Finance & Online Personal Financial Advice – Is Free Advice Worth the Price?

We’ve been told that fees on investment products are evil (I’m paraphrasing – usually we’re told to find the lowest fees possible). But what about investment returns? We’re told to find the highest possible investment returns. What about investments where the fees are high but the returns are also high? Blank out. That’s not supposed to happen. Here’s a news flash – you’re [probably] going to pay for good advice.

It makes sense to pay for quality. But, for some reason, there are many individuals unwilling to pay for it when it comes to financial advice. That’s the number one mistake that people make when searching for financial help online. They want good advice, but they want to educate themselves without any outside help.

Often times, self-education can be good, but without some type of direction, you can easily (and quickly) get bogged down with conflicting information and generalized information that doesn’t necessarily apply to your situation.
For example, we always hear about how awful it is that mutual fund companies and their brokers earn huge commissions.  We also hear about “greedy” life insurance salesmen earning “big commissions” on cash value life insurance. The solution – we are told in many different articles – is to avoid these salespeople and try to buy into investments by yourself.

But, keep in mind that, while some fees do more harm than good, fees are a necessary part of investing and saving money. You are paying for a service – easy access to financial markets. In some cases you are also paying for your broker or advisor’s insight. They do this for a living, they have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. It’s not the fee, but rather the fee in relation to what you are getting – that matters most.

The next time you rush to your favorite online broker or to that new website offering the cheapest insurance rates, think about how much money you are saving by not using a traditional agent or broker…but also think about what you are not getting. In some cases, you may be missing out on advantages that you don’t even realize are available.

You probably don’t fly your own airplane, change the oil in your own car, fix your own plumbing, perform surgery on yourself or your family, prosecute your own legal cases, or educate your children. You are, for the most part, happy to leave that to experts. But for some strange reason, many folks – perhaps you too – feel perfectly competent to direct your entire financial future by yourself without any outside help. Why?