Are You Prepared to Be the Financial Advisor of Tomorrow?

Written by: Matthew Phillips | The last words of the email stood out the most. “… the thing is … we are deaf.” This is how the prospective client closed her message to me in 2017.

When I agreed to meet with the woman and her husband, I was feeling uncertain about how to best communicate with them. To prepare, I added captions to my usual video presentation. But halfway through, I realized the couple was completely overwhelmed with the financial vocabulary I was using, which was entirely new to them. Improvising, I pulled up a blank Word document and started typing which allowed us to converse back and forth. I felt completely inadequate and regretted not preparing more, but did my best to connect with the couple.

To my surprise, the meeting concluded with the wife rejecting my handshake and instead grabbing onto me tightly as she began to cry. “Matthew, thank you for what you have done,” she said. “We have sat with five advisors, and none have come close to helping us like you have. I know we have missed out on financial opportunities because we are deaf.”

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You’re in a pinch and in desperate need of money. You’ve already asked family members for help, but nobody can assist you. You’ve heard of a personal loan before, but is taking one out a good idea?

In short, it depends on your particular financial situation. If you’ve racked up high-interest credit card debt, for example, and you can take out a personal loan with a lower interest rate to consolidate and pay off that debt, a personal loan might be right for you. But if you have other assets you can borrow against that will have lower interest rates — such as a 401(k) loan or a home equity line of credit (HELOC) — you might want to consider pursuing those lines of credit instead of a personal loan.

Here’s everything you need to know about when a personal loan might be worthwhile, and when you might want to look elsewhere.

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