It Depends

Your choice to use a financial adviser depends on a variety of factors. First, how savey are you with money matters. Many people are clueless and would therefore benefit from help. In your case you obvioulsy have the ability to look things up and can navigate through the more basic tasks without assistance. If this is all you want to do, you most likely don't need assistance. However, the more complex you get the more difficult it will be. For example, I am a CPA and worked as a tax consultant for Ernst & Young for several years. This past year is the first time I did not do my own tax return. I went to a CPA who does this for a living. He charged me $500 on a tax return that was over a 100 pages in length and would have taken me at least 10 hours in research and another 4-5 hours to compile the data to complete myself. To me it was money well spent. Secondly, you appear to have your money in fairly safe places such as high-yield checking and savings account. I'm guessing you are probably earning approximately 4 to 5% interest on this. I've given the majority of my money to money managers who have earned me this year between 16% and 40% depending on the fund. The point I am trying to make is that you can get good advice that will more than pay for its costs, but much research should be done to find the correct adviser. What is their track record, etc. I once thought as you did and have been successful on doing a lot of things myself, but when the numbers started getting bigger it has helped a lot to have someone more well versed in the subject matter to consult me.

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