Recently, I had a conversation with a friend who invests on her own.
She has been building her wealth using a combination of DIY investment platforms and robo-advisors. She is comfortable making her own investment decisions and, like many people today, has access to more information and investment options than ever before.
At one point, she asked me:
“So what’s the difference between investing on my own and working with a financial advisor?”
It’s a very fair question.
And it’s one I’ve been thinking about since.
Because the honest answer is: you don’t necessarily need an advisor just because you want to invest.
If you are financially knowledgeable, disciplined, have the time and interest to manage your investments, and are comfortable making decisions yourself, DIY investing can absolutely work.
So where does advice add value?
Interestingly, the answer came from a completely different part of our conversation.
The personal trainer analogy
We started talking about something many women in their 40s can probably relate to: strength training.
She had recently invested in a package of personal training sessions.
What struck me was that she already knew how to exercise.
She had been going to the gym for some time. She knew that strength training was important. She was already putting in the effort.
But she wasn’t seeing the breakthroughs she wanted.
Then she started working with a personal trainer.
The trainer didn’t magically give her stronger muscles.
Instead, he helped her:
- Understand where she was starting from
- Define what she wanted to achieve
- Create a programme around those goals
- Guide her through the right exercises and form
- Track her progress
- Look at nutrition alongside exercise
- Adjust the programme as needed
- Keep her accountable
And it took time for them to understand each other.
The trainer needed to understand her body, her limitations, her goals and how she responded to the programme before he could properly tailor it to her.
She told me she saw the difference. And she felt the money was well spent.
Not because she couldn’t exercise without a trainer.
But because she was getting more intentional about the outcome she wanted.
That made me think:
Isn’t financial planning rather similar?
Investing is not the same as having a retirement plan
Today, it is so easy to invest.
You can open an account, choose a portfolio and start investing within minutes.
You can buy ETFs, unit trusts, shares and bonds. You can use robo-advisors. You can follow investment content online.
The tools are increasingly accessible.
But investing is only one part of retirement planning.
The bigger questions are:
- How much do I actually need?
- When do I want the option to slow down or stop working?
- What does retirement look like for me?
- How much income will I need?
- Which assets should provide growth and which should provide income?
- How much risk can I afford to take as I get closer to that point?
- How do my investments, CPF, insurance, property and other assets fit together?
And perhaps the most important question:
Am I actually on track?
You can have a portfolio full of good investments and still not have a retirement strategy.
It’s a little like owning good gym equipment, eating healthy food and downloading workout apps – but not having a programme designed around what you are actually trying to achieve.
From collecting investments to giving your money a job
One difference I often see between general investing and goal-based investing is the starting point.
General investing can sometimes look like this:
“I have some spare cash. Where should I invest it?”
Then a few months later:
“I came across this ETF. Maybe I should buy some.”
Then:
“Let me try out this new robo-advisor.”
And somewhere else:
“My friend made money from this stock, maybe I should get into it too.”
None of these decisions are necessarily wrong.
But over time, you can end up with a collection of investments without a clear picture of how they work together.
Goal-based investing starts from the other direction.
What are we trying to achieve?
Then we work backwards.
If retirement is the goal, we can think about the time horizon, the amount required, the income needed, the risks involved and how the portfolio should evolve along the way.
Instead of asking:
“What should I invest in?”
we start asking:
“What does this money need to do for me?”
That is a very different conversation.
But can an advisor actually get better returns?
This is where I think we need to be honest.
No advisor can guarantee better investment returns.
A disciplined DIY investor can sometimes achieve excellent results.
There will also be periods when a DIY investor does better than an advised client.
If the only measure of value is:
“Who made the highest return this year?”
then financial advice becomes a very difficult thing to justify.
Because that’s not something an advisor can control.
Markets will go up.
Markets will go down.
Different investments will outperform at different times.
The role of an advisor isn’t to control the market.
It’s to help control the things that can be controlled.
The plan. The asset allocation. The level of risk. The diversification.
The decisions made when markets are uncomfortable.
And the discipline to stay focused on a long-term goal instead of reacting to every short-term movement.
What happens when the market falls?
Imagine two people who are both investing for retirement.
Both have built a portfolio that is expected to grow over the next 10 years.
Then the market falls 25%.
The DIY investor sees the portfolio value dropping and starts wondering:
“Should I sell?”
“Should I move to cash?”
“Maybe I should wait until things stabilise.”
The advised investor has someone to call.
The conversation becomes:
“Has anything changed about your retirement goal?”
“Do we still have the same time horizon?”
“Do we actually need to change the plan?”
Sometimes the answer may be yes.
But sometimes the most valuable advice is simply:
“Nothing has changed. Your plan is still intact. Let’s stay the course.”
That doesn’t sound very exciting.
But in investing, sometimes the most valuable decision is the one you don’t make.
So, what is the value of having an advisor?
For me, it comes down to having someone who can see the bigger picture with you.
Not just looking at whether an investment is doing well, but understanding what you are investing for and whether the overall plan still makes sense.
That could mean rethinking how much risk you are taking, bringing together investments that have accumulated across different platforms, or making changes when your circumstances or goals change.
And when markets get difficult, it also helps to have someone who knows your plan and can give you some perspective before you make a decision based on fear or headlines.
That’s probably the part of the PT analogy that stayed with me.
My friend didn’t hire a trainer because she didn’t know how to exercise. She hired one because she wanted to make sure the effort she was putting in was actually taking her where she wanted to go.
I think financial planning can be the same.
You can certainly invest on your own. But as your finances become more complex, it can be helpful to have someone step back with you and look at the whole picture.
Are you on track for the retirement you want?
Is your money structured in a way that supports your plans?
And if something changes along the way, do you know what you need to adjust?
Because ultimately, retirement planning isn’t just about building a bigger portfolio.
It’s about having the financial flexibility to make choices.
Perhaps you want to work less. Perhaps you want to take a career break, start something new, or simply have the confidence that you can walk away from work when the time is right.
For me, that’s what good financial planning should create: not just more money, but more choices.
Thinking about your own retirement plan?
Perhaps you’ve already started investing on your own. You may have a few investments across different platforms, but you’re not sure how they fit together or whether you’re on track for the retirement you have in mind.
Or perhaps you’re just getting started and wondering whether you should invest on your own or work with an advisor.
There isn’t one right answer for everyone.
What matters is having a clear understanding of where you are today, what you’re working towards and how your money can support the life you want in the future.
That’s the approach I take with my clients through Hybrid Retirement Planning – looking at the bigger picture rather than just individual investments.
If this way of thinking resonates with you, I’d be happy to have a conversation and explore whether working together would be a good fit.
