Of course, if you’re sufficiently motivated and interested, there’s a good chance you eventually will have a boatload of assets and then a financial planner will come in handy. To give an example of this, the personal finance community quite rightly gives a good kicking to the idea of universal or variable universal life. 98% of the time, that’s right. I work in life insurance (actuarial) and I strongly recommend that people always buy term and invest the difference on their own (and then only when they have dependents). However, if you have a boatload of assets, universal life insurance makes a ton of sense, even without dependents, as long as the Cost of Insurance (COI) charges are smaller than the estate taxes (and that’s going to be true unless you’re very old or very sick). As an investment and life insurance vehicle, it’s hopeless, but as an estate planning tool, it’s quite useful.

For Mrs. Micah’s case, though, there are plenty of step-by-step guides readily available (for free) on how she can go about reducing her risk of wipe-out so that she can live frugally because she wants to rather than because she has to. I certainly wouldn’t recommend spending very much of her cash on consulting a financial planner who’s going to give her basically the same advice, especially given how tight her finances are right now. (If I’m reading her statement right, her liabilities outweigh her assets, even if we ignore the student loan debt, which I’m inclined to do, since it’s “good debt.”)

I think andrew stevens is right: financial fitness consists of about 20% knowing and 80% doing. As far as knowing goes, I prefer the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Putting the knowledge into practice is where the rubber meets the road: I think most people find practicing fiscal discipline on an ongoing basis to be something of a challenge.

In the meantime, my unsolicited suggestion is to not try to bypass the lean years too quickly. Ten years down the road, you might look back with great fondness at the simplicity life held at this stage.

When Do You NEED a Financial Planner
How to Pick a Financial Planner

Something to keep in mind: a financial planner should educate as well as advise. And an advisor will help plan your future, not just finances.

Updegrave’s article was a good one since he pointed out correctly that personal finance is not rocket science and doesn’t require you to be a financial whiz kid. However, he also argues, correctly, that there are many people who are unwilling or unable to grapple with these issues. (My wife is in the unwilling camp.) For these people, a financial advisor isn’t just a luxury; it might be a necessity.

I sympathize with this dilemma to such a degree that I have always planned, on retirement, to volunteer my services as a financial advisor to the working poor. In my beatnik days, I was working poor myself and did pretty well for myself financially (no debt at all, large emergency fund, decent retirement accounts, etc.) so I’ve always thought that I could use that special perspective to convince people that they can actually accomplish something by living frugally and engaging in sensible personal finance. Too many working poor don’t think it’s possible to get ahead on their small salaries. It’s certainly more difficult, but it’s not impossible. Personal finance is only about 20% knowledge and about 80% behavior. A financial advisor can’t do anything about the 80%, but he can solve the 20%. Unfortunately, there are also a large number of “financial advisors” who are actually salesmen in disguise and this can positively hinder your financial planning.