What kind of finance professional do we need?
September 7, 2018 12:12 AM Subscribe
There are so many types of finance professionals, what type should we be looking for to help us with our household financial operations and planning?
Specifics:
We recently got married, slightly later in life, in the US. We are in our late 30s/early 40s. Partner X recently immigrated and does not have much US-based retirement savings (although has started contributing to the basic employer retirement package). It is unclear what, if any, home country pension or financial support that partner will have access to. Partner X has a decent amount of cash saved (tens of thousands), and it sits in a savings account for now. No major assets to speak of.
Partner Y has okay retirement savings if one was only evaluating on supporting 1 person, some consumer debt, and lots of student loan debt that will be forgiven fairly soon (really). No major assets to speak of.
There are 2-4 major upcoming life expenses that are not optional, but some financing is available.
The emergency fund is not as big as it should be.
We are generally pretty frugal.
Partner X has some US credit history but should build more. Partner Y has okay credit history.
What we'd like someone to help us with:
* Figuring out how to plan for retirement, given that Partner X doesn't have any. Are we maximizing our employers' plans?
* Figuring out how/what to shift from Partner X's cash savings to pay off Partner Y's debt, put into investments (or retirement), or to pay for major upcoming life expenses.
What might be nice too:
* Because of these various inequities in debt and other obligations/responsibilities (as well as income), we haven't really figured out a good system for household bills or merging our finances. Being able to speak frankly to someone about how we might do this would be nice.
Who are we looking for to help us?
Specifics:
We recently got married, slightly later in life, in the US. We are in our late 30s/early 40s. Partner X recently immigrated and does not have much US-based retirement savings (although has started contributing to the basic employer retirement package). It is unclear what, if any, home country pension or financial support that partner will have access to. Partner X has a decent amount of cash saved (tens of thousands), and it sits in a savings account for now. No major assets to speak of.
Partner Y has okay retirement savings if one was only evaluating on supporting 1 person, some consumer debt, and lots of student loan debt that will be forgiven fairly soon (really). No major assets to speak of.
There are 2-4 major upcoming life expenses that are not optional, but some financing is available.
The emergency fund is not as big as it should be.
We are generally pretty frugal.
Partner X has some US credit history but should build more. Partner Y has okay credit history.
What we'd like someone to help us with:
* Figuring out how to plan for retirement, given that Partner X doesn't have any. Are we maximizing our employers' plans?
* Figuring out how/what to shift from Partner X's cash savings to pay off Partner Y's debt, put into investments (or retirement), or to pay for major upcoming life expenses.
What might be nice too:
* Because of these various inequities in debt and other obligations/responsibilities (as well as income), we haven't really figured out a good system for household bills or merging our finances. Being able to speak frankly to someone about how we might do this would be nice.
Who are we looking for to help us?
Also, Reddit Personal Finance is a great DIY resource to get yourself acquainted with basic concepts on personal finance.
posted by moiraine at 5:33 AM on September 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by moiraine at 5:33 AM on September 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
Based on how you wrote the question, I think you could definitely diy your situation. First of all it sounds like you are in good shape financially because 1.) You are young and have 20+ years to save for retirement 2.) You now have a two income household and 3.) Know you need to actually do something and are doing something about it.
What I have had great success with personally was following the "baby steps" of Dave Ramsey. I know lots of people poo-poo it's simplicity, but it is straightforward and it 100% works. You don't need fancy advice based on your question, you need a basic plan of attack. I also stress you work in partnership with your spouse on this. Financial stability and wealth building will not happen without you both being on board.
posted by KMoney at 6:08 AM on September 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
What I have had great success with personally was following the "baby steps" of Dave Ramsey. I know lots of people poo-poo it's simplicity, but it is straightforward and it 100% works. You don't need fancy advice based on your question, you need a basic plan of attack. I also stress you work in partnership with your spouse on this. Financial stability and wealth building will not happen without you both being on board.
posted by KMoney at 6:08 AM on September 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
Also you don't have inequalities in income and debt since you are married. Whether you openly admit it or not all of your income and all of your debt is shared. It's a lot easier being a unified team if you work in that mindset.
posted by KMoney at 6:14 AM on September 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by KMoney at 6:14 AM on September 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
I agree that this is all DIY-able, with the possible exception: partner's foreign retirement assets. If you do get a fee-only planner, make sure it's one who is competent to talk to you about handling those assets.
posted by praemunire at 10:11 AM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 10:11 AM on September 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:18 AM on September 7, 2018 [4 favorites]