What You Need to Know About Financial Advisors with Chris Mamula

Today on episode 60 I’m pleased to welcome back Chris Mamula, who you may recall from episode 3. Chris is a writer, author, and partner at CanIRetireYet.com, who achieved financial independence at age 41 to pursue a life centered around family and the outdoors.

Beginning in early 2022, in search of a new challenge, Chris completed the education and exam necessary to become a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Two questions emerge from this development:

  1. Why would someone who theoretically doesn’t need to work begin a new career?
  2.  How can someone who harbors admittedly dogmatic views against the financial advice industry find a comfortable home working in this field?

Today we discuss the different kinds of financial advisors, the nature of complex incentives in professional financial advice, Chris’s recommended approach to choosing a financial advisor, and so much more about behavior, psychology, and the tangled emotions of money management.

Topics Discussed with Chris Mamula

  • What is a CFP and who can be one?
  • What is the fiduciary standard and how is “the client’s best interest” defined?
  • The types of fee structures and the nature of incentives in the financial advise industry
  • Chris’s recommended fee structure when choosing a financial advisor
  • Why did Chris leave early retirement to pursue this career move?
  • Financial coaches vs financial advisors: Who can give financial advice?
  • Has this process changed Chris’s approach to his own personal finance?
  • How Chris can reconcile being both against and part of the financial advice industry
  • The commitments of time and money to being a CFP
  • Conflict of interest issues as a financial blogger?
  • What is needed more in financial planning: behavioral interventions or nuts and bolts financial advice?
  • The psychology of switching from saving to spending: scarcity to abundance, relationship challenges
  • How typical is it for early retirees to return to work or a second career?
  • Paid vs volunteer work for purpose and fulfillment
  • Thoughts on fear and risk management in the face of uncertainty
  • Can you trust early retirement strategies when most FIRE bloggers are not actually retired?
  • Did the FIRE movement only work for those who did the majority of their saving in the Great Bull Market?
  • So much more!

Get in Touch with Chris Mamula

Chris’s previous podcast interview: EP 3: Chris Mamula: One Bite at a Time

Find Chris’s writing at CanIRetireYet.com

Chris provides financial advice at Abundo Wealth

Chris’s book (co-authored with Jonathan Mendonsa and Brad Barrett): ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence

My ChooseFI book review: ChooseFI Book Review: A Blueprint Indeed

Related Content

Is The Cost and Effort to Become a CFP Worth It? (CanIRetireYet)

Developing Systems To Conquer Your Early Retirement Fears (CanIRetireYet)

Darrow Kirkpatrick: Beyond Doubt on the Colorado Trail (Clipping Chains)

Books

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever (Michael Bungay Stanier)

Scar Tissue (Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman)

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted (Suleika Jaouad)

Towers Falling (Jewell Parker Rhodes)


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