There’s something to be said for expert advice in an area that affects the lives of every single one of us – our finances. It’s natural to want to stay in control of your finances, but keeping up to date via the Financial Review simply doesn’t cut it when it comes to getting ahead and preparing for a comfortable future and retirement. 
There are a million options when it comes to finance, investment and making your money work for you. The internet may be a great general source of information, but how do you work out what is impartial advice and what is nothing more than a clever marketing blurb made to sound impartial? And, of course, you have to always be on the lookout for online scams.
What happens if you know the basics but you’d really like a second opinion on the information you’ve sourced? Perhaps you’re after some additional ideas outside of the obvious but you really don’t know what you’re looking for.
If you’re living on a very tight budget balancing your income with your mortgage repayments and other monthly outgoings it seems ludicrous to pay someone for financial advice… right?
The reality is that it makes a lot of sense to get expert one-on-one advice from a financial adviser who has information on you and your financial position. An expert adviser will tailor their information and strategies exactly to your situation taking away any guess work or the possibility of misunderstanding how something works.
In a study released in 2012, investment researcher Morningstar Inc. concluded that employing a financial adviser can improve an investor’s potential return by 1.82% per year. A small increased return over a year or two – but in the long term this could be the difference between scraping by and living a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
Simon and Olivia feel great about the future after consulting an MLC Financial Adviser. Both in their mid-30s with demanding jobs and three children under 7, they felt they needed to get serious about their finances and get a proper plan in place. They ‘clicked’ with their adviser on their first meeting and were very happy to follow virtually all of his advice, which included:
- Consolidating super accounts
- Using the equity in their home to borrow and invest in a managed fund
- Increasing personal insurances and seeing a solicitor for wills and estate planning
They put in place strategies to meet future education expenses and over time they planned to manage their debt and pay off their home loan sooner. They were both delighted with the advice and for the first time felt real security in their financial future.