Cheryl A. Costa, MBA, CFP®
Founding Principal
Cheryl is the Founding Principal of Woodside Wealth Management LLC. She began her career in financial planning and investment management in the late ‘90s after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and working as an engineer for the MITRE Corporation. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Boston University and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™.
Cheryl has almost two decades of experience advising clients in all areas of wealth management. Areas of particular interest to her include taxes, portfolio design, and saving for college. Cheryl’s specialty is helping clients in their 40s and 50s save for retirement and helping retired clients map out a supportable spending plan that assures income is available for a retirement that may span many decades.
Cheryl is committed to the fee-only comprehensive planning model and has been a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) since 2002. She served on the Northeast Region Board of NAPFA from 2005-2010 holding the positions of Membership Director, Region President and Region Chair. In 2015, Cheryl completed a three-year term on NAPFA’s National Board where she chaired the organization’s Women’s Initiative (WI). Cheryl has been a member of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) for over 15 years and served on the Board of the FPA of Massachusetts from 2011 through 2012. Cheryl completed a four-year term as a member of the CFP® Board’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission in 2018 and was also selected to be a CFP® Board Ambassador for the state of Massachusetts.
Cheryl’s financial planning and investment management expertise is widely recognized. She was named one of the “Top 50 Women in Wealth Management” by Wealth Manager Magazine and she wrote “Managing Your Money”, a personal finance blog for the Boston Globe for several years. She has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Money Magazine, US News and World Report, the Boston Globe, Investment News and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. Cheryl is also a regular contributor to the Boston Globe’s “Money Makeover” series and she has been interviewed on Boston’s NPR station.
Before founding Woodside Wealth Management, Cheryl was a Principal of Forteris Wealth Management and a Shareholder and Principal Advisor with Family Financial Architects.