Many people fall into the trap of thinking that financial planners and financial advisors are exclusively for the meg rich and the world’s biggest companies but this simply is not the case. I used to think like this before I ran into a family friend Patrick Dwyer Merrill Lynch financial advisor who spoke to me at length about the benefits that a financial advisor could have on the finances of myself an my family.
I decided to take him at his word and the following week I contacted a local advisor to see how they might be able to help us out. I was originally worried about the cost of paying for a finance advisor but these concerns were soon allayed once she got started. If you are wondering how a financial advisor can help your family, here are just some of the things that they can do for you.
Review and Renegotiate
Many of us our paying way too much for our service providers around the home as well as being on a mortgage which no longer suits our needs. The first thing that our advisor did was a comprehensive review of our bills and our providers and instantly set about getting us better deals and, more importantly, better prices on the things that we were paying for around the house. Most of us don’t question things like this and a financial advisor can help you save money fast through this method.
Savings Plan
I always tried to save as much money as possible but I never considered putting that money to work for my by placing it into savings accounts that would reward me. My financial advisor not only help me to set up some better accounts for saving my money and for my 401K but she also helped me to put together a more sensible savings plan than I previously had.
Investing
I had always wanted to start investing some of my money one day but in truth I had no idea how to go about it. My financial advisor brought me a wide variety of options as to where I could invest my money and gave me some smart advice as to how much I should be looking to invest and where I should invest it. I didn’t buy up thousands of dollars worth of shares or invest heavily in real estate, but with some smart moves I was able to spread my money across a number of valuable assets.
Spending
A financial advisor will not judge you for how you spend your own money but they will help you to review what you spend and where you spend it and encourage you to make more sensible choices. Just speaking about my spending caused me to sit up and take notice of where my money was going and ever since then I have become a great deal more frugal than I was in the past.