3 Times You Should Consult a Financial Planner

04 Dec 3 Times You Should Consult a Financial Planner

… and the ONE reason you shouldn’t

1. When you’re in retirement or about to retire

I’ll start off this topic by breaking a news to you — Most Malaysians cannot afford to retire. The Employer Provident Fund (EPF) has been vocal about how most Malaysians have insufficient savings for a decent life after retirement.

This is alarming — especially Malaysians are living longer than before. Assuming you live until 75, with no major medical expenses and outstanding debts, an average savings of RM194,000 would only give you RM25 a day to spend.

All of us face unique financial circumstances. So any general advice online about how to finance the perfect retirement lifestyle would not always be the right one for you.

This means what you really need is someone who’s able to access your current financial position and generate a personalised retirement plan for you.

Having a financial planner at your corner would help you answer complicated questions like:

1. Am I financially ready to retire?
2. What’s the best retirement fund to put money in?
3. How to strategically withdraw from various retirement accounts in order to both meet my needs and sustain my wealth as long as possible?

The answers to these questions posses their own nuances and strategies. That is why I recommend getting help from financial planners whom by trade knows all about retirement plans inside and out.

A good place to look for the right financial planners is at Smartfinance.my

2. When you’re starting a family

Important and emotional life events like getting into retirement or in this case starting a family will inevitably introduce plenty of financial challenges.

Let’s list down some of the newfound financial concerns when you’re starting a family.

• costs of having children
• a bigger place to stay
• think about life insurance
• how about estate planning?
• your child’s education fund?
• what if you are having another child?

These are tough financial challenges for any young families to handle. A good financial planner will help you navigate and prioritise all of these responsibilities, depending on your family’s financial goals.

You do have the options to do all of these on your own. However, at this stage, there are so many goals competing for our limited financial resources. On top of that, you might be at your peak with your career — which typically translates to a lack of time.

Hiring a financial planner to take care of the complexity of financial plan might be an investment worth doing, as you don’t want your family pays for any potential financial mistakes.

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ALSO READ: Financial Planners Are Not Just For The Rich

3. When you’re working for yourself

I’m talking about those who are self-employed. These people tend to have a different set of financial dynamics and opportunities than your average working-class professionals.

Self-employed people have more variable income and business factors around shareholding and business structure.

A financial planner who specialises in working with the self-employed would usually act as an outsider bringing in an objective perspective. This is an important factor as self-employed people are not immune to the trap of making emotional and biased decisions.

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You Don’t Need To Hire a Financial Planner IF …

1. You prefer to Do-It-Yourself (DIY)

I get it.

Sometimes, we prefer to have total control of our wealth management. And that’s fine, especially if have you the extra time and motivation to learn proper financial planning.

In fact, SmartFinance has a library of video lessons you can consume for free.

Additionally, if you need to perform some financial calculations — there are various tools on the website you can take advantage of.

Summary

There are probably a hundred more scenarios where hiring a financial planner would be a sound decision.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day, there are three common scenarios where all of us would eventually go through in life that would give us a reason to consult with a financial planner:

1. You feel “lost” in planning for your financial future and you need a roadmap.
2. You just don’t want to deal. When it comes to money, you’re not the DIY type, and you just want a professional to take care of it.
3. You like managing your money, but realize that your financial plan would benefit from an impartial and unemotional third-party opinion.

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At this very moment in life, which are you?