Financial planners — like the ones on Ellevest’s financial planning team — are trained to look at your finances with you, help you prioritize your money goals, then make a plan together to hit them. But the real reason to work with one is even simpler. Sallie breaks it down.

Sallie’s answer:

Question: What’s the benefit of working with a financial planner? So you’re expecting me to say something like, “Oh, so you can get your expenses in order, so that you can figure out how much money you need in an emergency fund, so you can figure out whether you should be contributing more to your 401(k) to get your employee match.”

All of that’s important. The real reason to work with a financial planner is because money is women’s number-one source of stress — and taking action around it, having a plan in place, is a huge reliever of that stress.

And if you’re sitting there and thinking, “I’ve got this amorphous worry about money, and I’m scared to look at it or think about it, and I’m going to try to leave it over there?” Taking some steps and taking action, having a plan, can be an enormous reliever of that stress — and that’s why I want you to work with a financial planner.

Disclosures