The reasons for choosing someone to formulate and execute a financial plan to help work toward a dream will vary from one person to another as much as the dreams themselves. Whether you lack the time, the expertise, or the stomach for worry to create your own financial plan, a professional should be able to provide valuable assistance. 

 

Choosing a financial adviser is intensely personal.   You will reveal information to your advisor that you would reveal to very few others, and you will give that person an extraordinary responsibility for helping you work toward your dream. Beyond the empirical or factual evidence of a financial advisor’s ability to meet your needs, you have to trust that person and place your confidence in him or her. All facts being equal, trust your intuition. If you actually like the person and enjoy your interaction with him or her, the process of working toward your dream will be much more enjoyable, and never forget that enjoying life is the ultimate purpose of money. 

 

Whether you use a financial advisor or create your one plan without expert assistance, always remember that you are in control of your money. Someone else may sweat the details, someone else may take the worry of day-to-day money management off your shoulders, but you are the CEO of your money. When you hear or read advice from any source about how to create wealth, think carefully about what you’re hearing or reading and whether it applies to you and your situation. A lot of conventional wisdom does not apply to you, whether you hear it from your friends, your relatives, or your financial advisor. 

 

A good financial advisor can add value in many ways:

·        Creating additional investable capital. Many consumers have inefficient strategies in place. A good planner can suggest strategies that can free up more investable capital without detracting from one’s lifestyle. 

·        Being objective. Many otherwise intelligent people can have a hard time being objective about their own personal finances. 

·        Identifying goals. A good planner can help clarify a vision of one’s future.

·        Saving Time.  Many people are so busy with the day-to-day demands of work and family that they want to delegate responsibility for their money.

·        Worrying about your money for you. Most people realize they don’t have the desire, time or aptitude to manage their own money efficiently. Therefore, they worry about it. I tell clients that it’s my job to worry for them, and if they are still worrying after I’m on board, maybe they should hire someone else.