S1 and DIL need financial advice. Not investment advice, although that would be welcome also, but more like how to budget, whether they should pay off a car loan with a lump sum or keep that money in their savings, how much house they can afford to buy, should they open a savings account for their new baby, and so forth. The only CFP I’ve been able to find for them was recommended by my guy at Schwab and seems totally focused on handling their investments, not the other things. I know there are organizations of CFPs but that feels very random and risky to me.
Ideas? TIA.
That is just math. Why can’t they figure this out? Send them over to bogleheads.
You do not need a CFP or spend money to hire one. An accountant with some experience can do a budget. CFP normally look at bigger pictures, that is what they are paid for, not to plan day to day budgets.
Perhaps I misspoke. It is the bigger picture they want.
Should we buy a house now? How much of a down payment should we have before we do? Should we pay off that car loan, since we can, or keep paying it? Should we fund a 529 for our child? How much? How much should we be saving in our retirement plans vs in our savings accounts?
Here is a directory of fee only financial planners https://garrettplanningnetwork.com/
We found our financial planner because she was often quoted in newspaper articles on personal finance. Local papers have pared back that type of content though. As mentioned above, posting each question on the Bogleheads forum will usually yield some excellent replies. In addition to laypeople, professional advisors also participate in the forum.
Suggest you go to Kiplinger dot com and search “finding a financial planner.” See if you like any of the articles it brings back.
It’s also possible there are local seminars at community colleges, for example, that might help with some of the decisions they are facing.
General questions- sure online group chats are fine. Like web md. But for very specific and integrated planning it makes sense to look for resources on the CFP Board website.
Fee only has a few different forms. If you want integrated advice and specific guidance, by some one who actually passed a board exam on the topics, it’s where I would start. But based on your needs, only engage a planner who charges by the hour or a flat fee. If it’s not investment management then steer away from fee only as percentage of assets. Nothing wrong with either.
Some CFP professionals focus more on specific investment outcomes i.e. retirement, college savings and others on the written plan. This can include modeling and specific scenario analysis. And make sure it includes on going review of how things are looking for you. A plan not implemented is simply an expensive new year’s resolution.
Make sure you get a detailed engagement outline upfront. It’s the baseline these days. You’ll get exactly what you expect.
Save more. Spend less. Reduce debt.
But there are ways to prioritize and create paths for you. And someone to keep you on track.
Anyone can go to a gym and some prefer a personal trainer for best results. To each his or her own.
Good luck.
https://adviceonlyfinancial.com/
This site is run by a fellow who will (for a $200 fee) find 3 advisors in your area who are “advice only” financial planners. I believe he’s a Boglehead poster.
Here are a couple of Boglehead threads that may also help.
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=285735
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=285203
IMHO
You can have planners all you want, but at the end is the risk you are willing to take and the luck you have.
For example, who can invision Amazon, at the lowest of its time, went down to nothing and the price it has now.
I had the chance to buy Ebay at 25c/share when I met Jeff at thier garage, who knows they will become the leader of the online auction house?
^ With all do respect, that has virtually nothing to do with planning and everything to do with gambling / betting (which I’m not opposed to buy the way - with a small portion of one’s portfolio).
The role of a planner is to turn fear and confusion into confidence and clarity. To bring predictability and long term successful tools into the conversation in order to create proper financial habits or behavior (like spend less than you make, invest for long term, asset allocation per risk tolerance, etc.) Someone mentioned it’s just math. Math is a big part of it but it’s more the crossroads between math and the human element / behavior. A good planner is like a financial psychologist; really getting to understand the individual (big picture and narrow goal) and helping them help themselves.
A financial planner recently told me something like the following:
It’s true that professional financial people don’t generally beat the market. However, it’s also true that people without professional planners generally earn less of a return than those who have their money managed. Reason is human behavior.
^Very true and more importantly, financial planning is about far more than market returns. It’s about planning for life events and protecting against certain risks (known and unknown). Financial planning does not equal money management. Although a good financial planner should be able to manage money either directly or via a subadvisor.