6 Steps to Avoid Swindlers and Find a
Qualified Financial Advisor
With a little homework, you can steer clear of
swindlers and find a legitimate professional. A good planner can
devise an overall financial plan that will recommend how to
allocate assets and determine if you've got the right blend to
meet your specific retirement goals. What's more, a planner can
advise you on how to draw down funds from your accounts when
needed and handle estate-planning and tax matters. Here are six
steps toward finding a planner who is right for you.
It can be confusing knowing where to turn for help. Myriad
financial pros, all vying to manage your money, tout an alphabet
soup of credentials. "Anyone can call themselves a financial
planner or adviser,"...
A financial planner or personal
financial planner is a practicing professional who helps
people deal with various personal financial issues through
proper planning, which includes but is not limited to these
major areas: cash flow management, education planning,
retirement planning, investment planning, risk management and
insurance planning, tax planning, estate planning and business
succession planning (for business owners). The work engaged in
by this professional is commonly known as personal financial
planning. In carrying out the planning function, he is guided by
the financial planning process to create a detailed strategy
tailored to a client's specific situation, for meeting a
client's specific goals.
A financial advisor is a professional who renders
investment advice and financial planning services to individuals
and businesses. Ideally, the financial advisor helps the client
maintain the desired balance of investment income, capital
gains, and acceptable level of risk by using proper asset
allocation. Financial advisers use stocks, bonds, mutual funds,
REITS, options, futures, notes and insurance products to meet
the needs of their clients. Many financial advisers receive a
commission payment for the various financial products that they
broker, although "fee-based" planning is becoming increasingly
popular in the financial services industry.
Wikipedia
John Piper's view of
planning for retirement.
In short, don't waste your life.
This practical and comprehensive
resource is actually two books in one. Part one
covers all the basics of financial
planning--from goal setting to budget planning
to making wise investments. Part two approaches
financial planning from a unique "life event"
perspective and offers tactics for fulfilling
specific financial needs like retirement
planning, raising a family, starting a business,
maximizing job benefits, dealing with
downsizing, coping with single parenting,
personal finances, widowhood, and expanded
retirement planning. Checklists and worksheets
walk readers through the entire process.
A savings account in the local bank may have worked
for your grandparents, but you'll need much more than
that to ensure yourself and your family a solid,
comfortable financial future. Personal Financial
Planning will help you confront the numerous
financial choices open to you--and show you where to
put your money now for a comfortable and financially
secure future. With its all-encompassing treatment of
family financial matters and easy-to-reference layout,
Personal Financial Planning, Seventh Edition, will pay
for itself time and again. Authoritative,
comprehensive, and up to the minute, it is an
irreplaceable source of information for anyone
concerned with building wealth in today's no-guarantee
financial environment.
Retirement does not have to mean the end of life—in
fact it can mean a whole new beginning to the life you
never had time to explore. In How to Retire Happy,
Wild and Free, author Ernie J. Zelinksi shows that
the key to enjoying an active and satisfying
retirement is dependent on much more than just having
adequate financial resources. It means paying
attention to all aspects of life, including leisure
activities, creative pursuits, physical and mental
well-being, and solid social support. With its
friendly format, lively cartoons, and captivating
quotations, Zelinski’s guide offers inspirational
advice on how to follow your dreams instead of someone
else’s, how to put your retirement in proper
perspective, and how to enjoy life after work.
