By Brad Pareso
MoneyMix Contributor 

Picture this scenario: it’s 2047 and you are getting ready to retire. After working for most of your life, you want to pack it in and enjoy some of the finer things in life: a new flying car, a summer house on Mars and any other luxuries the future brings.

So, you go to your financial advisor and tell him/her to withdraw your money. They grab a couple of those stainless-steel briefcases from every heist movie ever made and you walk out with $1 million dollars. How much money do you think you have to invest to make this a reality?

Twenty dollars per week. Yep, that’s it. A few drinks at a bar, another shade of lip stick and bronzer, a DVD. Set aside $20 every week for 40 years puts $41,600 in play ($20 times 2,080 weeks between now and 2047). Put that in a mutual fund with a 12 percent return, you can turn that $41,600 into just north of $1 million.

But what’s that you say? What’s a mutual fund? Isn’t 12 percent a high return? I can’t be bothered to handle investing myself. That’s ok.

Just like when you take your car to a mechanic because you don’t know how to get rid of "that funny noise," there are plenty of professionals - some who are very good - to manage your money in a way that doesn’t require any huge sacrifices on your part.

Let's go over who these folks are....

Financial Planners are your jack-of-all-trades advisors when it comes to personal finance. They might not be specialists in a specific area, but they can give you general knowledge about the ins and outs of financial planning. Here are several types of financial planners.

fee-only planners 

They are able to develop and tailor a financial plan unique to you by offering options better suited to young people, such as an index fund versus an IRA. However, their services won’t come for free - fee-only planners work on an hourly rate, but make no money off commission.

commission-only planners

As the name suggests, they make their money strictly from commission and don’t charge a flat hourly rate. This may sound appealing, but be watchful of what a commission-only planner tries to sell you. Something that has a greater commission rate means they get paid more, but might not be the best option for you.Fee and Commission Planners--Essentially the same as a fee-only planner, except they also take a portion of the money made on your investment as commission. Because of this, fee and commission planners typically cost more than a fee-only planner.

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