When you’ve booked an appointment to see your local certified financial planners, you are making a progressive first step to sorting out your finances in a way that will help you plan for a long-term and prosperous future. But walking into an appointment with a financial planner is like going to a scheduled appointment with any professional, where you want to be as prepared as possible to have a productive meeting that will begin to lay the groundwork to meticulously plan your financial future.
To prepare for your meeting with a financial advisor, heed these tips so you can go in ready to make progress to benefit your economic future.
List of assets
You’ll want to have a list of assets and debts for your financial planner to better understand your current financial standing and where it can be modified. You’ll want to conjure up a list of the investments you have made, properties you own, gold you may have, and any cash you have and begin to quantify these items. Next, you’ll want to make a separate list of all your debts and begin solidifying where you want these debts prioritized depending on the amount and the urgency they need to be paid off. These two lists will give your financial planner a larger and more extensive picture of your financial situation and where you want to go from there.
Goals
Have a set of goals in mind before you see your financial planner. These goals will be able to outline where you currently are in terms of finances and where you want to see yourself in the future. Writing down these goals will give you a sense of where your priorities are, and your financial planner will be able to develop a plan for you so you’re able to fully realize your financial dreams. Make these goals clear and precise, so your planner will able to realistically work with them.
Income and expenses
For any certified financial planners to fully understand your complete financial status, knowing your income and monthly and yearly expenses is imperative. Bring a list of your income and expenses so your planner can determine your sources of income and what payments your paycheque goes towards each month. This way, your planner can make realistic goals for you to achieve in terms of spending habits and how to save more of your money while also making the proper payments on necessary expenses.
Financial documents
Collect your financial documents and put them in one place where you can easily find them on the day of your meeting with a financial advisor. Along with everything you will bring, these documents will create a full financial picture of your current economic status for your planner to mull over and utilize to eventually help you. Documents can include your latest 401k, savings plans, pension plans, tax records, information about your investments and estate planning, and life insurance.
Factor in family members
When creating a comprehensive financial plan with an advisor, you’ll want to factor in your family members and include them in whatever plans you make. Whether this looks like factoring in a child’s study funds, supplementing income for a recently unemployed spouse, or paying for an elderly family member’s living arrangement, you’ll need to consider these expenses before creating a plan. Talk to your family before you meet with a financial planner and begin understanding their situation and how it will bleed into your own financial outcome.
Understand your weaknesses and strengths
Take an introspective look at yourself and your financial weaknesses and strengths upon making a scheduled meeting with your financial planner. When you understand where you go wrong with your spending habits, how you handle money, and what strengths you have, your financial planner can utilize this to cultivate a plan for you to execute realistically without issue. This way, you can begin to work constructively on your weaknesses while trying to leverage your strengths to benefit your financial standing.
List of questions
You will no doubt have questions when beginning a meeting with a financial planner and will probably have even more by the end of the meeting. Bring a list of questions you can add during the session. Further, you can send some questions beforehand through email so that the meeting can begin with some structure and mutual understanding. These inquiries can pertain to what the services of financial planning will offer you and what the first initial meeting will actually look like.