Early Retirement - Financial Freedom (Investing, Tax Planning, Retirement Strategy, Personal Finance)

DIY vs. Financial Advisor: How to Know When It’s Time to Get Help

• Ari Taublieb, CFP®, MBA • Episode 264

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If you’ve ever found yourself wondering whether you really need a financial advisor, this episode is for you. James and Ari unpack the deeper reasons people seek financial guidance—and why the decision often goes far beyond dollars and cents.

Much like seeing a doctor for preventative care, working with the right advisor is about protecting your future, reducing stress, and reclaiming your most precious resource: time. From saving 20+ hours a month of DIY management to gaining peace of mind, better sleep, and a trusted partner for life’s biggest financial decisions—this conversation explores the emotional and practical value of professional advice.

You’ll hear a powerful testimonial from a self-proclaimed DIY-er who discovered five unexpected benefits of hiring an advisor—and why, in hindsight, it was one of the best investments they’ve made.

Whether you’re confident in your current strategy or simply curious if you could be doing more with your time and money, this episode will help you ask the right questions about your financial life.


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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.

The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements

Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.

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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.


Speaker 1:

James, when you work with an advisor, most people reach out because they go. I want peace of mind. I don't want to have to worry where I have a new job, having to do this in retirement. However, when you first go to hire an advisor, it's not as black and white as you might think. Some people think it's as simple as hey, I just broke my leg. Now my leg's broken. I need to go to a doctor who's going to fix my leg so I can walk again. When you work with an advisor, sometimes it's about timing. It's about oh, I currently have an advisor, they're my best friend. How am I going to break up with them? When it comes time to working with an advisor, there's often a framework that we'll talk about and there's a way to think about it so that when you do hire an advisor, you go my life's way better and I've thought through this intentionally when it comes to truly going, yes, it's time to hire an advisor. How is it that you think about this when you're speaking to someone?

Speaker 2:

Kind of like what you just mentioned, I think, but in the sense of is something broken? Is there pain, is there something that needs to be fixed? And that's only one part of it, though, and I'll say, like, like the doctor, very much like the doctor, your leg is broken, you feel pain, you know that that needs to be fixed. The difference is, when you're doing that, that's very much a reactionary thing, that's very much of a something already happened. I need to fix it, hopefully with an advisor. It's also a preventative thing. It's not just the doctor that fixes things, it's the doctor that helps to keep you healthy, it's the doctor that helps to keep you in shape, in line, and all of this from a financial perspective, of course, to hopefully avoid some of those pains that may have existed without an advisor. And so I think that the biggest thing is well, does something hurt? Is something painful? That could be anything from I know I'm getting crushed in taxes because I don't know how to manage my portfolio, my tax strategy, correctly To. I know I'm not performing as well as I should or my portfolio is way out of whack. Whatever the case might be, that is a type of pain. Maybe you feel totally good and, in fact, I would venture to say a lot of people who are listening to this, people that listen to podcasts and listen to videos, and they're they know a lot of that stuff. They've listened to the, the how to's, the. What to look for is it's not necessarily a my portfolio is out of whack, my tax strategy is missing, or it's more of that.

Speaker 2:

Peace of mind is lacking, which is very much a type of pain, and one of the things that we'll talk about a lot, ari, is we'll encourage people to spend their money a lot. What do you spend it on? Spend it on something that's going to increase your quality of life. That can be a vacation, that can be a home upgrade, that can be something that feels totally frivolous, but it just adds to your quality of life. It increases your peace of mind In many ways.

Speaker 2:

If it's the right advisor and if it's the right person looking for advice, that's the role that an advisor can fill as well you are paying for something that's providing peace of mind. It's making you happier. There's actual studies that show this, that there is this pain I feel, and it's not as quantitative as I know. I'm paying $30,000 per year too much in taxes as much as it's, I'm feeling the weight of this financial burden that I have to manage for the rest of my life or I'm feeling like the cost of a mistake here is not something that I want to potentially live with and it's that anxiety or that burden that is a pain and you hire an advisor a good advisor if you want to alleviate that pain and, much like a doctor, not just fixing things when they're broken, but take that preventative approach to a healthier, overall, more well-balanced approach to things. That hopefully prevents a lot of the things that otherwise may have broken.

Speaker 1:

The number one word that you just said is proactive throughout all of that is I want a proactive planner to tell me things I otherwise couldn't have known, because I'm not to ask you, but I'm going to be sharing just a moment a statement from a current client at Root, who has given us permission very kindly. When we asked him, hey, what was your experience like working with Root? He shared something that I think might surprise a lot of you, and I'm going to start sharing this in a moment. But, james, my first question for you is if someone were to ask you, such as myself, when is the best time to invest, what would you say? Yesterday, and that's the exact statement I'll hear from most people when it comes to why didn't I hire Root earlier. Now, that is us tooting our horn, but I will give the example of. I don't necessarily wake up in the morning and go. I need to go to the dentist today, but I know I should, and so we all know, okay, what's really best for us in terms of our health, which is start as soon as possible. I'm going to give you guys the statement partial statement from a client, and I'm going to start digesting this with James so you guys can start to see why it is that we're making this episode today.

Speaker 1:

So this comes from a client who says I am a DIY person. We're going to explain what that means in a second. But he goes on to say I often do things myself, even if it means buying tools that cost nearly as much as hiring someone else or spending hours of study on how to do something. It's not unusual for me to take on almost any job to save money, and in some cases, not just to save money but just to do it myself.

Speaker 1:

He gives five reasons why he hired Root. I'm going to go through all of them by the end of the episode, but I'm going to start with the first one. And the first one he says here is outside expertise. He goes on to say sure, I could spend hours or days trying to get versed in all the rules and issues, but my wife and I both agreed that even if I did that, we might not trust that we didn't miss something and likely not sleep very well on a plan we created on our own. He goes on to talk about how his advisor saved him money and that that's not the main reason he hired Root. So when it comes, james, to actually going, wow, peace of mind, is it worth it? Could I do it on my own? Do you actually? And have you met with people who said, hey, I can do it on my own, I don't want to, of course a lot of people who have gotten to the point where they're reaching out to us.

Speaker 2:

They didn't just wake up one day with a massive inheritance or win the lottery. They got there because they saved prudently, they invested, they did a lot of the right things along the way. It's just they're at the point where they're saying I recognize that life is kind of short. I recognize that this window of time to enjoy everything I want to do is not going to be here forever. Why would I want to do anything that pulls me away from being able to love the best version of the life I want to love? And I think that that's that doesn't have to start when you retire.

Speaker 2:

By the way, I'm not going to try to make this about me, but like, I think that, as I look at like what my wife and I will do, a big part of our philosophy I used to talk about like, yeah, what we'll do is we'll pay for a grocery delivery, because I hate going to the grocery store and if that saves us two hours a week, I'll pay for that $10 delivery fee plus tip all day long. Like that's just two hours back that we now get, and I think of just how that's even evolved over time of everything from and obviously this depends upon financial situation. Don't just spend frivolously based on how you are, but a lot of the financial decisions that my wife and I have made are very much. How can we spend our money to get our time back so we can spend that time with each other, and that's everything from meal delivery grocery delivery I should say to can someone help clean the house to things around the least handy person in the world. So that was an easy one to delegate. If something breaks in the house, have someone come fix it. But even like we're recording this on a Monday, monday night, ashley and I we do our date nights every single week and we have someone who comes and watches our kids and that's an expense and we could try to say, well, let's try to time it to make sure my parents are available, or actually your parents, or we get. No, we're just going to pay someone and every single week this is going to be a thing we're, and these are just simple examples, but it's the. We know that we don't have to think about this. We just get to go spend some quality time together because we have someone that we fully trust watching over the two most important people in our lives and we just get to go, be together and connect.

Speaker 2:

And that doesn't necessarily relate perfectly to an advisor, but people hire an advisor because it's look, I've gotten to this point. I don't want a mistake to be made by myself continuing to do this. But, more importantly, life is short. There's only so many, and it's not even just a time thing. Yes, there's only so much time that we have, but there's only so much attention that we have. There's only so many things we can focus on. There's only so much bandwidth I can give. There's only so much bandwidth I should say that I can give all of myself to is being my own advisor One of those things I want to give all of myself to. It might be good on you if that's the case. Great, if that's not detracting from your ability to do everything else, awesome. But for those people that say I know what I value, I know what's important to me. It's my time with my spouse, it's my time with my family, it's my time pursuing the things I'm passionate about Wonderful.

Speaker 2:

How do you take everything that's not that and use the money that you have to buy back your time to buy back your attention, to buy back the only non-renewable currency they'll talk about.

Speaker 2:

Which is your time to actually do the things that you love currency they'll talk about. Which is your time to actually do the things that you love. And that's a big part of why people come to root. Of course, they can do some of these things. I would argue that we could probably do them better, just simply because this is our profession, this is what we've studied, this is what we spend all day, every day, doing. But the biggest thing isn't just the we're doing it better. Which can we substantiate that? It depends on the situation. All that stuff, full disclosure, that's who knows, but it's the bigger picture stuff. It's the peace of mind, it's the time they get back, it's the bandwidth they get back, it's the attention they get back, that now they can just totally go live and do what they want to do, knowing that this very big piece of their life is being taken care of.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to pretend to be someone who's reaching out to Root, and I'll often do this because it's fun. I think a lot of you resonate with it. You tell me this. But, james, everything you just said there was very logical. Yes, you go pay for grocery delivery so you get more time to record more podcasts and you can hang out with your family, and beautiful. But is it worth it? That's what I think a lot of people are always going back to. Is it worth it?

Speaker 1:

Now, the answer very well may be, and I think you do a beautiful job of framing this of you can quantify it to the nth degree. And if that is what's going to be the decision for you, meaning you're going to have to pay X dollars and that's going to stress you out because every month you're going to see a dollar and wonder could I do that instead? I believe we would be the people to truly say I don't think you should hire us because you're going to be beating yourself up every month going I don't want groceries delivered, I want to go pick out the groceries. But for most of you, if we were to ask you, what do you want to spend your time doing in retirement, I have never had someone tell me I want to read tax laws.

Speaker 1:

Now, if someone were to say that I'd go, look, it sounds like you really love it and that this is what you'd want to spend your time doing. But going back to that, is it worth it? If someone were to ask you, james, is it really worth it? I know I could probably figure this out. I mean, my wife yeah, I haven't seen her in a few years because I've been working, but I can't be with her all the time at home. Or vice versa, my husband, is it really worth it to pay an advisor? How would you help frame their mindset?

Speaker 2:

Do you enjoy doing it, mr Ari, who's my prospective client right now?

Speaker 1:

I really enjoy doing it, but I am getting older and so I'm starting to enjoy it less, only because I know I have less time, but I do think I'm really good at it.

Speaker 2:

How much of your time and attention are you spending ballpark each month doing?

Speaker 1:

this Each month. I would say each month. I'm probably spending 20 hours 20 hours.

Speaker 2:

Okay, what are the things that you do care about most? What lights you up? What makes life worth living to you?

Speaker 1:

I love traveling more than anything in the world. I want to be in an RV, and that's actually one of the things that is interesting, because sometimes I don't have Wi-Fi when I'm in my RV and I'm trying to rebalance my portfolio, so that stresses me out, okay.

Speaker 2:

Could it be, ari, that we're playing the wrong game, and by the wrong game, I mean, are we tracking the right things? If the financial optimization is all that there is we talk about this all the time Could you have saved a dollar here? Optimization is all that there is. We talk about this all the time. Could you have saved a dollar here? If you really enjoy this, if this lights you up, if you get excited by doing this, if you're really good at this, ari, I can't speak to that or not. I'm just meeting you for the first time. I don't know what you're doing for those 20 hours in your RV, rebalancing your portfolio. Maybe you're really good, maybe you really enjoy it. Maybe there aren't family concerns of what happens. If something happens to you in terms of your estate plan, your legacy plan, the continuity of your financial affairs being continued, if that's the case, you probably don't need to see an advisor. Make sure everything's dialed in. You know, it's not just investment stuff, it's taxes, it's insurances, it's legacy, it's all that. But Maybe you don't. Someone that loves doing this and wants to save money like why would you go see an advisor? At least my dad is an example.

Speaker 2:

I was shopping for a new car. This was about 10 years ago. I hate car shopping. He loves it. He was going online everywhere. He was like Dad, you're doing all this and you might save I don't know 300 bucks for hours and hours and hours. Is it really worth it? He said, yeah, I love doing it. It's like a game to him, very different. So if this is a game to you, if you love doing this, if you enjoy it and you're getting some savings, awesome. If you're not enjoying it, I would rather see you pay someone so you could spend your time doing what you actually enjoy.

Speaker 2:

I don't mean to cut you off there. I think you're trying to say something. The last thing I'll say here is when I started talking about playing the wrong game. Sometimes the game that we're playing is just a financial game. How do I optimize the numbers? It's that's because it's all we know. We've kind of been living this. I don't want to get too philosophical but puppeted lifestyle our whole lives of we're supposed to get the bonus we're supposed to save and it just becomes all about optimizing the numbers on paper or on the balance sheet and less about well, who do I actually think that I am? What do I actually want to do with my life? Is that really rebalancing and tax loss, harvesting and retirement planning and all this stuff? If the answer is yes, great, do it. But if it's not, yes, that might be time to consider having someone help you with this, so that you can figure out who you are and go do those things that light you up.

Speaker 1:

Role play. Ari was ready to interrupt you and say oh, james, trust me, I get all these calls. It says likely spam, but I think it's people who just want me to manage their money because there's no way they can know. But I think they just know secretly, deep down, that I'm an expert. And the joke that I'll often tell clients is I'll say hey, you just told me that this is a prospective client. I'll say you just told me that you love this, is that right? And they go yeah, I really love this. And I go why are you reaching out? And they'll say well, I feel like maybe there's something I'm missing, but I just don't know. Like maybe I have everything, and I'll go do you want to live your entire life wondering if there's something you're missing? And then they start to go you know what? No, and I'll say is this something that you love doing? Or your spouse? And they'll go I love doing it, but my spouse, they have no interest at all. And then all of a sudden they start to go wow, it feels different having an advisor. So I like what you're saying, james, which is it's not for everyone. I don't think what we do is a need for everyone. I think it's a desire where people go. You know what. My life would be better with Root or a financial advisor in it, and that's when it makes sense to hire an advisor. Do not go hire an advisor if you're going to look at this statement every month and wonder, oh my gosh, this is so annoying, could I be doing this myself? So what I would like to do now, james if any other thoughts save them, I want to hear them. This is I just want to read the last few comments from this statement from our client, and once again I left off. They said look, my wife and I both agreed that even if I did, we might not trust we didn't miss something and likely not sleep very well on a plan we created on our own.

Speaker 1:

He goes on to say the second reason we hired Root no hassles. We meet with our advisor often. In between, we exchange emails without any effort on our part. We see a deposit every month for our expenses coming from the optimal place. We get an extra deposit for any taxes that are due. No work on our part. We just enjoy what we want to focus on. Number three is we just sleep better, knowing we're not alone on a multi-decade journey lets us sleep better. He goes on to say I was the primary financial control for our accounts before joining Root and now I know if anything were to happen to me, my wife would be in great hands. He goes on to also say fees are pre-tax for our accounts, which are majority in a 401k.

Speaker 1:

Ira, james, I think in a moment it's worth explaining that, not because people should work with us because of this, but many people aren't even aware of this. And he goes on to say this isn't a huge thing, but it does mean the effect of paying them doesn't show up as income. You need to pay taxes, on which we'll explain in a second. And then number five he just says bottom line. As someone who doesn't usually like paying for something, for anything I can do myself, I have to say I don't mind the fees at all. Sure, would I rather not pay them? I'm a human, but when I weigh out the cost benefits, it's certainly worth it to us to have my time. So, james, that point there on fees or pre-tax. Happy to kind of touch on that to end.

Speaker 2:

But if there's something else you just think people need to take away from this episode, please, no, I mean pre-tax. What does that mean? It means that if you're taking $1,000 out of your IRA and you're in a 30% tax bracket, combined, you're only keeping $700 of it. So really you need to take something like $1,300, $1,400 to end up with $1,000 of expenses. Well, if you're paying an advisory fee and that's coming from an IRA, that fee is not taxable when it comes out. So if I pull $1,000 in fees out of an account, it's $1,000 pre-tax. I mean that $1,000 in 30% tax bracket represented, or represents $700 to you of actual spendable money when you look at it that way. So it's spending the money to hire an advisor before taxes come out.

Speaker 2:

Big picture, just taking this back. Why are we doing this episode? Yes, is this to promote Root? To some extent? Only to the extent that we believe that the work we do is really powerful, transformative work. There's a lot of amazing advisors that we think do incredible work, transformative work.

Speaker 2:

So, yes, is this self-promoting?

Speaker 2:

Of course it's self-promoting, but that's only because when you see something and you see the transformation it has, why wouldn't you want every single person to experience that, and I think that those people ask when is it right to work with an advisor have experienced that, and I think that those people ask when is it right to work with an advisor?

Speaker 2:

If you're asking that question, if you're feeling like you might want to work with, there's probably a reason you're feeling like you might want to work with an advisor. If that question never comes up, it probably means you're so confident in what you're doing. Either you've got a ton of blind spots and just aren't aware of them, or you're maybe good, maybe you have this in hand. Not everyone needs an advisor I don't think everyone does but if you're asking that, if you're asking yourself that and if you're continuing to ask yourself that, it's probably a symptom. It's probably a signal that there's something in your financial life that's not fully at peace in your mind, something that could be done better, something that could be done in a way that gives you more peace of mind. That by itself, might be the sign that it's time to reach out and at least talk to a few advisors about possibly working together.

Speaker 1:

Beautifully said, that's it for this episode. I hope this was helpful. We have our joint episodes, james, called Root Talks, which is where all of you are listening or watching this right now. We both have our individual channels, both under our individual names. This is what we love to do. We make videos and podcasts to help give you insight when it comes to retiring, when it comes to making you think differently and really asking you to go wow, am I making the most out of what I'm working so hard for? If you really want to take it to the next level and optimize, this is, once again, what we love to do. If you go to our website, rootfinancialcom, you'll see a button in the upper right that says see if you're a fit. You can click there and get started. Thank you.