In the meantime, see if you can beat my high score of 9 rotations on that video now (I watched it one more time since my last email to you, haha…). It make the perfect background noise ;)

To financial success!

As far as who to hire, definitely have to lean towards an advisor that has the CFP designation or is at least working towards it. I think it shows a commitments to the profession and the financial planning process.

As a fee-based advisor, I’m partial to that model, but there are good commissioned based advisors out there. They are not all evil :)

My big thing is to straight up ask them how they get paid and how much they will get paid for working with you. There’s no other professional: attorney, accountant, architect, realtor, doctor; that you aren’t 100% sure what the bill is going to be to utilize their services. They should be open to answering it. If not or they dodge question with “Well…ummm….that’s a hard question to answer….” B.S.! I’ve been on both sides and once you know what investments you’re working with (dollar amount), you know EXACTLY how much you are going to get paid.

Can’t wait to keep up with the journey with your financial planner.

P.S. If you want a second opinion, I might know of an awesome CFP that lives in Illinois…..Just sayin’ ;-)

What firm does he work for now and what funds/etf’s does he recommend? Is he/she of an active of passive approach to investing?

If a guy has worked at Edward Jones, Ameriprise, Axa Equitable or a slew of other shady places (the devil’s dens) for longer than a year or two, I would be hesitant. If he or she sold whole life products at Met Life for 5-years, I would be hesitant. I would not give a financial planner who has worked at Ameriprise for a stretch of more than 2-years before he bailed, the time of day. IF the planner got his feet wet, got his CFP and then bailed, I think that is the reasonable progression. If you stay longer at a place like Ameriprise than two years selling people junk funds, don’t get your CFP and still only have a Series 7, you are someone to avoid!

I wouldn’t trust anyone until I have multiple dealings with that person and trust is built. I wouldn’t give blind trust.

Thanks for the well-wishes. Focusing on my writing for now. Crossing my fingers.

There’s always starvation if that doesn’t work out. :)

Now for some responses:

@NancyO – Wowwwwwww that is a lot of GREAT information! Thank you so much Nancy! :) I should totally type up up every single one of those questions and then do a blog post on them, haha… that would be awesome (well, for us, maybe not so much for him ;)). I’m def. gonna keep all of this in mind, I really really appreciate it. Especially your advice for the younger generations – I agree. Most people in their 20s/early 30s should really be concentrating on the simple major stuff: knocking away debt, saving up money, and getting their main foundation down. Once you start killing that and coming into bigger life changes, it’s prob. best to consult with an advisor. You’re awesome for spending so much time sharing all that with us, thank you :)
@Matt, Tao of Unfear – Oh nice! Yet another reason to love credit unions :) Always been a fan of them over the “big banks” out there, nice find my man. (And I hope you find a more intersting job/project to work on next too!)
@Brian – HAH! Really?? Omg that’s funny… how the heck do you even answer that? (I’m literally thinking about how to do so right now as I type this :)). I could probably come up with something good if given 5-10 mins to think about, but man – right on the spot? I suck at that stuff. My brain is too slow to process anything clever. I’ll see if I can throw it in there though – unless he’s reading this right now, Haha… thanks for sharing all your experiences too so far, I really enjoy hearing everyone’s thoughts :)
@Trinnie – You’re in the PERFECT POSITION! Haha… I’m totally jealous. I wonder if USAA would give me a stall to blog out of there? So then I can just walk over and pick everyone’s brains ;)
@SmartAssetTeam – Haha, you got that right. I’d LOVE to spend 1/3 of my time soaking in new stuff too – how awesome would that be!
@Travis – Ahhhhh, okay yeah that would make sense. In my case then, I want to talk w/ a PLANNER moreso than an advisor. I need a larger overall picture planner than I do someone to invest my money/assets. Thanks for the info! And I hope you get your CFP smoothly!
@Roshawn @ Watson Inc – I know, right? It would be awesome to have someone you trust on your side whenever you need to work it all out :)
@Beth Anne @ The Catholic Couponer Blog – Awww, I’m sorry to hear about all that. I hope things get better for your family! And it looks like you’re doing pretty well so far :) Thanks so much for sharing!
@Steve MoneyPlanSOS Stewart – YES!! That is an EXCELLENT point I totally didn’t think of! Wow. That is most DEF worth having someone else “in the know!” I’m always worried my wife won’t know what to do if something should happen to me (even though we talk about stuff periodically) so that’s a very very good tip my man, THANK YOU! Going over now to check out that post :)