Free – a word that attracts everyone. And when it comes to financial advice, the word ‘FREE’ has done more damage than even big stock market crashes.
I know this sounds odd but I am not lying.
The free financial plan, free financial advice or free investment advice isn’t actually free.
It always has to be paid.
Either in the form of the hidden commissions MF agents get & which reduces investor returns. Or it may be in the form of poor returns from wrong products sold by the insurance agents and insurance-selling uncles. And then, there are those friendly (or rather irritating) bank Relationship Managers, who call or show up every few months and try to sell you something or the other. Read this to know why you shouldn’t listen to bank RMs.
So my first small piece of advice is to stop looking for the free financial plan. Because if you do, you will end up in the hands of above-mentioned people who will mis-sell you something immediately!
To be honest, handling your personal finances isn’t very tough. Have a look at this 209 Word Financial Plan. You will realize it’s not that difficult.
But the problem is that many know what is the right thing to do. But still, very few do what’s right for them. And for one reason or the other, they keep making financial mistakes which stops them from growing wealthy in real sense.
This is where a good financial planner can help.
He will charge you a fee no doubt.
And in your interest, its best to find a planner who does charge fee as that way, you can be sure that he is not giving you biased advice to sell commission-earning financial products. So find yourself a Fee Only SEBI Registered Financial Planner.
How does this work?
It works on the simple yet powerful principle of Goal-based investing. Here is Super-detailed Guide on Goal-based Investing.
Instead of simply selling random financial products, a good financial planner will put your financial goals at the centre of the planning process. And once your goals are identified and prioritized (use this Free Excel-based Goal Planner if you want to try it on your own), the advisor will create a solid + actionable financial plan that tells you:
- How much will each of your goals cost in future?
- How much to invest periodically?
- When exactly to invest (and for how long)?
- Where to invest?
Aren’t these the questions you really wanted answers to?
A good financial planner can really help you take control of your financial life. Here is one example of how a financial plan sorts someone’s life.
And you know what? One of the biggest disadvantages of consuming free, mass-produced financial advice is that often it is too broad in scope and fails to account for each individual’s unique situation. And this is what most people fail to recognize.
So please stop looking for free financial planning and retirement planning advice. And forget about the free financial plan. It will only delay what you will realize much later – that free financial advice does not work.
And managing your personal finances is a life-long process full of challenges, opportunities and pitfalls. Though not everyone may require financial advice, there are still thousands who would actually benefit from getting some proper and effective financial advice.
I am a SEBI Registered Financial Planner. So if you want to have an idea about what happens in financial planning, then do check the detailed:
Stable Investor’s Goal-based Financial Planning Service
I won’t take more of your time now. I hope you do see why planning your finances as early as possible can help you.
People will still continue to search for free financial planning plan India or free financial advisor India and whatnot. We cannot stop them. But believe me, it’s not worth it. If you are still not sure whether you really need a financial planner, then I suggest you read the following:
Excellent very good explaination. Appreciate your work. Thanks for sharing Dev Ashish.