What financial products are necessary? How do we decide? Who should we get advice from?

 


Do you know enough to decide which products/insurances/payments are necessary to buy?  Do any of us?

Today I have a couple of tips to help you.  

I have spent a lot of my life being advised by people that are a long way from being impartial or intelligent about anything.

In order to advise you on any financial product, the person advising MUST BE a Registered Financial Adviser.  I am a Registered Financial Adviser and my business is a Registered Financial Advice Provider.  

This blog is not meant to be Individual Financial Advice but more to let you know some of the lessons I have learnt from a lifetime of experience.  A lifetime of being ripped off and led down all sorts of pathways that I should never have gone down.

One of many little gems I have learnt is:  People who advise you are one of two things:
  1. Someone who has no idea, but doesn't want to admit to it.  (Friends, family, people at a barbeque or the pub just chatting)
  2. Someone who is trying to sell you something, they have a vested interest in you taking their advice.
When you are listening to any advice about anything, think of where it is coming from.  Are they qualified to give advice?  Do they know what they are talking about?

I sold accident insurance for a time in my life.  Yes Accident Insurance, let's take a moment to think about this:  

We live in a country where, if you are injured in an accident, your hospital care and doctors visits are covered, by ACC.  We pay ACC premiums through our wages or through our own business in order to be covered.  

I was sent away to train for one week in how to sell Accident Insurance.  The entire training was in sales, nothing about insurance or financial advice.

I managed to sell heaps of it, to people who couldn't afford it, for commission.  The more I sold the more I earned.  I left that job because morally I couldn't cope with it.  People trusted me, as a door to door salesperson to advise them on how best to protect their family if they had an accident.  I knew nothing about financial advice at that point, I just knew how to sell.   

It is important to think critically when someone is trying to sell you something.  Ask yourself some questions:

  • Are they qualified to give this advice?
  • Does their life experience mean they are "experience qualified"  eg. if you are talking to someone about buying a rental property, do they have one?  or If you are talking to someone about health insurance, have they had health problems and used health insurance?  or If you are talking to someone about funeral insurance, have they been paid out for a funeral of their loved one?
  • Do they have a vested interest in you purchasing this product?  Are they on commission?  This is a reasonable question you can ask, of any salesperson of any product.  They have to answer honestly.
I have no vested interest in these blogs other than to help people get ahead.  Perhaps I will get some individual clients and classes that start as a result of these blogs, and if so, that is great, I look forward to working with you.  If not, I am also quite happy.  

If you don't agree with my advice and do nothing about it, it is no skin off my nose, alternatively if you follow my advice and do well, it doesn't help me financially.  I am happy to help.

Please be careful out there it can be very tricky to manage where your money goes.  It can only go so far and then it is all gone.  Times are very tricky at the moment, very tricky.  Hopefully this blog helps you think more critically about where it is going and why!

Thanks for reading to the end, feel free to share, comment, question and follow this blog or my Sarah's Solutions Facebook page for more of the same.

Have a spectacular day out there, please be careful in this crazy weather!

Comments

  1. Anonymous11 May 2023 at 22:16

    My husband and I have been talking religiously about our finances which is the first time we have both taken responsibility. Admittedly I reduced the amount we pay for insurances but it's difficult when it's been all that you've known generationally however they always tend to find a loop hole and not pay out. We have both decided to cancel his life insurance and add that payment to his kiwisaver. Because we still have a mortgage we can't cancel my life insurance policy. We're going to cancel Contents Insurance it was cheaper to pay for reading glasses by cash then it was to pay the excess for the claim (go figure). Lastly we are finalising both of our wills if anything happens to us we will be organised. - JL

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