Good Financial Reads: Protecting Your Identity, Why You Should Invest, and More

Following along with the blogs of financial advisors is a great way to access valuable, educational information about finance — and it doesn’t cost you a thing! Our financial planners love to share their knowledge and help everyone regardless of age or assets.

Catch up on the latest posts with this week's roundup:

Choosing the Best Financial Planner for You

by Katie Brewer, Your Richest Life

Whether you’re a recent graduate or a seasoned professional, a single person living in the big city or a family living in the suburbs, you could most likely use the advice of a financial planner. A big misconception is that financial planners only manage the big bucks of the country’s wealthiest people, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The trick is to find the best financial planner for you and your needs.

How do you do that? A big part of finding the best financial planner has to do with how your personality fits with his or her personality. Sometimes you click with people and sometimes you don’t. But personalities aside, there are a few key qualities that every good financial planner should have.

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6 Ways to Protect Your Personal Data and Identity

by Jason Reiman, Get Financially Fit!

Identity theft is a huge issue. Unfortunately, the very thought causes many people to lack trust in online/electronic transactions, businesses, retailers and even governments. Recently, there seems to have been a number of data breaches which all provide good cause for alarm.
Even more recent was the IRS data breach which exposed personal information of roughly 100,000 taxpayers. Like many of the organizations that suffered from data breaches of their own, the IRS has offered credit monitoring service as a result of the breach. While credit monitoring is likely a good choice, I thought it proper to remind you of some of the more proactive ways you can help ensure protection of your personal identity, online and off.

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Better Financial Advice: New Approaches Gain Traction

by Emilie Goldman, Tamarind Financial Planning

Getting people to feel less stressed when thinking, talking, and making decisions about money is the goal of Financial Therapy; a combination of psychology and financial advice that is focused on developing healthy relationships with money.

While a financial counselor usually comes in at a point of crisis—like bankruptcy or intractable financial conflicts between spouses—the role of a financial therapist is to help us understand the stories we tell ourselves, true or not, about money. These “money scripts” usually reside outside of our consciousness, and act as an invisible force guiding our thoughts, feelings, and decisions about money.

A growing number of financial planners and advisers now incorporate this insight into their work with clients as they become increasingly aware that past experiences, personality traits, demographic and socioeconomic factors, household characteristics, cognitive and emotional biases, cultural background, and religion can profoundly affect financial attitudes and behaviors.

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2 Good Reasons to Start Investing Now, No Matter How Much Money You Have

by Matt Becker, Mom and Dad Money

Investing is one of those things that a lot of people know they probably should be doing, but for one reason or another it keeps getting put off. Some people feel like they don’t have enough money to get started. Some people feel like they don’t know enough about investing and are either overwhelmed by the choices or are worried about making a mistake.

And some people haven’t started because, well, there are always a million other things to do to and investing just hasn’t felt urgent enough yet. Those are all understandable reasons, but investing is too important to let it linger on the sidelines.

Investing is one of the most powerful tools you have in your financial arsenal, and in this post I’m going to talk about the two biggest reasons you should start investing now, no matter how much money you have or how much you know about it.

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