Soreness

Since belonging to an overpriced gym wasn't expense enough, I now have a personal trainer.

This is a decision I went back and forth on for a while.  I go to the gym regularly, I get in decent workouts on my own, and I certainly haven't plateaued.  So perhaps the added expense of a personal trainer might not be necessary.

On the other hand, I often get to the gym, and wander a bit.  A few minutes on the treadmill, a walk around the track, five minutes on the elliptical, a walk past the bikes, a glance at the stair climbers, before heading back for a few more minutes on the treadmill, hopping off for a trip to the water fountain, annnnd, well, you get the idea.

With a personal trainer, all I have to do is show up.  No thinking, no planning, nothing to worry about.  Even during the workout, someone else is doing the counting, the timing, the watching of my form.  Someone else is selecting how much weight I should use and how many reps I should do.

Before I know it, an hour has passed, and my entire body is feeling a workout I barely noticed.  The next morning I wake up sore in a way I rarely do when I work out on my own.

This is also my main reasoning behind once again plugging financial planners.  If you don't have one, because you didn't believe me when I wrote about them before, it's time to consider one again.

Much like a personal trainer, they are specifically trained to get you in better shape financially.   Just like a trainer might help one person lose weight, another person bulk up, and a third person gain stamina; a financial planner can help you design a debt payoff-plan, grow wealth, or just plan for future expenses from college educations to vacations to retirement.

They will discuss your personal goals and make a plan for you using their expertise.  A good financial planner will find out what you want, and will set a plan that you might let you feel a little soreness at first (fully funding my ROTH IRA necessitated an adjustment to my regular old savings account contributions, believe me), but overall leaves you feeling better.

Best of all, for me, a financial planner handles the details.  You show up, discuss the plan, and then put it into their hands.  (OK, you should at least pay attention to the statements and tell them if it's too much or too little...money, risk, etc).

At the end of my six weeks with a personal trainer I know I will see results I would not get on my own, even though she didn't make me do anything I didn't already know HOW to do.

At the end of the year, or 6 years, I know I will see results from my financial planner I would not have gotten on my own, even though I am completely capable of putting that same amount of money aside each month.