I’ve seen the question posed recently “do I need a financial advisor?” So, let’s tackle that question today – do you need a financial advisor?

Well, do you need a dentist? Most people know they need to brush their teeth. Do you need Google Maps? Most people know where they’re going when it’s somewhere they go every day. Along the same lines, do you need a financial advisor? I love what I do, I love getting to help people and I really love my job, but the honest answer is no, you don’t “need” a financial advisor.

Let me also answer this with a little bit of a story – earlier this summer, we went on a family vacation down at the beach in Corpus Christi. Now I’ve been to Corpus Christi many times, we usually go there during the summer and growing up I went there every year, so I know the way to get to Corpus and my direction from Houston to Corpus Christi. When we got in the car, I had heard on the radio that there was an accident somewhere that had traffic shut down. But, because I’ve got four boys in the back making a whole bunch of noise, I didn’t hear where. So, Tessa being my copilot pulled up Google Maps to check so we could see where this accident happened – it just so happened to be on southbound Hwy. 99, which was the route we were going to take, and traffic was completely shut down on all southbound lanes on Hwy. 99. We were able to use Google Maps reroute, save a whole bunch of time, it saved a whole bunch of screaming from an infant that wasn’t even one at the time, it saved us a bunch of gas, and it saved my copilot and I from having a whole lot of headache with each other for sitting there at probably a four-hour delay to our trip.

Along the same lines as Google Maps, financial advisors can help you (we relay it as a road map). We can help you avoid traffic jams, we can help you avoid shutdown highways, we can really make your road map (your financial plan) as efficient as possible. Now most people know you spend less than you make, but there are lots of other pieces where a financial advisor can help you and can help streamline everything. Thinking of it like Google Maps again, financial advisors can help show you where toll roads are, so that you can evaluate whether you want to pay the tolls and get there all of 5 minutes faster, or save the money and show up 5 minutes later, and lots of other things along the way. So back to that initial question “do I really need a financial advisor?” The simple answer is no, you don’t “need” one, just like you don’t need a dentist, just like you don’t need Google Maps. But, a financial advisor can help you build your road map and adjust with you as traffic conditions change, as wrecks in life happen, and as toll roads come up to help you make your financial plan more efficient and hopefully save you lots of time, lots of headache, and lots of money. Y’all have a good one!