We are in the cowboy stage of financial advisers. Let us say something like the 1970s of the stock exchange or the 1940s of the banking industry! Let me list a few: 1. If you do not understand equity markets stay away: Correct advise only if you are so damn rich that you are not […]
One financial planner met a client and had the following details: A 38 year old man with a daughter from an earlier marriage (age 11) a son from the present marriage (7 years) a housewife, parents needing support and a mother in law dependent on him. (5 complete dependents, daughter partially dependent – his ex […]
As a financial planner I do spend a lot of time with 16 year olds working in call centers, media companies, banks and so on. When I am with them and discussing their problems, the one question that often comes to my mind is, “If these guys cannot make their monthly salary stretch one […]
When you go to a financial planner you have some expectations, do you not? Let us see what are the legitimate expectations that you can have: – he should be able to articulate your goals more clearly. When you say “I want the best education for my daughter” he should be able to translate that […]
An excellent profession / business to do now is the financial planning business. Of course some people call it a profession too. Why am I saying this? Simply because we are in the very early stages of the profession. It is like being in the banking business in the 1900s, in the mutual fund business […]
If you do not know who is paying your financial planner, take heart, you are paying a much higher price than you want to. Frankly it does not matter what a person calls himself / herself. If a person says ‘I will spend time with you and make a financial plan, and I will charge […]
Today all websites tell you that you are just not competent to manage your own money. This is followed by a corollary saying ‘therefore you NEED a financial planner’. Be that as it may, assuming you have a financial planner, what are the questions that you should be ASKING him….and then hope that he answers […]