Getting Financial Advice
2. What advice do you want?
You're much more likely to get good advice if you prepare in advance. Take a close look at your financial situation, and think over what you want advice about. Our webpage on Making Your Money Work can help you make a start.
Gather your personal information
| Your Goals | What sort of lifestyle are you looking for? What are your priorities? What do you want to achieve financially? Who depends on you financially and what do you want to provide for them? |
|---|---|
| What you want your adviser to do? | Give you an overall financial plan? Advise you on a particular problem and compare various options? Check you have not overlooked something important? Just set things up for you, or help in future as well? |
Good personal advice builds on good personal information. The more your adviser understands about you, the better their advice should be. Before seeing an adviser, collect this information:
- What do you own and what do you owe? Your assets include your home, super, car, shares or other investments and personal property. Your debts include mortgages, loans and outstanding credit card balances.
- What are your income and expenses? ASIC's Budget Planner (available through FIDO at www.fido.gov.au) can help you collect this information.
- Do you have insurance? What for and for how much?
Work out what you want
Make some notes about what you want before you start looking for an adviser. Your notes can help you choose and, later on, check that the advice will meet your needs. (It's fine if you change your mind about some of these matters later.)