Anonymous wrote:My sense, as a low-income person by the standards of DCUM, is that a financial planner works well for people who need help trying to figure out how to diversify their holdings. But you aren't at that point yet -- you don't need a financial planner to tell you "save 3 to 6 months of living expenses, put as much as you can towards retirement, and pay off your debts."

Personally, I think that you should start with reading some personal finance books, and by tracking your spending through a program such as Mint, YNAB (I'm partial to YNAB) or even a spreadsheet, if you have some simple Excel skills. What you want to do is have a really solid idea of how much money is coming in and how EXACTLY it is going out. No approximating or guessing!

At the very least, if you devote yourself to a little bit of pre-reading, and you track your spending for three months, you'll be able to ask more targeted questions of a financial planner if you decide that you really DO need one -- instead of just wasting that professional's time (and your own) by asking basic stuff.