is it worth it to go to a financial planner or am I too poor to worry about it

Submitted by keenieBObeenie t3_10pet9f in personalfinance

Hello!

I'm not bad with finances but I'm not great, and additionally ADHD sometimes makes it difficult for me to think and plan long term. I've been considering seeing a financial advisor to help me plan for the future, but I feel like it might not be worth it or I might not be taken seriously because I don't have a whole lot of money or assets, so I figured I'd ask here before I potentially make a fool of myself.

I currently make $45,000 a year after taxes. I have about $5000 in a 401k which I max out the contribution on, and $1300 in a high yields savings account. I absolutely should have more in savings but I was essentially working part time for the past year and it wrecked my ability to save money. That's no longer an issue luckily and I intend to save pretty aggressively until I have a 3 - 6 month emergency fund. I also have about $3300 in credit card debt but, again, now that I'm working full time hours again I can pay that off relatively quickly. I rent my apartment, and have a used car that I don't owe any money on. I live with my partner but we keep our finances separate.

Is it worth going to see a financial advisor or should I just focus on saving until I'm in more of a position to start investing my money? I have dreams of home ownership, or at least retirement in my 60s.

Edit: the answer I seem to be getting across the board is 'pay off your debt and keep saving money, and there isn't much benefit to talking to an advisor at this point' which is fair. I will stick with that and follow the prime directive for the time being.

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IkariaWariootia t1_j6k00lv wrote

I think paying off the CC debt ASAP and following the Prime Directive would set you up for success.

You may not need a financial planner, but if you want to pursue one, make sure they are a fiduciary.

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InteriorAttack t1_j6k066g wrote

You dont need a financial planner to tell you you should pay off your high interest debt today. Why even bother keeping an emergency fund if you wont use it in the active credit card debt emergency you are in?

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TyrconnellFL t1_j6k0bbo wrote

I think a financial planner probably isn’t much help unless you have enough money that you’ve maxed out normal money things and need more exotic places to put it or you’re unable to read books or Reddit and need someone to tell you how to cover the basics.

You don’t have much to lose if you have access to free fiduciary advising. Otherwise I doubt you’ll get much, but hey, I’m not a financial advisor.

Oh, and unless you can pay off credit cards immediately, stop paying into 401k until you have. No investment and no match will come close to matching not paying off crushing interest rates.

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kahuna_44 t1_j6k0dky wrote

I can save you the money of a financial planner. Pay off your CC and continue to save.

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firefly20200 t1_j6k20ov wrote

Honestly there's not a lot of "fancy" things for you to do, and the ADHD isn't really an excuse. Set the 401k to max the match your company gives you, and if you can afford it, maybe 7% to 10% total. (Max is like $22k/year so I doubt you're actually maxing it).

Then set up with your bank that $100/mo, or a week, or whatever you can afford goes from your checking account directly into your savings account. Probably can do that online in five minutes.

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keenieBObeenie OP t1_j6k3bgi wrote

Yeah I've realized I don't understand how my 401k works so I'm probably going to work on that. I actually set up automatic transfers the moment I went back to full time work, which is why I have what I do in savings

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firefly20200 t1_j6k5npj wrote

Really for someone at your income, that's probably enough. Get some savings set up incase you need to access the money, use automatic transfers for that too.

Then dump as much as you can into that 401k, even if you have to adjust things down later on.

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Cheaper2000 t1_j6k0bc3 wrote

You don’t need a financial advisor, at this point there advice will (at best) be the same information you can find in the wiki.

You seem to be a bit misinformed on some things (you’re likely maxing your 401k match, the max contribution is more than you can afford on 45k), but reading the wiki here and Google searches will clear up most details relatively quickly.

Get rid of the debt asap and then focus on getting your income up. 45k for full time work isn’t great especially if you’re single income, and it’s certainly going to make buying a house difficult.

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