Here’s Why I Don’t Need a Financial Advisor

I had a couple of millennials on my team during my Manager/Leader years, and they are a completely different than my generation in the best possible way. The speed and efficiency with which the millennials can process complex technical information that boggles my mind. They are blank slates and their brains are like sponges that absorb all kinds of information and stimuli. We all have to be conscious to filter a few things that we say and do just a little bit, as most of us have twenty-plus years of experience and these folks have just three. They do take things at face value and yet don’t have the experience to read between the lines or learn how to filter some of the chatter that goes on. I’m happy to report, that this has not changed from the time some of us were twenty-somethings ourselves. I’ll leave working and training millennials alone for the moment as I’m still trying to develop best practices without sounding like a parent. There are exceptions though, and one of those topics that are covered in the theme of this blog.

Recently, one of them mentioned that they need to learn more about finances and would like to find a financial advisor. One of the caveats of being at the Director/VP level is that it’s an HR No-No to offer financial advice to direct reports. I can only suggest that they do their homework and use the online resources at their disposal.  Most people don’t even look at their own 401k service provider which has basic, (not FIRE) tools.
So before considering a financial advisor, you will need to do some homework. Track your spending, add up your assets/debts and determine your net worth. You will also need to decide what your priorities are. One can easily do that for free without paying someone to do that for you. You’ll need to do this before selecting investment options with the advisor anyway.
The FIRE blogging community has helped bring people with shared values together and share best practices for any reader or fellow blogger to benefit. It doesn’t matter what age or demographic you fall into, everyone can learn and implement personal finance and how it can be applied to your own life story using resources online.

Airport time allows me the opportunity to choose my form of entertainment, reading a book or catching up on email. Waiting around the airport gets distracting, especially when I am playing the delay game or trying to get on an earlier flight. For me, reading does not work as my mind is tied up on calculating the options. Kind of like playing chess, where you have to anticipate several moves ahead, while the opponent is doing the same. At the airport, the opponent, at times is ATC messing with flight schedules. While I was waiting, I found another blog that has a running series of Podcasts.  At the time of this writing, they are up to forty-six episodes.  That’s a sh@$t load of great information in one easy-to-access spot.  ChooseFI.com is run by two entertaining bloggers who put together a highly entertaining blog on personal finance that adds value to the listener as well as other bloggers that they interview and showcase. After running through the podcasts, you will be better prepared to decide why you do or why you don’t need a financial advisor.

This Week’s Bottom Line: If you decide you don’t have time to read blogs, head to ChooseFI. com podcasts. Gym time, travel time, and windshield time are opportune times to sharpen your saw and learn personal finance by listening, without all that pesky reading.

I started with episode 021, The Pillars of FI.  which got me interested to listen to more of them. Start with this one, which is an executive summary of FI. Start today, experience is standing by.

As always, comments are appreciated.

Author: Francis

Started out in science and somehow ended up in sales & marketing. Grew into a results oriented sales professional with extensive experience selling and positioning scientific solutions in the pharma/biotech, life sciences and medical diagnostics markets. In 1998 I created an excel sheet to track spending and cash flow to learn personal finance on my own. They don't teach this in school and by the time one figures it out, most of let all these resources slip through our fingers. It's time to pay it forward to this next gen so that they can shave 15-20 years off for working for "the man" with insights, a library of tools, and motivation from me and plenty of other FI bloggers that I follow.

4 thoughts on “Here’s Why I Don’t Need a Financial Advisor”

  1. Thanks for checking in on the blog.
    The ChooseFI podcasts is an excellent source of information that can actually be applied to your own personal life and finance.

  2. Thank you Francis. I absolutely love podcasts. I have downloaded episode 21 and look forward to listening.

    Celeste

  3. Thanks for your comment and the future share. Coming across your podcasts were very timely as I was trying to convey an entertaining message on this topic.

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