Do you have a financial planner (or have you spoken to one before)? How'd you find one? What do they help you with? How much do they cost and was it worth it?
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Nope, but my husband is in finance.
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@Adira: Just my husband! He's pretty on top of things. If we were going to pay a financial planner, I would go with one of my best girl friend's husband, who is a FP.
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@BandDmommy: @Anagram: Lucky!! I'm the one that handles most of our bills and my husband doesn't have a clue. I'm starting to stress about two in daycare and I feel like I need some help figuring out where all our money should be going, but not sure where to look.
We have some investments with Charles Schwab, so I was thinking I might just call them, but didn't know if there are better/other ways to find financial planners.
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I am a Certified Financial Planner!
How'd you find one? I would recommend searching the NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Planners) website and CFP Board website. You want a fee-only financial planner (one who does not take commissions) as they are bound to be your fiduciary.
What do they help you with? Everything and anything! I've even helped my clients purchase cars (did the negotiations).
How much do they cost and was it worth it? It depends on the planner. We only charge for investments and all of our financial planning work is complimentary. We believe that to do a good job with investments, we need to know what your goals, etc are. We can only determine this by doing a financial plan for you. I personally believe it's worth it, but I'm a little biased
Feel free to wall me if I can answer any more questions!
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We have one thru USAA - we pay $300 a year and we meet with him every 6 months to go over our portfolios.
I don't understand finances at all and can never see myself getting to that magic 1 million dollars I need for retirement but he shows me how we will get there.
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My husband, he works in finance.
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@LBee: Thank you for those details and the places to start looking!! So helpful!! I'm curious - do you ever have clients who don't want to invest through you? How do you handle that? Or do you not consult with those types? I'm not really looking for someone to handle my money - just to give me advice on where I should be putting it, if that makes sense.
@Mamaof2: I hear you!
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@Adira: does your company offer any benefits relating to this? I know my moms company does and it's a great benefit to the employee. Susie Orman actually came and gave a seminar.
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@BandDmommy: They do... but they seem overly complicated! And I can't figure out how to include my husband's information into their software. It's aggravating. And I would LOVE to have Susie Orman come give a seminar!!
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@Adira: We don't often (I have a pretty mature practice that only takes people with a minimum amount of assets), but we do sometimes. In some cases all of their net worth will be tied up in company plans and we will just talk to them and still help out. Just because you can't be a client now doesn't mean down the road you might not be a great client.
Look for someone who will give you a free initial consultation. This is often all you really need to get started in the right direction.
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@Adira: check our Learn Vest. All they do is give advice about financial stuff
Suggested package is 5 year planning and its $50 a month but you can cancel at any time.
I listen to her show on Sirius Stars all the time - you get a dedicated planner for the entire time you work with them!
Might be perfect for you!
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@LBee: Thanks for the advice!
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@Mamaof2: Thanks! I'll check it out!
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@Adira: another idea is to go to your bank, they have financial advisors there that should be able to give free consultations.
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@Mamaof2: @Adira: I totally forgot about Learnvest! That is a great company that only hires CFP's. You can get free financial planning advice usually locally, but it's an easy solution if you don't mind paying.
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@BandDmommy: That's what I was thinking actually. We have some money in Charles Schwab and I know they have people you can talk to... just wasn't really sure they'd be the RIGHT people, you know?
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No, but both my parents are accountants, so DH and I often have them look things over for us. If we didn't have them, I could see consulting with one worth it. We move a lot, and have lived in several different states, so keeping all of our taxes, retirement accounts (every time we've moved I've gotten a new job, who has their accounts with different companies), investments, etc. organized could be a bit difficult!
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This is always on the back of my mind too! And you are right; as the kiddos come there are just so much to think about financially.
I would ask for referrals too from people you know. We have an investment account with ML (plus my IRA), but I haven't really talked to the guy about other things aside from the account since I don't think he is a financial planner...
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I had one in my early 20s and it was a very bad experience. When I met my husband he took over that account and helped me recoup some of my losses through taxes over three years.
My FP was referred by mom and was a long time friend as well. He set me up with several various stocks so i dabbled in a few industries and commodities. I felt my portfolio was diversified. The problem came when he started trading things hat a loss. He would call them "paper losses," but that's when values go down in an existing stock. These losses were real and when he bought new stocks there was less money than he started with to purchase. The FP received a commission during the trades.
My husband set up a Schwab account for what was left. All of it is tied up into one fund. The fund is diversified though and has a great track record.
I would still recommend a FP, but I would do my own research about the person and also what I want to invest in. Honestly, I should probably take an interest in our account more now, but my husband has as much to lose/ gain from that going well as I do.
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My husband!
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We have one that has been helpful in many areas. My husband's job is primarily large lump sum payments 1-2x a year so it's pretty necessary. My husband'a hobby is also researching/picking stocks, so he likes being able to buy stocks quickly through out advisor. We found ours through my husbands prior boss, but I am sure there are lots of good options. Ours charges us about 1.5% of our total assets payable in quarterly payments, which they just take automatically from our cash account.
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Yes we do, and it's been helpful for us.
I have a 9-5 job with a pretty stable income. DH is in sales, so he can have really great years, and really not so great years.In sitting down with our FP, he's helped my DH build up a savings, and make sure to put money away for taxes. For me, it's taken off immediately, i never see that money, but for commission-based individuals it's different.
We meet with him yearly, and have it set up so we can easily increase or decrease contributions to our retirement fund etc. We found him based on recommendations from a couple of friends. It also helps that our FP's wife has the same job as my DH, so he 'gets it'
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No, but I use the Fidelity retirement tools extensively.
For anyone who is interested in understanding how their portfolio *could* grow (using a range of simulated outcomes) Fidelity has some good tools.
I believe Fidelity needs you to be a customer in order to use the tools (e.g. hold some sort of account, but their basic brokerage account is free to open) but you can put in all your assets across any company (the Fidelity assets would be auto populated for you).
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Yes! Recommendation through a friend. We just signed the papers to move all our investments today. Now DH and mine will all be together.
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My dad!
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I have a financial adviser, I think that's different? I just hand money over and he helps out with picking investments, but he doesn't help out with my overall budgeting and allocation.
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