Given the chaos in the world, when it comes to your personal finances, it’s tempting to just cover your head and let things take their course. After all, everything has worked out so far. And a future fraught with things we cannot control is intimidating. Whether it’s rising oil prices or global terrorism or AI taking jobs, most of those huge trends are beyond our control. However, we can adjust.

Time to Plan
If you are willing to consider the importance of a financial plan, despite likely disruptions, the immediate challenge is finding someone you can trust to do the job. That is the most important decision you can make about your financial future. I’ve written about this topic before, and much of it bears repeating.
You don’t choose your financial advisor based on personality, despite the charm he or she may exude, or because you “inherited” him or her from your parent or spouse. You don’t choose your financial advisor based on TV commercials or glossy brochures or free chicken lunches.

There’s a better way to do your research, though the prospect is intimidating. After all, if you knew enough to make a smart decision about your advisor/planner, you could probably do all this planning on your own! So later in this column, I’m going to give you a roadmap to financial advice you can trust. But first, you need to understand the universe of financial planning.

What Advice Do You Need?
Investment advice: For many people, this is the first step into the world of planning. Suddenly 40lk assets have turned into real money after decades of a bull market. That forces you to think about risk of loss, about how much is enough, and about the volatility of the stock market.

The best use of a financial advisor to help with investments is not in stock picking or market timing – but in deciding what percentage of your assets should be invested in stocks. And in helping you change those allocations as your life changes.

You’re not looking for an advisor to help you “beat the market.” That’s futile. Proving that, S&P/DJI Indices just released its 2025 report showing that 79% of all active large-cap U.S. equity funds underperformed the S&P 500 stock index! All those fund management fees went for nothing, for most investors! And the preceding year, 65% failed to beat their S&P 500 benchmark.

Over the long run, stocks have created great wealth. But stock picking and market timing have a less than stellar record. Why pay for that?

Retirement Planning Advice: If you’re looking for a longer-term perspective about how much to save, how best to allocate those savings to investments and risk, and how to strategically deploy that savings plan (after-tax Roth or tax-deductible retirement plans), an advisor can help you make those decisions.
It’s goes beyond setting a target dollar amount. It’s also about generating income and reducing taxes in retirement, timing Social Security payments, and possibly converting some existing IRAs to Roth to avoid RMDs, while considering the impact on your Medicare Part B and D premiums.

Yes, it’s complicated. That’s why you need a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) who has expertise in all these areas. But beyond that, you’ll want to take advice from someone who is not trying to sell you a product, such as an annuity, life insurance, private equity, or even a mutual fund.

Estate Planning Advice: Your advisor will work with you to plan for while you are alive, and for what happens to your surviving family and dependents when you pass on. A good advisor will show you the impact of your estate planning decisions on your heirs– and then refer you to an attorney in your state of residence, or work with your own attorney.

How Should You Pay?
You want an advisor who is always on your side. Period. That person is a FIDUCIARY – willing to put that word in writing, and promising always to put your needs first.

And you want an advisor who has no financial incentive to sell you a specific product. So, a fee-only advisor make sense.

Fees should be fulling disclosed in advance, based on your need for planning advice. It may be a one-time fee for a plan that you will put into action. Or your plan could come with a twice-yearly consultation. Or the planner may work on an ongoing hourly fee, with an estimate of total costs.

Where Do You Find this Rare Advisor?
There is only one place I know you will be matched with a carefully vetted, fee-only FIDUCIARY advisor – based on your needs. Pam Krueger created Wealthramp.com to match a selected group of advisors with your needs. Read all about it and watch the video at TerrySavage.com under the box marked “Find Your Trusted Advisor.”

Full disclosure: I get absolutely nothing out of this recommendation except the knowledge that you are in good hands. And Pam’s fees are paid by the chosen advisors, not the clients, as you’ll learn on the video.

It’s worth paying for good advice from a fee-only FIDUCIARY. Failure to do so could be even more expensive. And that’s The Savage Truth.