Yesterday!  If you do not have a Financial Advisor, you need one immediately.  Often people believe they need to “sort things out” before hiring a Financial Advisor.  If you find yourself asking, when do I need a Financial Advisor, you are already behind the eight ball.

Do you believe you must have a lot of money to need a financial advisor? This is something that I have not been able to comprehend.  How are you supposed to make smart financial decisions and build your net worth without a Financial Advisor’s guidance? The small exception to this rule is the tiny percentage of people who have been educated in the school of finance or grown up around saving and investing all their lives.

Moving on for the rest of us.  Many of us are massively successful at creating a hefty income.  Most individuals who know how to make money, unfortunately, are very good at spending it as well.  Why else do we work so hard if we don’t want to play hard and live richly with our incomes?  Hiring a Financial Advisor can benefit you greatly, and in more ways than you might think.

Financial Advisors can holistically examine your financial life and help you create a customized plan to ensure that your decisions are in line with your life goals.  What should my Financial Advisor do?

• Help you understand what you value and why you work
• Provide objective opinions to your financial decisions
• Hold you accountable for what you say you want to achieve
• Guide you and monitor your behavior around your investments during tough times
• Prevent you from losing money to bad products or get rich quick schemes
• Benchmark your balance sheet and keep you amongst the top earners and net worth
• Help you understand the importance of tax minimization and after-tax returns
• Build certainty around your family’s life goals and mission statement
• Provide the exact dollars you need to save on a monthly basis to achieve all your life goals
• Create, Execute and Monitor a cost-efficient investment portfolio that aligns with your timeline
• Manage and Protect your Legacy

The real question becomes, which Financial Advisor do I hire based on my income or net worth?  With the abundance of financial advisors available to you, find a person or the technology that can work with your personal situation.  If you make under $100,000 or have less than $50,000 in the bank, your choices become more difficult.  I believe you are better served using the technology we have available to us.  Wealthfront and Betterment provide very strong guidance for this demographic.  The alternatives for this group will end up being a life insurance agent posing as a financial planner and you will likely be sold a product.  The reason why this happens is that you do not have enough assets to be worth their time for their asset management fee, but you make just enough income to “Buy” something.  You could also fall prey to a credit union advisor or an independent broker-dealer rep that will sell you anything under the sun to make a commission.  Moral of the story here is to do your research and ask a lot of questions.

Do you think that because you contribute to your 401k everything will work out in the end? Here are some examples based on life events when you will need a Financial Advisor.

• New babies – Are you talking to your CPA about new tax write-offs? College Savings Plans?
• Job Changes – Do you rollover your 401k or leave it at your old employer? Stock options?
• Inheritances – What is the best thing to do with sudden lump sum money?
• Divorce – Did you manage the household finances? Do you need to live differently?
• Sudden Income Growth – Are you falling prey to lifestyle creep?

Lastly, think about how much money we pay all our life for insurance.  Life insurance, health insurance, home/auto insurance – all to protect various assets.  Shouldn’t you pay a Financial Advisor as an insurance policy to make sure you are on the right track to accomplish all your goals? Remember – you need a financial advisor, like yesterday.  Stay tuned and follow us @lifemanaged_ for more goodies.

*Athanassios Panagiotakopoulos is an Investment Advisor Representative with Dynamic Wealth Advisors dba Life Managed. All investment advisory services are offered through Dynamic Wealth Advisors.