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Personal financial planning can be difficult, but it is necessary to ensure you plan properly for your financial future. After all, it is important to have a comprehensive plan to ensure you manage your finances properly and set yourself up with an effective savings strategy.
And while creating this type of plan is challenging, we’re here to help you find the right personal financial planning consultant for you. In this article, we will discuss what personal financial planning is, what to look for while searching for help with your personal financial planning, and how we may be able to help you with this process.
What is Personal Financial Planning?
Personal financial planning is the process of creating a plan that outlines how you intend to manage your personal finances. This plan should include best-practices for personal spending and saving for your future. As we discuss in our article titled, “Personal Financial Planning Done Right,” this process involves outlining your personal financial goals; figuring out your budget based on your income, expenses, and other key factors; and planning for your future.
Financial planning is often done with the help of a financial advisor to ensure you take all important factors into account. We talk below about how you can receive professional help with this endeavor.
What to Look for in a Personal Financial Planning Consultant
While seeking professional help with your personal financial planning, we recommend looking for a consultant that possesses the following key characteristics:
- Excellent Communication: Communication is key for anything, especially for something as important as your personal financial planning. You need a consultant that is able to effectively communicate with you at all times in a way that works for you. After all, missing details due to poor communication could lead to a financial plan that doesn’t make sense for your unique situation. Find someone with whom you are comfortable speaking and understands how to relate to you. This will make your financial planning process much easier and will help ensure that all key factors are taken into account while planning.
- Exceptional Listening Skills: Similarly, you need a financial planning consultant who can listen to your specific goals and needs, analyze your unique situation, and provide insight that is right for you. When meeting with prospective financial planning consultants, be sure to take note on how well they listen to you and provide feedback and insight based on what you tell them. You don’t want someone who will talk at you; rather, you want someone who will listen to you and provide insight based on your situation.
- CPA: When it comes to personal financial planning, you want to make sure you are working with an expert. And while there are many ways to tell whether someone is an expert in the field, one of the baselines for identifying a financial planning expert is to see if they are a CPA (Certified Public Accountant). We recommend working with someone who has gone through intensive financial and accounting training to prove that they are experts in the field.
Get Professional Help with Your Personal Financial Planning
If you are a big spender or you just feel like you could use some help with your spending and financial planning, we recommend seeking professional help. While you would of course have to pay for this help, the amount of money you will save by planning effectively will more than pay for the cost of a personal financial planner.
If you would like help with your personal financial planning, please do not hesitate to reach out. With the full range of accounting services Allman & Allman APAC provides, we are equipped with the expertise for which you may be in need. Seeking guidance from our firm will provide you the opportunity to work with individuals armed with broad and deep financial knowledge, able to provide advice on a wide range of issues. As a full-service public accounting firm, our professional services will surely help you succeed and thrive. Please feel free to reach out to Allman & Allman APAC via email at [email protected] or via phone at 760-773-1120 (Palm Desert) or 310-544-1120 (Rolling Hills Estates) to discuss your situation and find out how we can help you grow. We look forward to hearing from you.