Insights from our 2025 ARQ Wealth Client Survey revealed that 22% of investors regret not seeking professional advice earlier, the largest percentage of any financial regret. While delaying your financial planning seems harmless in the short term, it can quickly put you behind schedule when it comes to reaching your goals.
There are many reasons why people delay hiring an advisor. They might be nervous about taking the first step, and that nervousness causes them to delay. Or, they aren’t entirely sure where to start, so they end up just not starting at all. Or, most likely, people simply get caught up in life’s many activities, with financial planning constantly getting pushed to the back burner.
Regardless of the reason, the end result is the same: Many people look back and wish they had sought financial advice earlier. Seeking professional advice earlier can help you:
- Take advantage of compounded growth
- Set clear goals and create a plan to reach them
- Navigate market downturns efficiently
- Minimize your tax burden
This article will explore why reaching out to a financial advisor as early as possible is crucial for reaching your financial goals.
Why is Seeking Professional Advice Early So Important?
Taking Advantage of Compound Growth
Starting early is especially important in financial planning because of compound growth, a phenomenon in which interest from investments starts to generate its own interest.
Compound growth allows your portfolio to grow exponentially over time, a critical factor in building wealth.
The sooner you start investing, the longer your investments have to grow. Let’s examine an example of how this works:
- Your 20s: Let’s say you build up a $10,000 nest egg in your 20s. If you earn a 5% annual return on that $10,000, then you’ll yield $500. This is something but it’s not exactly a significant sum.
- Your 30s: After another decade of earning, saving, and investing, you’ve built your nest egg into $100,000. That same 5% annual return now yields $5,000. This is a little bit better, but still not enough to make a dent.
- Your 40s: After a few more years, you’ve built your nest egg to $500,000, and a 5% return yields $25,000. This is where things really start to pick up.
- Your 50s: After a few more years, your nest egg is roughly $1,000,000, and that 5% return yields $50,000, a sum that seriously pads your annual income.
While this is a simplified example that excludes taxes and other variables, it showcases how a portfolio grows exponentially as it increases in size.
Even though you generated the same 5% return each year, your portfolio went from yielding $500 annually in your 20s to $50,000 in your 50s, all thanks to compounded growth.
The magic of compounding is partly why Warren Buffett accumulated 99% of his wealth after he turned 50.
Setting Goals and Creating a Plan
Almost everyone has financial goals, even if they don’t realize it. Do you want to eventually buy a home, pay down debt, or retire early? If so, you have financial goals. However, a goal without a plan is really just a dream.
Working with a professional advisor helps you clearly define your goals and set a plan to achieve them. Once this plan is in place, it’s just a matter of following through.
The best part is that financial plans often require minimal day-to-day effort, so you can focus on living life while your financial plan runs in the background.
Navigating Market Downturns Efficiently
An advisor helps provide clarity and direction during periods of economic turmoil. When the market drops, it’s natural to want to sell off your assets and never go near the stock market again. However, fluctuations are a natural part of investing, and selling during a downturn is usually a short-sighted mistake that locks in losses.
An advisor can help offer reassurance and strategic advice when the market is trickiest to navigate, helping to ensure that you stay on the correct course to reach your goals.
Minimizing Your Tax Burden
Advisors also play an important role in helping minimize your tax burden while your nest egg grows.
The United States tax code is incredibly complex, and non-optimized decisions could erase years of investment gains.
For example, let’s say a savvy investor built up their portfolio from $0 to $1,000,000 over the course of several decades. While this is an impressive feat that puts them on track for a comfortable retirement, the size of their nest egg will depend on how they’ve structured their investments.
If the portfolio is in a regular brokerage account, then the investor will likely be on the hook to pay long-term capital gains tax at a rate of up to 20%. This would instantly wipe out $200,000 from their portfolio, setting them back years. Had they set up this portfolio in a Roth IRA, then they could’ve avoided the tax hit. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of similar scenarios.
As the saying goes, it’s often not about how much you make, but how much you keep.
Why Do People Wait to Hire an Advisor?
The benefits of working with a financial planner are hard to argue, yet many people still choose to delay. Here are some of the most common reasons why:
- They try to do it themselves: With so many online investing apps and tools, it’s tempting to try and manage your finances by yourself. But markets are unpredictable, and emotional decision-making often leads to buying high, selling low, or straying from a strategy altogether. An advisor provides discipline and perspective during volatile times, something many investors only realize they need after a setback.
- They think they don’t have enough money: Contrary to popular belief, financial planning isn’t reserved for the wealthy. In fact, becoming wealthy is often the result of smart planning. Waiting until you’re wealthy to start financial planning is a bit like waiting until you’re in amazing shape to start going to the gym. The sooner you start working with an advisor, the more impact their guidance will have.
- They don’t trust the advising industry: Many advisors get paid a commission for selling certain financial products, which creates a direct conflict of interest and sows distrust. This is partly why ARQ Wealth Advisors chooses to be a fee-only firm. We are compensated directly by our clients, eliminating any conflicts of interest and creating a culture of trust.
If any of these reasons sound familiar, then take this as your sign to stop putting this crucial life decision off any longer.
Don’t Let This Become Your Regret
Putting off hiring an advisor may feel harmless in the short term, but it can have devastating long-term effects. You don’t want to wake up one day and realize you’ve got an underfunded retirement, have been paying unnecessary taxes, or missed out on key opportunities to build wealth, all because you never got around to making a phone call.
Don’t just take our word for it. Listen to the dozens of ARQ Wealth clients who all wished they had approached a professional advisor sooner.
Make today the day that you create a financial plan and start taking control of your financial future. You can reach the team at ARQ Wealth by filling out our contact form or calling (480) 214-9572.