What are the benefits of hiring a financial advisor? For starters, getting your finances in order has the potential to significantly improve your overall quality of life. Structured finances can also help you feel more stable, secure, and prosperous.
Unfortunately, most Americans don’t receive a crash course in personal finance before adulthood. Often, you’re forced to learn the ins and outs of fiscal responsibility through ups and downs and various turns of fortune.
If you’re like many people, there’s much you don’t know about finance — how to prioritize debts, what investments are most strategic, and how to budget effectively for your financial goals. Fortunately, consulting a financial advisor can prevent you from having to attend a crash course in finance from the school of hard knocks.
Added Benefits of a CFP® Professional
A CFP® professional is a financial professional with special education and training. To earn a CFP® professional designation, you must possess a bachelor’s degree, rack up 4,000 to 6,000 hours of on-the-job experience, pass a difficult exam, and adhere to strict regulations. Because of this extensive training and the fact that CFP® professionals are fiduciaries—meaning they’re legally required to act in their client’s best interests—working with a financial advisor who holds a CFP® professional designation can offer many distinct advantages.
Financial Advisors Can Help You Create Goals
Everyone has financial goals. Maybe yours is to be able to afford a vacation every year, or perhaps it’s to retire before age 50. Whatever your motivations, a financial advisor can help you formalize your goals and create pathways to reach them. A skilled advisor will analyze your income and spending habits, so you can determine how much money per month you can put toward your fiscal goals.
Financial Advisors Can Help You Strategize a Plan
While determination and willpower are essential when working toward a goal, a solid plan will help hold you accountable. Financial advisors often have a lot of professional experience under their belts when it comes to creating customized financial roadmaps.
What Exactly Is a Financial Plan?
A financial plan looks different from person to person. Still, at its core, it’s a document that lays out your financial situation and long-term goals with strategies on how to meet them.
Let’s start with a simple example: Imagine your goal is to have $1,000 in savings within one year. When you sit down with your financial advisor to discuss your savings goal, you’ll start with an inventory of your current financial situation.
You’ll look at your income and spending, current debts, monthly/quarterly/annual payments, and where there may be wiggle room in your monthly budget.
Your financial advisor will then help you create a plan to help you achieve realistic goals within a realistic timeframe. It’s not a vague, generalized plan like you might find online but one customized with your needs and preferences in mind. If the goal doesn’t seem feasible, your advisor may make recommendations on steps you can take to make it possible.
Financial Advisors Offer Accountability
Lastly, financial advisors offer accountability by helping you implement your plan while monitoring your progress. Accountability increases the likelihood that you’ll reach your goals because it requires your financial professional to track your progress and keep you focused on achieving your goals. In this way, a financial advisor can also serve as a coach, teammate, and cheerleader, all rolled into one. Depending on your relationship with your financial advisor, you may meet monthly to evaluate the previous month’s progress and identify areas where you could buckle down.
Discover the Good Life
As proud CFP® professionals affiliated with the Financial Planning Association, our team at Good Life Mt. Pleasant is happy to sit down and answer your questions on a complimentary discovery call. This meeting is a no-obligation consultation where we will discuss your current life circumstances, financial situation, and long-term money goals. It is also an opportunity for you to learn more about us and determine whether you feel comfortable moving forward with our team of financial professionals.
If you’re ready to discover the Good Life, contact us today to schedule your free discovery call.
The opinions voiced are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.