Have a financial advisor

“My husband and I are high earners, but not wealthy. So it was reassuring to hear the CFP in our meeting say she believes everyone could benefit from a financial advisor. We wouldn’t have to meet an asset requirement to work with her. Still, our CFP acknowledged that working with a financial advisor is “a luxury expense,” and some people would rather not spend the money on one. While we decided to hold off on planning for now, I’m still glad we had this experience. Meeting with an advisor helped me realize that even though we have financial goals, we haven’t been checking our progress toward them as often as we should. It was a good reminder that we’ve had our finances on autopilot for a long time. We need to take a closer look at our income, expenses and investments. One thing I’m confident in: this won’t be the last time I work with a financial advisor.”

“The VERY BEST financial advice I got was from a CPA who I had hired to straighten out my union's books. I paid him to sit down with me, go over my investments. The advice he gave me wasn't buy this and buy that. It was, if you buy this, put it in your IRA. If you buy that, put it in your taxable account. I followed his advice for 30 years. Then when retirement came I sat down with him again. This time he gave me a blueprint for which assets to use when, which to let grow, how to avoid paying taxes, legally on most of it. If there were such a thing as a financial advisor, I would use their services. But those Unicorns are extremely hard to find. I always recommend that people sit down with a financial advisor just because the exercise is useful and a learning experience. A good one will have you list all your assets and liabilities and just doing that is helpful. Just NEVER let them manage your investments.”