Financial Planner Advised Against New Investments

[Latimer Luis]

Really quickly about myself: 36/married/california and started in REI (out of state buy & hold) about 2.5 yrs ago.

I started looking for a CFP just to get a third party to look into our finances and advise us on where to allocate our money. I explained that my goal was to acquire 1 property a year (through loans) for the next 5 years while I still had a W-2 to help prepare for retirement.

After he put together our fin plan, he advised me that I should hold off on these properties and instead concentrate on putting more money into my 401K (currently only putting 5%, no employer match) and to pay down the existing loans for two of my other properties. (All less than 6% rates).

I’m not asking whether his advice is correct, but whether I should be verifying this somehow? I feel like I would have to pay another retainer to someone else just to validate the plan.

Most CFP's I have been talking to don't seem to factor real estate investing into their long term strategies for retirement. He at least knew a little bit about REI and understood what I was trying to do, so thats why I moved forward with him. I was hoping to get a fresh set of eyes on our financial goals, so I guess his advice was exactly what I had asked for. Curious to know how others have worked with their CFP's regarding their investments and if they went against advice like this anyway?

[Mike Dymski]

Find out his real estate investing experience to assess fit with your situation.

Also, find out if he is getting the results that you want to achieve. Those are the people you want to learn from.