Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:
Middle class struggles to get good financial advice
Christine Dugas, USA TODAY
For about 20 years, Sue and Steve Manseau kept searching for a financial planner. Like most middle-class Americans, the couple found that the advisers they met didn't want their business.
Until recently, financial advisers have managed investment portfolios for affluent clients and charged more than the Manseaus could afford. Fortunately, a growing number of financial planners and online websites are serving middle-class families.
The advice that middle-class families need is much different than that of the affluent. "The recession mainly hit the middle class," says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of Consumer Federation of America. The middle class has been hit hard by job losses and increasingly costly benefits. The housing bubble also caused many home values to plummet. And because few of them have a pension plan, middle-income workers have to figure out how to save for retirement. Smart investing is only a small part of their needs.
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"The financial planning decisions of middle-income families are more critical than that of wealthier people because they can't afford to make any mistakes," says Sheryl Garrett, the founder and CEO of the Garrett Planning Network, a nationwide network of fee-only financial advisers who specialize in serving the middle class.
The Manseaus, who live in Santa Barbara, Calif., are in their early 60s. Sue is a nurse and Steve is a salesman. Now that their two daughters are grown, their biggest concern is retirement, especially because of some bad investment decisions, the stock market crash and costly mortgages. "I have been afraid that we could not retire and that we are going to be the greeters at Walmart," Sue says.
To read the entire article from Christine Dugas, USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/05/05/middle-class-financial-advice/2090441/
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