Friday, October 21, 2011

A Word About the Financial Planner Dude

I know I've mentioned him here before and how I've known him for a long time though I only recently started using him professionally. You might be asking, "What are you doing spending what little money you have on this dude?" Well, I questioned that myself a time or two. That is, until I actually started meeting with him.

It goes beyond him giving me such "advice" as "Don't spend. Save." Sure, that's part of it, but it's only a small part. He's helping me consider my psychological and emotional relationship with money. Why I panic when it comes time to spend money. The other thing is accountability. Much like this blog was when I was $20K+ in debt, having him gives me someone to answer to.

Mind you, he's also been helpful. He helped me redistribute my retirement fund through work, which has saved me a fair amount of money given the swings in the market. I've now also got a Roth IRA. And he's helping me see the bigger picture (and relax about it) instead of obsessing about the short term.

Despite all that, though, I debated about paying for another year. Now that I've got things in place, I wondered if I needed it. But since I have literally no one else in my life who knows a thing about money, I figured I'd at least do his minimum service -- basically I pay half his full rate and have fewer visits during the year. But given the low complexity of my financial situation, that shouldn't be a problem.

So when I went in yesterday, I had prepared myself for him to persuade me to do at least another year at the full rate. But no. In fact, he didn't even discuss that issue until the very end, and when it did come up, he reminded me that I was absolutely under no obligation. I told him that I understood that. And then I told him that given how simple my situation is, and considering the amount of money I'm dealing with (very little, I'm sure, compared with what he's used to working with), that maybe the minimum service would be better.

Which, he said, was exactly what he was going to recommend, and for those same reasons. It made me feel good knowing that he wasn't trying to take advantage of me and it just confirmed that he has my best financial interests in mind. And it feels good having someone with his knowledge on my side, especially as I get older and my needs change.






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