海角大神

About once a day, I hear from someone who lists off a bunch of their investments, says that they don鈥檛 think their financial advisor is doing a good job with their money, and asks me what they should do.

My first advice to them is usually to dump their advisor and handle their investing themselves. It鈥檚 actually incredibly easy to do this given all of the investment tools available to people online today.

Don鈥檛 get me wrong: there are a lot of good financial advisors out there that actually do help people through tough spots and get their finances straight. However, there are a lot of mediocre ones out there that just sit on a person鈥檚 money drawing a commission while doing nothing for them. Even worse, there are some out there who actively do you a dis-service.

Here鈥檚 the thing, though: that statement is true of anyone who provides a service, not just investment providers.

When you hire someone to mow your lawn, some of them will do an immaculate job. Some of them will do a job roughly equivalent to what you will do. And some of them will drive the mower over your rose bushes.

When you hire a plumber, some of them will fix the problem you called them for in a jiffy and fill the remaining time performing maintenance. Some of them will fix your problem and then loiter. Others will attempt to fix your problem and wind up flooding your basement.

There are great people, there are mediocre people, and there are awful people, no matter what you鈥檙e trying to accomplish.

In fact, it doesn鈥檛 matter what the task is 鈥� as long as there is a minimum level of qualification (and I mean minimum), the biggest difference between the people you hire is the kind of person they are. Are they the person who goes the extra mile? Are they the person who is there to collect a paycheck (which is fine for some jobs, but not for others)? Or are they the person who is grossly negligent?

I have a few little tests that I use whenever I hire someone for any purpose, whether it鈥檚 an accountant or a gardener.

First, never hire someone going door to door. Find out about services independently and contact the service provider yourself. I almost always use my social network first to ask for leads before turning to the 鈥淩ussian roulette鈥� game of the yellow pages.

Second, get away from negativity, fast. One key thing to ask someone when you鈥檙e thinking of hiring them for a task is what they expect from the customer. This is usually an open door for a negative person to start blasting away at some of their 鈥渁wful鈥� customers from the past. If you start hearing this kind of negativity from anyone you鈥檙e considering hiring, back away quickly.

Third, ask them what they can do better than a competitor. If they can鈥檛 come up with anything, then they likely don鈥檛 pride themselves on their work, so if you don鈥檛 get an answer, reconsider your choice. If you鈥檙e proud of your work, you can almost always come up with some element that you do well.

You should also ask them about their experience. If they can鈥檛 quantify their experience in any reasonable way, then be wary. Many people will put up a big false front of experience just to try to get a job, which is inherently dishonest. I鈥檇 far rather hire someone new who admitted they鈥檙e new than someone who tries to vastly overblow their experience, because honesty is key when you鈥檙e hiring someone.

Finally, describe the job you want them to do and ask if they鈥檙e up to it. If their immediate reaction without asking any sort of follow-up is 鈥淵eah, sure, no problem,鈥� then I get nervous. That means they鈥檙e claiming to be able to easily do something without knowing what it is. This can be fine for things like mowing a simple yard or replacing a kitchen faucet, but if the job seems complex to you at all and they鈥檙e not asking any follow-up questions, consider someone else.

If a person manages to get past these five red flags for me, I鈥檓 usually at least somewhat confident in hiring them. What red flags do you have when hiring someone?

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