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When you’re in financial need, the last thing you want to worry about is how you’ll pay for help. Whether you’re looking for advice on how to navigate your current financial situation or want to become financially literate for the future, there are resources available to help you find free professional financial advice.
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Tap Into Your Existing Financial Resources
If you have existing accounts with a financial institution, it likely will have free tools and resources to help you learn more about finances.
Available tools may include free apps to help with money management, like budgeting or automated bill pay, or online educational hubs. There may also be educational videos that break down complicated financial topics or games to help you grasp financial concepts.
You can find these free tools through different sources, including:
- Banks. Many banks offer resources and tools through their websites or apps. Some may also provide in-person advice and education.
- Online brokerage accounts. Your brokerage account likely offers educational resources and tools to help you monitor and manage your portfolio.
- 401(k) provider or employer’s HR resources. If you have a retirement account, the provider may provide educational tools. Additionally, your employer’s human resources team may have access to information, resources or in-person educational sessions.
All of these institutions understand the value of financial education and how it relates to the well-being of customers and employees.
Where To Get Free Financial Advice
It’s never been easier to get the financial advice you need for free. There are thousands of hours of content on social media giving away high quality advice for free. The only trick is sorting through all of the noise and finding content that is good.
Pro Tip
To evaluate content on social media, ask yourself a few questions:
- What makes the person creating the content qualified to give this advice?
- Why did this person create this content? How will they benefit?
- Is the content creator recommending products or services that they financially profit from?
- Is the content creator speaking only from personal experience or are they using research from legitimate sources to back up their claims?
In addition to social media sources there are thousands of online articles where you can get information for free. Look for articles that quote experts or are written by experts that cite their sources.
There are also dozens of high quality personal finance books available at your local libraries. Books like “The Simple Path To Wealth” by JL Collins or “Your Money Or Your Life” by Vicki Robin are a great place to start.
Do I Need a Financial Advisor If I Don’t Have Much Money?
There are a number of reasons why someone may want to seek out financial advice, even if they don’t have a lot of money. They may have a complicated financial situation, be in the middle of a life transition or simply want to educate themselves on their finances.
If your financial situation is fairly simple and you have a good handle on your goals, risk tolerance and account types, then you likely do not need a financial advisor. Educating yourself through free resources may be sufficient for your needs, regardless of the amount of money you have.
However, if your finances are more complicated or you are experiencing big life changes, like graduating school or navigating a divorce, hiring a financial advisor may make more sense. Additionally, a financial advisor may be able to help you if you are looking to learn and you prefer having someone to work with you one-on-one.
Ultimately, it is not the amount of money you have that should dictate whether you hire a financial advisor. Rather, you should consider your goals, the details of your financial situation and your personal understanding of your finances.
How To Get Free Financial Advice
Getting free financial advice requires you to do a bit of homework. Start with the resources already available to you that we’ve outlined above. Read a few books on personal finance, listen to some podcasts, watch Youtube videos and make sure that you’re evaluating each source for quality.
Once you have a solid foundation of basic financial literacy you can reach out to professional organizations who offer their services for free. You can also seek out and join financial institutions that include free services with a certified financial planner, or CFP, for members.
Reach Out to Financial Services Associations
Those in need of free, personalized financial advice to help them through a difficult financial situation can turn to these resources for help:
Credit Counseling Services
If you’re struggling with money issues, such as a large debt burden, credit counseling services are available to help. Credit counseling can help you create a debt management plan, develop a plan to pay off your student loans, help you review your credit report for errors, educate you on purchasing a home and even help you avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy.
It’s important to know that there are a variety of credit counseling service companies, including nonprofit, free and for-profit companies. If you’re interested in working with a credit counseling service, ideally you should work with one that’s certified and affiliated with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling or with the Financial Counseling Association of America. These organizations also have databases to help you find a credit counselor in your area.
Pro Bono Financial Advisors
There are financial advisors out there who work on a pro bono basis, meaning they will offer their services free of charge. Usually, professionals that engage in pro bono service do it as a way to give back to their communities.
The Financial Planning Association, or FPA, offers pro bono financial planning to underserved communities through volunteer advisors across the country. In 2020 alone, the FPA provided free financial advice to nearly 12,000 consumers, including low-income individuals and families, domestic violence survivors and people affected by natural disasters or serious medical crises.
The FPA has a tool to help you find a chapter near you. You can contact each chapter individually to learn more about how you can receive free financial advice.
The Foundation for Financial Planning, or FFP, also offers pro bono financial planning services to consumers in need. The organization has a broader reach than the FPA. In 2021, FFP helped nearly 84,000 people in need through financial capability workshops and webinars and provided one-on-one financial planning sessions to over 8,000 individuals.
Engage With Free Online Resources
Free Online Personal Finance Courses
Structured learning approaches in the form of a course can be helpful for really diving into financial concepts and helping you retain what you’ve learned. There’s a variety of free online personal finance courses, including:
- MoneySmart. This is a free online personal finance course created by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. You’ll learn about everyday financial topics, including the basics of credit, how to create a spending and saving plan, and protecting your identity. The course incorporates learning material with games to keep users active and engaged. This course is also available in Spanish.
- Learning Lab by GreenPath. GreenPath is a free financial wellness platform that provides resources such as worksheets, guides and debt calculators to help consumers manage their finances. The Learning Lab is an online portal with various free courses and games that educate users on financial topics, including using an auto loan, rethinking your financial habits and more.
Related: Find A Financial Advisor In 3 Minutes
Free Worksheets
Worksheets are great tools that can help you visualize your current financial situation and what you hope for it to look like in the future. Examples of helpful worksheets include:
- How to make a budget
- Bill payment schedule sheet
- Debt management worksheet
- Future spending plan worksheet
By printing out these worksheets and filling them in, you’ll actively think about what small changes or goals you need to make now to meet your big goals in the near future.
Free Workbooks
Worksheets provide a snapshot of one aspect of your financial plan, but a full workbook can help walk you through the various steps of a specific goal or help you visualize your overall financial picture.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a financial empowerment toolkit—available in English, Spanish and Chinese—that includes worksheets on setting goals, tracking income, choosing financial products, protecting your money and more. Printed copies of the toolkit are available for free.
The FFP also offers a free workbook titled “Navigating Your Financial Roadmap.” The workbook walks you through the concepts of financial planning and provides worksheets to help you make a current and future spending plan, offers tips on how to restore your credit and provides help with making a debt management plan.
When Should You Pay for Financial Advice?
You may want to consider paying for financial advice if you are dealing with difficult financial circ*mstances, like paying down complex debt, navigating tricky tax situations or setting up trusts for your kids.
Not all financial advice is created equal, however, so make sure you do your research and understand the different types of financial advisors before you officially hire someone.
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