A woman asked me last week for my reasons why she should hire me and I told her that I didn’t think that she should. What was missing was her reason for why she was meeting with me in the first place. I didn’t think it was justifiable to lead her toward an engagement without her being the driver as to why she needed it.
I go to my physical therapist instead of using webmd.com because I want my shoulder fixed when it is injured. I use my CPA instead of filing my own taxes because I want my returns to be accurate. We cannot be experts at everything and for the most important things in my life I am happy to place much of the work in the hands of an expert whom I trust. But, I am not vague in why I am using them as my expert.
I go to my physical therapist instead of using webmd.com because I want my shoulder fixed when it is injured. I use my CPA instead of filing my own taxes because I want my returns to be accurate. We cannot be experts at everything and for the most important things in my life I am happy to place much of the work in the hands of an expert whom I trust. But, I am not vague in why I am using them as my expert.
The woman I met with last week told me only that she wanted to be sure she was “headed in the right direction”. When I asked her where she wanted to go she wasn’t able to answer. It isn’t necessary to have the answers as that’s the reason why experts exist in the first place, but it is necessary to have the questions.
So be intentional with why you’ll be hiring a financial planner. I advocate intentional living many times in this blog and it should be no different when deciding whether or not to use a financial advisor.
I think these are good reasons to consider hiring a financial advisor:
- We want help creating a plan to reduce our debt and increase our savings in order for us to be able to afford to pay for our kids’ college.
- We would like to retire from our current jobs at 65 and start an online distributorship for local farmers and we need a plan for how to get there.
- We want help figuring out how to be less concerned about the fluctuations in our investment savings accounts as we age and become less tolerant of risk.
- We want to downsize our financial commitments and move downtown to a condo, so we need a plan for how to do that.
I think these are not good reasons to consider hiring a financial advisor:
- We want someone to tell us if we’re doing the right things.
- We want our investments to do better.
- We want someone to watch our backs financially.
- We need to save for retirement.
Be more protective, possessive, and demanding of what is important to you. Give specific reasons why you are hiring someone and I’m guessing you’ll get better advice and a much more valuable relationship.
