As part of my husband's retirement plan we have a free one hour call with a financial planner. I'd like to say up front, I am in no way going to be swayed by this person to sign on for more time with them :) But... if you had one hour with a financial planner, I'm curious, what would you ask them? We are about 2 years from Coast FI, if all goes as planned.
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ehomaha
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11 replies
Replies (11)
jerseyboi02
2 weeks ago
“What are the biggest risks you see in our plan that we might be underestimating?”
LadyMagicHands
2 months ago
I would ask what is the off the beaten path financial info that most people miss when dealing with a retirement sooner than the standard age, and I would also ask what advice they would give to a family member if they were not going to be able to talk to them again. What percentage of success do you feel comfortable with? Can they tailor their recommendations based on that?
Craig A
2 months ago
I'm the type of person who plans to manage my investments until it becomes clear that the value of seeking advice is greater than the fee-for-service price.
There's a conflict between what you want and what the free financial advisor wants out of the meeting. I suspect the financial advisor gets this all the time and has strategies to pivot you towards the sale.
I'd go through the work of preparing everything for the meeting, packing up my laptop, and going on a luxurious date with my partner and our laptops. I'd cancel the meeting with the financial advisor and use the same hour to explore the next best thing we need to learn to help us make the decisions on our own, or decide that it's time to pay someone because the value is greater than the cost.
buythedip
2 months ago
I would look/ask for tax optimizing strategies.
Jennifer FitzGerald
2 months ago
CFP are a bit different than a Financial Advisor so make sure which one you are seeing. FA is going to advise you on your stock portfolio. CFP should look at much more, and offer places you might not have thought about and may have some gaps, and more fully understand the retirement/spend stage. Be sure to let them know in as little time as possible that you are a saver with possibly a higher risk profile than many and put on the table immediately everything you have in place already and where you see yourself. That way they can avoid wasting time trying to fish it all out and figure out your path for you. If you can do that in less then 15 minutes it gives you a ton more time to ask, what else should we be doing to prepare for Coasting?
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