Page 75 - Benjamin Franklin\'s The Way to Wealth: A 52 brilliant ideas interpretation - PDFDrive.com

33 GET HELP

Money is complicated stuff and if you want to make the most of it you would do well
to call in the experts. Or as Franklin said: ‘they that won’t be counseled, can’t be
helped.’

DEFINING IDEA…
If you will not hear If you will not hear reason, she’ll surely rap
your knuckles.
~ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Paying out good money to someone else may not seem quite right on your
individual way to wealth, but compared to doing the legwork yourself it is
a quicker and more cost-effective way of getting the information you need
to maximise your investments. That’s presuming you pay out to the right
people, of course.

Most of us make it through formal education blissfully untouched by any
financial education other than the concept of happy hours in bars. Yet as
adults we are suddenly bombarded with financial products that would have
flummoxed Einstein.

Independent financial advisers (IFAs) offer unbiased advice on financial
products either across the board or in a specialist field (such as mortgages).
Choosing one at random out of the Yellow Pages is unlikely to produce the
kind of person you get on with best, so the first step in selecting an adviser
is to ask around—go to all of your more financially sorted friends for
recommendations.

Try to narrow it down to two or three people and then ask for a ‘getting to
know’ session with each one. This should be free—indeed, if it’s not that
may be an attitude you want to weigh up as part of deciding which one to
plump for. Other things you should look for are the appropriate
qualifications (in the UK, the starting point is all three components of the
Financial Planning Certificate). Beyond that you should ask about any
qualifications in the speciality you think is likely to be your main interest.