Many of us are clueless when it comes to dealing with money. We might know the basics, but when it comes to investing our money, saving for retirement or even making our money work for us, we need some guidance. The person responsible for helping us have a financially secure life is the financial advisor.

A financial advisor gives advice on investments and financial planning to people or companies. The main reason for a client employing the services of a financial advisor is to make more money. A financial advisor works with stocks, bonds, mutual funds and insurance products to meet his or her clients’ needs.

Noël Raffle is a financial advisor. He specialises in investments and retirement products. Because he works with investments, he must recommend the best investments for the client’s goals, which can be short-term or long-term. As far as retirement is concerned, he must have knowledge in areas such as budgeting, taxation, forecasting and asset allocation, to be able to meet a minimum balance by the time the client wishes to retire.

Noël says he reads a lot of self-help books and spiritual books and attributes one of his greatest successes to the book, ‘Think and Grow Rich’, by Napoleon Hill. He loves his current job, but says it would be great to retire early. One of Noël’s greatest ambitions in life is to create the Raffle Foundation to help drug addicts and alcoholics. Noël spoke to us about his career.

Basics

Noël says that a starting salary for a financial advisor is in the region of R10 000 per month, but the sky is the limit. This salary can vary dramatically, as most financial advisors are self-employed or on contract to companies, where they receive a low salary with commission, according to Noël.

Job description

A financial advisor assesses the financial needs of a client and comes up with a plan to achieve the client’s goals. The plan is then implemented and followed through,

Pros and cons

“The pros are that, if you are prepared to work hard, any dream can be achieved. Altering people’s lives positively, if you are doing what you should be doing as a financial advisor, is a huge personal reward,” beams Noël.

The one and only con Noël can think of is that you must be prepared to be a hard worker.

Required studies and experience

There are various routes that you can take when you decide to make this job a career. An ILPA-diploma degree is one of the routes you can take, as well as a BCom, specialising in Investment Management, Finance and Marketing. 

Personality types

According to Noël, the personality type needed for this career is to be an outgoing, people’s person, structured and empathetic.

An average day

Noël’s day starts at 06:00, when he opens up the offices. He is always booked six to eight weeks in advance, due to referrals. His morning involves preparing for his 09:30 appointment, which can take up to 3 hours. He goes back to the office after his appointment and does a follow-up investigation on the client’s portfolio. At 13:30, Noël has his second appointment for the day. He usually returns to the office at 16:30 to do a follow-up investigation on this client’s portfolio, as well.

The best thing about the job

The best thing about the job, according to Noël, is helping people.  “I love altering people’s lives into the future,” smiles Noël.

The worst thing about the job

Noël really loves his job and this is clear when he says, “I don’t have a worst thing.”

“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” – Think and Grow Rich! by Napoleon Hill

Gabrielle Venter