Do-it-Yourself or Hired Help?

If you consider yourself someone who is fully aware of the importance of planning your finances and would like to move forward by making financial planning as part of your routine, the first thing you need to do is decide on your approach to financial planning - Would you like to handle your finances personally? or Would you opt for a professional financial planner to assist you?

Who Can Assist?

In Malaysia, professionals who can assist you in planning your finances are the licensed financial planners. These financial planners can offer their services to you in the form of personalized advice, tailor made to facilitate the needs of your financial objectives.

Should you decide on financial planners, make sure that any financial planner you engage is a licensed one, with a valid practicing licence. Be certain that he/she has sufficient knowledge represented by proper qualifications and experience in the industry.

Regardless of which approach you decide on, you must bear in mind that there are pitfalls in some of the advice or information available to you, particularly where the advice you seek is being given by ‘wannabe’ financial planners who do not fulfill the requisite qualities of a financial planner. In this regard, its crucial that you equip yourself with the right knowledge to be able to differentiate between genuine advices and sales gimmicks.

Do-It-Yourself!

If you are the type of person who enjoys researching and loves number crunching, you can opt to do the planning yourself. How do you go about doing this?

• By reading books
• By attending courses

There are many books and courses available that can provide you with a step-by-step guide on financial planning. However, if you are a novice in this area, you have to be careful of what you learn from the books and courses as misinformation could come from seemingly reliable sources.

Before you start applying your newly gained knowledge, be sure to do the following:

	Examine the background of the information providers
		Get sufficient information on their professional experiences, education credentials and track records. You should be able to obtain this information easily from the introduction section of the book or course material. Where information provided seems to be vague or very limited, be very wary of applying financial planning advices given.
	Confirm the validity of the information provided
		Read through reviews and recommendations made by highly accredited bodies or individuals. However, this method can be insufficient as high media coverage could also be due to good advertising strategy instead of good information. Therefore, regardless of where you obtain the information and knowledge to start your own financial planning, always remember that the information provider may not have your best interest in mind or even whether the financial planning approach given is suitable for you.
	Conduct research on the different approaches
		Once you have carried out your research on both approaches, you would be more equipped to decide on the approach that is most suitable given your own unique risk and return profile.