In honor of the 100th episode of the Money Wisdom Question Series, Joel Johnson, CFP® gets into the answers to top questions we’ve gotten over the years.

Today’s question is: what are the top three pieces of financial advice?

First of all, you want to take care of yourself. We have seen so many people come in for financial advice that have taken care of their kids, their grandkids, and everybody else. Then, when they get into retirement, they find themselves running out of money or not having the type of lifestyle they want because they’ve helped other people too much. That sounds counterintuitive but take care of yourself first.

The second thing is you want to sit down and write a financial plan with somebody that you can trust and have that person monitor that plan. It’s really important that you work, as a team, with a fiduciary financial planner that has the wisdom of helping other clients walk from the point of retirement all the way to their passing. So, it’s important that you find that team member.

Lastly, have the most flexibility and control over your plan. Make sure that you or your financial advisor is in control of that plan. Make sure somebody else isn’t in control, like maybe a former employer when you have money in a 401(k) or so on.

Those are the top three pieces of financial advice that I would give you today based on so many questions that we’ve gotten from you, our audience.