Don’t Rely on “Experts”

When it comes to your personal finances, you should never solely rely on so-called “experts.” 

In life, we wear a lot of hats, don’t we? Between kids (or grandkids) activities, church obligations, work and taking care of ourselves, there are a lot of things we are responsible for managing! 

Often when it comes to our personal finances, we just want a “guy” for that. Whether it is for our retirement accounts, insurance, or savings, people often rely on “experts” to manage and protect their hard earned assets. 

But in doing this, many people are taken advantage of and make decisions without fully understanding the consequences. 

When it comes to your money, nobody knows your situation like you do. With my team at Trumble, we have a motto we live by: our clients are smart people and can make good decisions when given good information. It is then our sole responsibility to give good information so our clients can make an informed decision. 

What financial decisions have you delegated to other people? 

Retirement: Do you know where your money is invested in your retirement account? Do you know why it is invested that way? Is it structured in the best way to maximize tax savings and increase your return on investment? These are not questions for your financial planner. They are questions for you that you personally need to be able to answer. 

Insurance: How much coverage do you have on your house? Is it enough to build your home back if it were to burn down? What are your deductibles? Are they high enough to maximize savings and low enough to be able to afford if you need to pay them? Again, these are questions you need to answer. You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to know why you have what you have. 

Medicare/Health Insurance: Does your Medicare plan cover 100% of your medical expenses or does it just cover 80% or somewhere in between? Are you using the pharmacy that maximizes your savings on prescriptions and do you have the right prescription plan that pays for your particular prescriptions? Why are you with the company you are with? What advantages do they offer over their competitors? 

Your life is your life. Financial professionals should be there to provide advice and information. However, as you receive that information, you should never feel forced into blindly following them. They should be a teacher that educates instead of a dictator that tells you what to do. 

As the last two lines in the poem Invictus says, “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” Seek professional advice, but remember, you are standing at the steering wheel of your life and the financial decisions you make should steer you in the direction you wish to go. 

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Zach Santmier is the owner of Trumble Agency, Inc. and the author of the personal financial course, Increase. He focuses on helping families escape paycheck to paycheck living so they can freely pursue their ideal future.