this leads to situations where, for instance, I’m spending precious free time on a weekend poring over bond fund yields instead of living my real life. It’s at moments like these that I go back to my mantra for investment: simple to understand, simple to maintain.

Writing

Here are examples of articles I’ve written for the Yale School of Management and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Investing

Economics

Labor

Image credit: ArisSu