Whether you’ve tried to Google your way to financial clarity or sat down with a financial planner (or at least someone who called themselves a financial planner) you may have had a version of this question cross your mind, “How do I know the advice this person provides is the right advice for me? What is the basis for telling me to make one financial decision over another?”.

How do I know the advice this person provides is the right advice for me?

Even if you’ve never had these thoughts, I think it’s critical to understand the core beliefs that govern any advice, financial or otherwise, that you receive and act upon from trusted counsel.

Seven Guiding Principles

At Ten Talents Financial Planning, there are seven Guiding Principles that govern the financial planning advice provided to all clients. The Merriam-Webster definition of a principle is “a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption” and “a rule, or code of conduct”.

So what are these assumptions and rules that govern Ten Talents advice? Let’s take a look below.

1. We pursue the best interests of our clients rather than our own.
2. We pursue honest, yet sensitive, dialogue in all financial discussions.
3. We pursue the reduction of complexity in our client’s financial lives.
   • That is, when faced with a problem that could be solved with a complex solution or a simple solution, all things being equal, we pursue the simple solution.
4. We pursue eliminating unnecessary investment costs and fees.
5. We pursue financial decisions that eliminate debt obligations.
6. We encourage clients to ask “why” questions.
7. We believe in the pursuit of contentment.
   • That is, we seek to advise clients how to relate with money as a means rather than an end to itself.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll unpack each Guiding Principle and share more specifically what each one means in real life, with real financial decision-making.

What are your Guiding Principles?

What are your Guiding Principles for life, business, or personal finance? I’d love to hear your thoughts and learn what Principles have shaped you as a person.

Text me at (720) 710-0939 or email me at kaleb@tentalentsfp.com.

-Kaleb Paddock, CFP®

You can learn more about Ten Talents and Kaleb, a financial planner based in Parker, CO, here.