A Financial Hoarder Gets Things in Order

By Therese Taylor

I was a savings pack rat. Always putting a bit away here and a chunk there. I’d get some extra money and pick a mutual fund based on its recent performance. Then I’d forget about it. I wanted simplicity. Let me work, earn, save, and keep the hordes of salesmen away. It was money for far in the future so I put it out of my mind.

The statements and 1099’s would come in, I’d file them for taxes, and never understand them. I was busy making a living and didn’t want to deal with details. Details were not clear anyway, but they should be especially the costs: “What are these fees?” and “Why is it when the market went down, I lost money. But the fees remain high?”

I knew I should get a better handle on my savings. But “financial advisers” left me wary. Their services were “free,” yet their confusing array of products had fees and penalties which were worse than the mutual funds I’d picked. Go figure! And even an uneducated investor like me knows there is no “free” service. Their sales approach played on my weaknesses: insecurity, ego, and greed.

I was so put off that I stuck money in my credit union’s CDs at a rate less than inflation. Of course, the principal was safe, but I was losing money to inflation. That’s was big deal to me and it should be to all of us.

Then a friend gave me a copy of Late Blooming Millionaires. It made sense and introduced me to hourly-fee financial planners and no commissions. I liked the idea of genuine investment advisers, working for me.

I found a local Garrett Planning Network affiliate. He did a ten-year look-back and got all my accounts consolidated into Vanguard. I wished I’d had this book decades ago.

Reading Dan and Steve’s book showed me that I don’t have to be a financial whiz, earn a math degree, or a Master’s in Business Administration. I need to know who to work with and who to avoid.

If you want to delve into all the minutia of investing then all the information is in Late Blooming Millionaires. But if like me, you want to build security without constantly questioning your decisions and worrying about the details, Steve and Dan’s book is the way.

My “nest” is orderly, simple, and secure. Now this hoarder has found order.