hiring financial advice/coach?

[PancakeGoddess]

I think we are finally at the point where we can afford to hire some help with how to manage our money. I feel really confused about our options wrt savings/investments and whether we can afford some bigger expenses like additions on our house.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to hire a coach or advisor for general financial guidance?

[rainyday]

Ask around to people you know. We found our advisor through some friends. If you have friends that are happy with theirs, ask some questions about what types of services their financial person provides. Some are really brokers and make their money on trades, and some are just advisors who charge a fee for advising you about types of investments, etc. The brokers can be useful; if you have a good one, they might be able to get a better return on your investments than you could on your own. We went with an advisor because we wanted someone to look at the bigger picture and tell us about paying off the mortgage early, life insurance, college savings, etc.

When you think you've got the name of someone who sounds good, call that person's office and ask them to send some information about their services. Then, if that looks like what you want, you can make an appointment with them.

[kijip]

Get someone who is paid a fee and is not a commission based salesperson. You don't want your advisor selling to you or pitching to you based on thier own self interest.

http://www.cfp.net/search/

[velochic]

I'll ditto the previous poster. FTR, I have been manging our sizable portfolio for a while and at one point, to see if we were on track, we hired a fee-only adviser (these guys are called CERTIFIED financial planners, but you need to make sure they're fee-only).

We had him complete an analysis for us and it cost $750 for that one-time service. He did not give us specific funds to purchase or sell from our portfolio. It was strictly asset allocation.

We had considered having him manage our money, but a few things did not sit well with me. First of all, we had to give up 100% control to him (no way, Jose!!) and secondly, his fees were quite high (1%) and we weren't willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars when I already felt comfortable doing what we were doing, and finally, mutual funds already have managers.

You didn't mention where you have your money invested (or where you plan to), but you might look into getting some advice from the mutual fund company where you are planning to invest. We have Vanguard funds and they provide us with free financial management. We don't always take their advice, but it's nice to get feedback.

The best thing to do is to shop around, ask lots of questions (and take a list of questions so you don't forget) and find someone you're comfortable with. Even better, read some books so you totally understand exactly what they are talking about. You don't want them throwing around terms like REITs and commodities and 12-1b fees and not understand it. And in the process of becoming more educated, you may even find that you feel comfortable doing it yourself by the end of the process. Here are my book recommendations:

Investing for Dummies, Eric Tyson
Mutual Funds for Dummies, Eric Tyson
A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Malkiel
John Bogle on Mutual Funds, John Bogle
Bogglehead's Guide to Mutual Funds, Taylor Larimore, et. al (and this guy also hangs out on the Vanguard Diehard's forum on Morningstar.com and will answer your questions personally)