Yesterday, I was speaking with my financial advisor, who I have known since childhood. I have money invested through his company, and have always been happy with the advice he gives me. Even though he’s got some personal interest, I have always felt like he’s got my best interests in mind as well.
He was looking at my accounts, noticed that I had some money from a CD sitting in my money market account. Since I didn’t want to put it into another CD right now (working on re-creating my CD ladder), he suggested that I pull the money out from that account and put it into a high interest account at another institution.
That’s right, he told me to take money away from his company. The interest rate I was earning was ridiculously low, and I could easily be earning more with a high yield savings account at one of many other banks. I, of course, knew that, but had just left the money there for ease. After all, in a few months, I will be putting it back into a CD. Then he said that he would look for CD rates for me through his company, but that I should also look at online banks I trust, if that’s something I’m comfortable with (I am) because I might find something better.
All in all, great advice, and something I was very surprised to hear. It’s nice when you get information that indicates to you that maybe your advisors really are looking out for you.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
That’s how you know your’ve got good advice. When they tell you that your needs will be better suited by another product, one they don’t supply.
“If you love something let it free, blah blah blah”