It hit me pretty quickly when my work place's financial rep for retirement plans came that we need to develop a more serious financial plan sooner rather than later. The overall goal remains the same but I think it's time to make it a little more complicated and formulate some real, tangible goals. So naturally I talked to my sister about it - she is totally obsessed with financial planning these days so I knew she'd have some resources. Here are some things I'm thinking about now that I'm on the prowl for a financial adviser:
1. Creating an actual, numerical, goal for retirement - putting a dollar amount on what I want out of retirement will make it more likely that I will actually achieve it.
A report by HSBC said, Americans with a financial plan have accumulated on average $127,000 in retirement savings vs. $56,000 for the average U.S. household. Non-planners have an average of around $23,000 saved.
Almost 44% of those without a plan associate retirement with financial hardship, while this number is only 19% for those with a plan.
2. I've got a lot of questions to ask because anyone can become a financial planner and some of them just want to sell me stuff. Here's a GREAT read about the top 10 questions you should ask when interviewing financial planners. They include:
- How are you compensated?
- How do you communicate with clients and what can we receive from you?
- Do you have experience working with clients similar to me?
- Who will I be dealing with?
- What credentials do you hold?
Interviewing financial planners seems daunting but I know it's a smart choice for us because we have a lot of questions. Should we be investing money on our own or putting a lot into our 403b? What percent of our income should we put towards debt v. savings? If we want to buy a house, what's a reasonable mortgage?
Got any tips for the search?
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