{"id":516247,"date":"2026-07-08T18:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516247\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T18:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:56:16","slug":"how-to-get-affordable-financial-advice-for-your-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516247\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Affordable Financial Advice for Your Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wealthy people aren\u2019t the only ones who need sound financial advice<\/a>. And they\u2019re not the only ones who can afford it either.<\/p>\n

Many financial advisers charge by the hour. These professionals can offer guidance on major money decisions that arise in middle age and beyond, from developing a retirement spending plan<\/a> to managing finances in a gray divorce<\/a> to determining what to do with an inheritance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Traditional financial advisers earn money by charging clients a percentage \u2014 say, 1 percent \u2014 of the assets they manage, a model called AUM, or assets under management. Some also earn commissions by selling products such as annuities<\/a> or life insurance<\/a>. Many require an investment minimum, generally ranging from $250,000 to $2.5 million, according to the Kitces Report<\/a>, a research analysis of financial adviser pricing. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Hourly advisers typically charge around $300 an hour and don\u2019t limit their services to high-net-worth individuals. According to the Kitces Report, about 40 percent of financial advisers offer hourly services.<\/p>\n

Why consider hiring an hourly adviser<\/p>\n

There are a few reasons you might want to tap a financial professional who charges by the hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To avoid a costly mistake. Prudence Zhu, founder of Enso Financial in Phoenix, recommends consulting a\ufeff financial adviser before making major decisions that would be costly \u2014 or impossible \u2014 to undo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a decision will meaningfully affect the rest of your life and is expensive to unwind, it\u2019s worth a few hours of limited\u2011scope advice,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A common scenario she cites is a retiring worker<\/a> trying to determine whether it\u2019s better to take a pension payout in monthly installments or as a lump sum (and if the latter, what to do with the windfall<\/a>). Zhu says she also helps clients answer questions about complex topics such as annuities.<\/p>\n

To navigate a big life change. Pam Krueger, founder of Wealthramp, an online service that connects people with fee-only financial advisers, says it\u2019s not uncommon for people who have spent their lives socking money away for retirement to need a little help determining when they should stop building their nest eggs<\/a> and begin to draw down their savings.<\/p>\n

Hourly advisers can create or fine-tune a financial road map and help answer questions like how much money to withdraw each month and which accounts to tap first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, many people retire without a clear picture of their assets, says Sheri Conklin, owner of Conklin Financial Planning in Thornton, Colorado. \u201cThey have multiple accounts, they may have several 401(k) plans<\/a> from different employers,\u201d she says, \u201cso they don\u2019t know where they stand.\u201d Health crises<\/a> and divorce are two other common situations in which clients seek help sorting out their finances, she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wealthy people aren\u2019t the only ones who need sound financial advice. And they\u2019re not the only ones who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[256335,138,256334,246,256336,256331,256332,256333,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-516247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-affordable-financial-advice","tag-business","tag-cheap-financial-advice","tag-finance","tag-finance-free","tag-free-financial-advisor","tag-hourly-financial-advice","tag-hourly-financial-adviser","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}