If you feel like you're not properly prepared for retirement, either in terms of your savings or the investments that you currently hold, it's time to schedule an appointment with a fee-based financial planning professional. Though a fee-based financial planner may receive compensation for the investments or products they recommend, they're required to only suggest products that are suitable for their clients. Here are a few ways a fee-based financial planner can assist with you boosting your retirement savings.
1. Your Financial Planner Will Look at Your Whole Situation
One of the top benefits of seeing a financial planner is that they'll examine your entire financial situation before making recommendations. This means that they'll examine your retirement accounts, current and projected income, debt pay-off schedules, and property holdings. Then, your planner will listen to your goals and personal preferences before making suggestions that suit your situation.
For example, assume that you're redirecting all of your savings into your 401(k) account. While this is better than not saving at all, it does little to diversify your tax situation in retirement. When you withdraw the funds, you'll have to pay taxes on the withdrawals. Ideally, your retirement plan should incorporate some type of tax diversification.
Your planner might suggest that you diversify your savings by opening a Roth IRA (contributions are made with after-tax dollars, leaving your withdrawals tax-free) to ensure you're prepared for a number of possible tax situations in your retirement.
2. You'll Learn the Least Expensive Way to Rediversify Your Retirement Holdings
If your current retirement holdings aren't right for your needs, your financial planner will help you figure out the least expensive way to rediversify your accounts. This might include closing your existing investment account and searching for a different account with a more favorable fee structure. Or, you might simply need to sell some of your existing holdings and purchase shares with lower transaction costs.
3. Your Planner Can Help You Increase Your Financial Education
it's important to understand the actions recommended by your financial planner. Many financial planners work with their clients to boost their financial education so that they have a better understanding of their finances. You may strongly prefer to leave your financial chores to a financial planner, but you should know why your savings need to be in certain accounts or investment funds.
A good financial planner will make sure that you understand your potential investments, including the potential benefits and advantages of your alternatives.
Share6 June 2019
As I see it, one problem with most budgeting programs is that they don't account for the "real life" factor. Anyone can tell you not to spend anything and to save everything, but when it comes to feeding your kids or dealing with a medical emergency, most budgets get thrown out the window. I realized that this was a problem, so I decided to start focusing on budgeting for real life. I decided to forget everything that I knew about budgeting and started working with a clean slate. This blog is all about budgeting for real life and knowing how to spend your money the smart way.
