Denise and Peg at Money Plans in Silver Spring are good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never understood how poeple have a person to cut their hair, a person to do their nails, a person to fix their car, yet very few have a person who helps plan their financial future.

I've never received a good recommendation for a financial planner.

Yeah, and I never got around to dealing with that heart problem because no one suggested a cardiologist.

Ok..finding a planner for dummies:

1. Do you have a will? Do you like your trust/estate atty? if so ask for recommendations.
2. Do you have a tax person? ask him/her for 3 names.

don't have either? you may have bigger problems. get into a network. start with Washingtonian's list--I'd begin with T&E attys--find someone in a local, not national, firm. These folks are well connected, charge less, and likely more suited for your needs. Frame your situation in a 1 pager for emailing and ask nicely for a name or two if they're not interested.

This isn't hard, but it does take a little time.

Know up front finding a planner just to look over your situation is not very interesting or profitable for the planner. It's maybe a 2-4 hour job at $2-400/hr, not how they make their living (at least the good ones.) Think about trying to bundle with some other needs you might have.

Anonymous wrote:I never understood how poeple have a person to cut their hair, a person to do their nails, a person to fix their car, yet very few have a person who helps plan their financial future.

I've never received a good recommendation for a financial planner.

I never understood how poeple have a person to cut their hair, a person to do their nails, a person to fix their car, yet very few have a person who helps plan their financial future.

My question was too broad, and the last poster defines the question better than I. I am looking for a financial check up and wondered if anyone out there had a good experience with a planner, I need to start somewhere and am looking to design a retirement roadmap.

I'm also interested in finding a professional for a financial check-up so to speak. I'm not interested in having someone manage my money.

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make. No one will care for your money and your future better than yourself. You dont need to hire and pay someone else to manage your money. Get a brokerage account and do a certain amount of research and with some effort and common sense and you'll be fine on your own.

Web sites like Seeking Alpha and even Yahoo Finance can provide you with tons of investing ideas. Be an active capitalist and you just may become wealthy.

You can do it!!!!!

sry, but this is simply astonishingly poor advice on so many levels. I agree with your instincts but regret most good cert fin'l planners do it as part of their investment mgmt practice. i would start by asking a couple of CPAs (yours or those of friends) for advise. I assume bulk of your assets are in Fed retirement plans..don't know what kind of planning advice they offer. As a first step you could do worse than the free illustrations on sites of T Rowe Price and Fidelity, but know they each are biased to encouraging you to save and invest.

The issue of how much to draw on savings for a safe retirement is a hot one right now in the planning community so you'll get various answers--the reality is no one knows as so much depends on future interest rates.

This is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make. No one will care for your money and your future better than yourself. You dont need to hire and pay someone else to manage your money. Get a brokerage account and do a certain amount of research and with some effort and common sense and you'll be fine on your own.

Web sites like Seeking Alpha and even Yahoo Finance can provide you with tons of investing ideas. Be an active capitalist and you just may become wealthy.

You can do it!!!!!

I'm a FERS Fed and would like to retire someday, any recommendations on a financial planner who could advise me how to head in this direction? I am 56 years old with one in high school and one in college.