Financial Advice: Money and Your Financial Success

If I were to ask in simple terms what is important to you, what would you say? What does having money mean to you? Why is having money important to you? How would you define financial success? Are you spending enough time contemplating what is important to you?

Take a moment to consider what it is that you care about most.

How do the answers to these questions relate to your financial success? Taking the time to ask yourself these questions will help clarify your underlying reasons for achieving what you want in life. If you are working with a financial advisor, he or she should also be asking you these questions. It is so important for your financial advisor to know who you are as a person and what is really important to you. In the work that I do with my clients, I try to understand the underlying reasons for the goals they want to achieve. It is vitally important for me to really understand the concerns of my client’s. The best way I know of to do this is by listening intently to them.

Your answers to these questions will help clarify how you will need to plan, whether on your own or by working together with a financial advisor. If you decide to establish a relationship with a financial professional, my suggestion would be for you to choose a person who is interested in listening to you and learning about you, rather than one who simply asks you a series of preset questions right off of a form. There is a tremendous difference between advisors who simply collect client data and those who truly want to know about you. The best advisors will truly listen and engage with you. They will educate you and in essence help move you toward your goals rather than try to convince you of something.

The best conversations I have ever had with people are not the ones where I take people through a list of questions. The best ones develop through intense listening and move on to a thorough understanding of who a person really is with a keen sense of interest in knowing what is important to them.

I encourage you to submit your comments on this subject. Tell me what is important to you? Why is that important to you? What are your concerns? Who do you trust for financial advice?

Do you work with a financial professional? If so, are you completely satisfied? How would you rate your level of satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5? Does your advisor spend time listening to you? Does he or she really know who you are and what is important to you?