Let's admit it, regardless of the task we often think we can do a better job than the others. Whether it's changing the oil of our cars or renovating our bathrooms. The truth is, many times we somehow pull it off without blowing up the car or tearing down the whole house. Nevertheless, there are times that we wish we never started the project on our own. If your spouse is a very out spoken person, you probably will never hear the end of how bad you failed his/her expectations.

So, why do we do it? Well, I can think of at least couple reasons - 1) we like the challenges and 2) we are bored with what we do for a living! The other person's job is always that much more interesting. 3) To save a buck. But do we really save money or cost us more?

Managing money is not an exception, many people think they were born to make money in the stock market. They feel that they have this unnatural power that they can predict the future. They compare themselves to the legendary investor Warren Buffett because they read his commentaries. Their choice of researching tool? Google, who they believe has all the answers they are looking for.

After years of experience in the financial service industry and meeting thousands of people, I have summarized 5 types of people who often are not successful investing on their own.

Investor Type 1: I'm too busy for anyone and anything

This type of people have no time for whoever and whatever. Their life is so busy that they hardly have time to use the bathroom. Let's face it, between work and family, if you still have time for investment researches you are probably not spending enough time with your family or just slacking off at work.

Investing takes time to research for the right stock or type of investment products to invest in. Without researching how do you know where to invest? If you want to test out your luck I suggest you go to the local casino and bet all your money on red at the roulette table. If you are lucky you might have better chance to make more money there. And most importantly without spending so much time researching it because time is what you don't have!

Investor type 2: Not interested

Unlike most animals, humans are curious about numerous things. This is what keeps us continue to evolve. However, every human has his/her own interests in certain things and sometimes develops passions towards to them. But what happens to the things that we are just not that interested in? We simply don't do it!

This is not good when someone has no interest whatsoever in investing. Their tendency is usually “avoid and ignore”. This type of people tend to let nature decides for their faith. If you are not paying attention to your money it'll go to someone else who is. The secret to becoming financially independent is to make sure your money is growing faster than you are making it. The goal is to have your money out earn you as soon as possible.

Investor type 3: Too emotionally involved

Money has no feelings, people do. If you force your emotions upon to your money it will act just like you. The biggest mistakes people make when it comes to investing is buy-high and sell-low. Interesting enough that when you ask anyone they will tell you that the only way to make money in the stock market is to buy-low and sell-high. It's such a simple logic yet most people don't follow it!

People are frightened when the market is down, so they want out. And when the market is at its highest they want in. The professionals had figured this out long time ago and developed specific strategies around this so they can take advantage of the market(or really the other investors).

Investor type 4: Above age 60

If you are age 60 or above and still trying to play with the stock market with most of your money and without professional help, it's either because you are playing the catch-up game or no one has ever told you that you shouldn't be doing that.

Market will go down and it will come back. That's just how it always works. As long as you are patient and with professional guidance you will make money in the long term either big or small. A normal market cycle takes about 5-10 years. The worst can happen to you is when you need the money it's not there. Unless you are diversified in your overall portfolio so that you have backup money in case you need it you shouldn't take huge amount of risk. An experienced financial advisor should be able to help you spread out out your portfolios based on your short term, midterm, and long term goals. All money must not be treated the same. It should have different purpose of its own. Defining your goals is crucial when it comes to portfolio allocation.

Investor type 5: I have so much money

You would think when one has so much money he/she can afford to lose more than the regular Joe's. First of all, it's all relative. Typically wealthy people spend more, too. Their lifestyle is probably very different from the regular Joe's. They have bigger houses, more expensive cars, and better dog cares. The bottom line is, they have more bills to pay. In order to keep up with this lifestyle they have to make more. No one should think they can afford to lose more. Such careless mindset itself will cost you a lot of money.

Second of all, wealthy people understand how important they keep their money continue to grow. They didn't come with all these money for no reason. They have accumulated through out the years by working hard and smart.  Many of them realize that their money didn't come easy. However, the problem with having so much money is to make sure the money is constantly working for them and not the other way around. This takes tremendous amount of energy, time, and creativity. So for them diversification is key. One can only invest in certain types of  investments so much until risk becomes so concentrated. The last thing they want is to lose their valuable assets and have to adjust their wonderful lifestyle.

Thirdly, wealthy people didn't get rich on their own. They comprehend very well how to utilize smart people to leverage their time. You will find many of them have team of experts surround them, attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors. etc. they have access to information and knowledge that they can't get on their own. You don't ever see them changing their own oil, do you? They rather use their time for things that matter the most to them, such as family and things they love to do.

Money may not be everything but without it our lives will be very different. Make sure your money is growing safely and it's constantly working for you and not the other way around. Look at how much you have accumulated from your hard work, how can you be so careless? Remember, at some point you may not be able to work anymore even if you desire to. You must save, grow, protect, and enjoy your money! Now, get help from a trusted financial professional! You deserve it!

Business Owner Questions

What type of corporation should I form? How do I benefit from a taxation stand point? From a legal stand point? Should I provide employee benefits, such as health insurance, group life insurance, group long-term disability income insurance, and 401k or IRA? What is a DB and DC Plan(Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution plan)? What's Profit Sharing Plan? Are any of my competitors doing these? What's the best option for me, my business, and my employees? Do I have to contribute to all my employees or can it be discriminatory? How do I keep my top employees and executives? What if one of them die pre-maturely or become disabled? Will that affect my business? By how much? How long will I recover from my losses? Should I consider a Key-man life and disability insurance? Should I consider an executive bonus plan? I have a partner in the business with me, what if he retires from the business, becomes disabled, or dies? How will his/her shares be distributed to his/her family? What if I don't want to liquidate part of my business to pay his/her family because I need the capital to run my business? Will his/her family want to be in business with me? Do I want them to be my business partners? Will I be dealing with their attorneys? Will there be broken relationships? I have a buy-sell agreement in place, should I fund the agreement? How? Contact us for a FREE business analysis.

Estate Planning Questions

What is a probate? How does it affect my family or me if my parents' assets were going through probate? Do I or my parents need a trust? What type of trust(s) do I need? What's a revocable and irrevocable trust? Do I only need a will? Should I have my trust own some of my assets and not others? Does a successor ownership make more sense? Should I name my trust as the primary beneficiary or contingent beneficiary? What is a Trustee? A Guardian? An Executor? Power of Attorney? Healthcare Agents? Will I owe estate tax when I die? How about my parents? If so how will that be paid and when and who will pay for it? What happens to my special needs child? Do I need a special trust for that? I'm not a U.S citizen, does it make a difference when it comes to estate planning and estate tax? What if I don't want to give one of my kids anything? What are JWROS, CPWROS, TOD, JTIC, CP, JTIE, JTOD, etc and their effects on my beneficiaries? Who will make medical decisions for me when I cannot? What's Advance Care Directive? Why do I need to have a copy with me and why do I need to have quick access to it?

Real Estate and Financing Questions

Should I purchase a home or rent? What are the benefits of owning vs. renting? Or vice versa? Should I buy a home in a great school district or rent? What are the costs or opportunity costs of these decisions? How does my mortgage interest help reduce my income tax? Am I putting too much down on the house? Or not enough? Should I get a 30 year fixed loan or 5/1 ARM? What's FHA? Should I refinance my house? With money out? Are loan interest rates going to rise or decrease? Should I pay more towards to my principal or use the money to invest? How much tax am I really deducting? Should I purchase the rental property or invest it in the stock market? What is my rental property's rate of return per year? Is my rental property a good investment after all? Do I have too much invested in real estate or not enough? Are there other alternative real estate investments? How do I participate in commercial real estate without a huge investment requirement? What is Real Estate Investment Trust? 

Investment Questions

Why should I invest? Do I have a purpose for my investment? Retirement? Kids' education? Saving for a house? Just simply grow my money to beat inflation? What is my goal? How long is my goal? When do I need this money? Do I need all of it or just part of it? Should I manage my own money? Do I have the time to watch the market every day? Do I know where opportunities are in the market today? Should I go international or domestic? Emerging markets or developed countries? Commodity or precious metal? Fixed Incomes or Equities? Large Cap or Small Cap? Or all of them? Do I have the resources and knowledge to manage my own money? Do I understand the market? What are preferred and common stocks? Mutual Funds? Bonds? Munis? ETFs? ETNs? MLPs? UITs? REITs? BDCs? LPs? DPPs? IULs? VULs? WLs? UMAs? SMAs? Alternative Investments? Private Equities? Hedge Funds? Partnerships? Options? What's the best for me? Do I need a broker or can I get all these on my own? Why do I want to invest in any of these? Are there tax advantages? What's tax harvesting? What is diversification? Am I diversified? Who's managing my money? How much fees am I paying my advisor to manage my money? How much fees am I paying in my 401k account at work? How much am I supposed to pay? How much risk can I take or do I want to take? Will it bother me a lot if I lost all of the money or part of the money? Will I be okay with a short-term loss for long-term gain? Are there strategies that can help me reduce risk? Are there any guarantees? Should I invest monthly? Quarterly? Annually? What's Active Management vs. Passive Management? Which style is better suited for me? Can I make money when the market is down? Up? Sideways? Where do the institutions invest their money? Can I get what they have? How are bond interests going to affect my investments? Should I purchase a rental property? Get your FREE investment analysis.

Tax Planning Questions

Am I employed or self-employed? Should I file single or join tax returns? Does it make sense to form a corporation? If so what type of corporation should I form? Should I itemize my deductions? What are the new Medicare SurTax rules? Do I have to pay for this new tax? If so how do I manage it so I don't have to pay it? What's short term and long term capital gain tax? Which one am I paying? Why is my long term capital gain tax is over 20% where my friends are only paying 15%? How do I lower my long term capital gain tax? How is my social security and healthcare tax calculated? I'm a W2 person, how do I reduce my tax liabilities other than my mortgage interests and 401k contributions? Are there investments that can help me reduce my tax liabilities? I'm self-employed with a few employees, are there ways I can put much more money away other than having a SEP IRA, Simple IRA or 401k plan? How do I lower my tax bracket? Will tax eventually go up or down? What's the difference between long-term capital gain tax vs short-term capital gain tax? How do I go from STC to LTC and save on taxes? How will my charitable donations benefit me and others? Am I violating the gift tax rule? Do I need to pay tax when I'm dead? How do I manage that so my heirs will get the maximum assets I pass on to them? 

Insurance Planning Questions

I have a life insurance policy, how much insurance do I have? Why did I buy it? How did I come up with that insurance amount? Is it enough or too much? What company did I buy it from? How is that company doing now? When did I purchase it? Is my insurance agent still in business? Is there a newer and better product now? What type of policy is it? Term? Whole Life? Universal Life? Accidental only?  Did I purchase any riders? How does it work? Do insurance companies change their rates from time to time like car insurance? Can I get a better rate on my 5 year old insurance policy from a different insurance company? And extend my term years? Is there such a thing as forever-term? Can I get a better rate if I stopped smoking? A better cholesterol level? Lost a few pounds? Can I keep my  insurance policy through my employer if I lost my job? What if my new employer doesn't offer this benefit? Is it more expensive to get my own insurance when I'm older (when I’m not as healthy as I used to be or is uninsurable due to a major disease)? Is there guaranteed issue product that doesn't consider my health level? Can I get a refund at the end of the term if I don't die? Do I have to die to use the money in the life insurance? Can I take out money in my life insurance for emergency, sickness, disability, long term care needs, retirement supplement, education funding, or for whatever I want to use it for? How is the death benefit taxed? Is the cash value in my account being taxed? How can I access the cash value tax free? Can I invest in mutual funds in my insurance policy? Can I sell my insurance policy for cash?

Do I have Long-Term Disability Income insurance through work? Am I paying for it or my employer is? Can I add more during enrollment? What percentage of my income does it cover? Does it cover my base salary only or plus my commissions and bonuses? How about my stock options? Can I take my disability insurance policy with me when I leave my job? Does it make sense to purchase a supplemental policy on my own? Can I still get it after I leave my job and maintain the same rate? How long does my disability insurance policy cover me for? How long do I have to wait until my benefit kicks in? How do I qualify for the claims? Does it have inflation protection? Does it guarantee that I can purchase more at the same rate even if I'm not healthy or if I changed career? Is my premium guaranteed? Can I still work part time and continue to receive benefit? Does it have survivor benefit? Do I receive benefit as long as I'm disabled? Any other benefits that I’m not aware of?

I have a Long-Term Care insurance policy, is my premium guaranteed to not increase? Has the premium increased before or will be? Does my policy allow me to write off my premiums each year? What if I don't end up using the insurance do I get anything back? Does it pay my beneficiary a death benefit if I die? Do I receive the benefit in the form of cash or reimbursement? Does it cover me forever or just a few years? Under what conditions can I go on a claim? Can my CalPERS plan go up in premiums? I don't have a LTCi policy, how will I pay for my care or my family members' care?

FREE extensive insurance analysis.

Education Planning Questions

Should I consider a private elementary school through high school or own a house in a good school district? What are the cost differences? Would I rather live in a smaller house in a better school district? Do I want to pay for my kids' college expenses, such as tuition, room and board? 100% or 50%? What type of schools should they consider? State? UC (CA only)? Private? Out of state or country? When should I start saving for college funds? What are my saving options? 529 plan? Coverdell? Savings bonds? UGMA? UTMA? Life Insurance? Regular investment accounts? Real Estate? Cash? How do these plan work and which one is better suited for me? Will these plans have any negative effects on scholarships and financial aids? Can I qualify for financial aid? What schools offer what types of aid? Public or Private? Are there free scholarship credits? If so, how do I get them? Contact us for a FREE education funding analysis!

Retirement Planning Questions

How much do I need to retire? Am I saving enough to eventually retire comfortably? Is there a gap between my social security and my retirement plans? How do I make up that gap? What if I outlive my retirement plans? What if I want to continue to work but can't due to physically incapable or because no one wants to hire me at that age? Can I rely on social security? What if what they say is true.. that social security is running out of money? What happens to my pension plan if my employer laid me off or closes down the business? Can I self fund a pension plan? What is RMD?What happens if I don't take distributions during RMD? How much am I required to take by the RMD? How much should I withdraw from my retirement plans so that they will last as long as my remaining life?  Calculate your social security benefits. 

Is it true that I will only receive 75% of my social security benefit at age 62? What's the best time to start taking my social security benefit? When will I get the full benefit? Should I take my benefits out first or my spouse's? What if my spouse has passed away? What if I have been divorced? Can I take my ex-spouse's benefit because his/her benefit is higher than mine? How many different ways are there to access my benefits and my spouse's? What's the best way out of all? Contact us for a FREE Social Security Analysis.

How much will healthcare cost me when I'm retired? Run a FREE detailed analysis.

Is there such thing as FREE money from my employer? Should I contribute to my 401k plan? How much should I contribute to it? Is maxing it out always the right answer? Can I contribute more than the max amount set by the IRS? How do I contribute to a Roth IRA if my income is too high? What other options there are that are similar to Roth IRA? How does 401k work? Taxed? Loan options? Penalized? Can I take money out of my 401k at anytime? What's Roth 401k? Why people convert their 401ks to Roth IRA? How does it work? When should I consider doing that? I don't know how to manage my 401k/403b/457 and I never look at it, can someone help me with my 401k/403b/457 investments? What's the difference between a 401k, Solo 401k, 403b, 457, Roth 401k, 401a, 409a, 412e3, Keogh, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, Simple IRA, SARSEP, ESOPs, Annuity, Payroll Reduction IRAs, Defined Contribution, Defined Benefit, Deferred Compensation, Profit Sharing Plan, etc. How do my stock options work? NSO? ISO? ESPP? RSU? RSA? What's exercising an option? When ar they vested? How do I calculate a grant? What are the tax consequences? How do I eliminate or reduce my tax liabilities? When is the best time to sell them? I'm self-employed, what retirement plan options do I have? How do I maximize my tax deductions and contribute enough for my retirement? Contact us for a FREE consultation.

If you haven't asked yourself these important financial questions you are not ready for what life will throw at you. Many of the "unexpected events" in life can be easily prevented if you prepared for it. I will be posting a series of questions that you should ask yourself on Linkedin and these questions have been accumulated from my many years of experience working in the financial service industry. They are designed to help you get ahead of the game and prepare for the worst. If any of this makes sense to you, please consider talking to a qualified advisor who will help design a customized plan just for you. And we certainly hope it’s us!

Defense Planning Questions

What's my most valuable asset? What would happen to me and my loved ones if I can't work anymore due to an injury or sickness? What if this injury or sickness lasts longer than a year or forever? Do I know someone that has had such experience? See real people's stories. 

What would happen to my loved ones if I died today? How will my loved ones pay off my debts, such as the mortgage? My children's education expenses? Other living expenses? Do I know someone that has had such experience? See real people's stories. 

Who will take care of me or my parents or my loved ones if any of us have long-term care needs? Will I take time off from work to take care of them? Will I send them to a nursing home? How much will it cost me or my parents? Whose assets are eventually mine, to receive care? See how much Long-Term Care can cost you. 

Own a house? A business? Investments? Rental properties? Other valuable assets? Am I protected from legal liabilities and property damages? What if my teenage son/daughter hit and injured or killed a pedestrian? What if my renter sues me for no good reason? What if my bathroom sink leaks and damaged my down stair neighbor's properties? What if my house sets on fire and burnt down my neighbor's house and killing one of their family members? Am I prepared for all these unforeseen events?

Are my investments protected from market loss? What if I lose all my savings when I'm ready to retire? How long will it take me to recover from all my losses? Can I purchase insurance on my investments so it'll guarantee me a retirement income? What if I live for too long? Will I outlive my retirement savings? What if social security won't pay me enough? Is there anything out there that can help me mitigate this risk?