Chiropractic News

Ask an expert

I come from a humble, working-class family. My father was a steelworker; my mother, a full-time homemaker who cared for me and my six siblings.

As you might imagine, we didn’t have a lot of discretionary money.

It was difficult for my parents to put money aside for the future. What little money they did save, they put into savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs). They knew nothing of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

Because I had no exposure to investing, during my early years as a working adult, I, too, put money into the safety of savings accounts and CDs.

Slowly, though, I began to educate myself about investments. My first baby step was to put money into money markets. Later, I bought an annuity. And finally, I decided it was time to invest in mutual funds.

I can still remember the fear I felt as I wrote the check for my first mutual fund. What if the market goes down? I thought. Will I lose everything?

In the many years since I opened my first investment account, the market has gone up, gone down, and gone up again — several times.

Ignorance caused much of my fear of the stock market in those early years. Although I had learned how the market operated, I remained ignorant about which funds I should buy. I didn’t have anyone to advise me and didn’t know where to get the advice. I felt that the people who sold me the funds made their recommendations based on the commissions they would receive.

That changed when my husband and I hired a financial planner. We talked with several experts and finally found someone who inspired a comfort level because of two things: He “knew his stuff” and he genuinely had our interests at heart.

The lesson I learned was this: Ask for help from an expert. Finding an expert who could complement my lack of knowledge and skill was the best decision I could have made for my financial future.

This issue is devoted to financial planning and wealth building. I hope you enjoy it.

Until next time,

Linda Segall, Editor-in-Chief