What a Financial Planner Should Do For You
When you are ready to get serious about your finances, it is time to get a financial planner. That is great and all, but what should a financial planner do for you?
Life is busy. It is simply amazing. The more gadgets that come out that are supposed to make our life easier, the busier we seem to get. Throw in a career and a family, and down time is sparse. This is where a good financial planner comes in.
The world of financial planning is a complex one. In this case, there are so many different strategies and financial products out there, it is difficult to know where to begin much less what exactly to do. I mean, who has time to research it all? Well, a financial planner. All this professional does all day is deal with planning, and you can use their expertise to your benefit.
A quality financial planner should do some very important things for you. Let's take a closer look.
The first service they should provide you with is objectivity. When each of us looks at our finances, we tend to place too much importance on the positives. In turn, we discount many of our problems. A financial planner should objectively review and lay out the frank facts on where you stand, potential problems and solutions. This step alone makes them worthwhile.
The second service is a symbiotic combination of two things. The planner should help you identify your financial goals and then they should provide you with strategies for meeting them. This sounds simple, but most people have no real idea of what their goals are. If you don't know your goals, how can you possible meet them?
Identifying your financial goals is a critical step, but not the only one. Once the goals are clear, a quality financial planner is going to gently force you to prioritize them. Yes, everyone wants to buy a boat at some point. If you have kids, however, the planner might suggest that saving up for the $100,000 to $150,000 cost of sending them to college might be a better priority.
If you are married, a financial planner may be needed to bring an objective voice to the financial planning process. You and your spouse may have very different ideas about the goals you should have and how to prioritize them. A planner is often critical to getting both spouses to agree to a particular plan. Alternatively, the financial planner can come up with a unique approach that makes everyone happy. This is almost always a more successful approach than just letting the spouses battle it out.
At the end of the day, a good financial planner should be like a family friend. They should help you get organized on your finances in such a way that you can both identify and realize your ultimate goals.
Life is busy. It is simply amazing. The more gadgets that come out that are supposed to make our life easier, the busier we seem to get. Throw in a career and a family, and down time is sparse. This is where a good financial planner comes in.
The world of financial planning is a complex one. In this case, there are so many different strategies and financial products out there, it is difficult to know where to begin much less what exactly to do. I mean, who has time to research it all? Well, a financial planner. All this professional does all day is deal with planning, and you can use their expertise to your benefit.
A quality financial planner should do some very important things for you. Let's take a closer look.
The first service they should provide you with is objectivity. When each of us looks at our finances, we tend to place too much importance on the positives. In turn, we discount many of our problems. A financial planner should objectively review and lay out the frank facts on where you stand, potential problems and solutions. This step alone makes them worthwhile.
The second service is a symbiotic combination of two things. The planner should help you identify your financial goals and then they should provide you with strategies for meeting them. This sounds simple, but most people have no real idea of what their goals are. If you don't know your goals, how can you possible meet them?
Identifying your financial goals is a critical step, but not the only one. Once the goals are clear, a quality financial planner is going to gently force you to prioritize them. Yes, everyone wants to buy a boat at some point. If you have kids, however, the planner might suggest that saving up for the $100,000 to $150,000 cost of sending them to college might be a better priority.
If you are married, a financial planner may be needed to bring an objective voice to the financial planning process. You and your spouse may have very different ideas about the goals you should have and how to prioritize them. A planner is often critical to getting both spouses to agree to a particular plan. Alternatively, the financial planner can come up with a unique approach that makes everyone happy. This is almost always a more successful approach than just letting the spouses battle it out.
At the end of the day, a good financial planner should be like a family friend. They should help you get organized on your finances in such a way that you can both identify and realize your ultimate goals.
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