Financial advisor or DIY? Finding the right balance

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Money Matters, a newsletter from Britannica Money, on July 5, 2026.

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The best financial plan isn’t necessarily DIY—but it should never be hands-off.

© Dariusz Kopestynski, Kwangmoozaa/stock.adobe.com; Photo illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

I know, I know. Specialization. Division of labor. Comparative advantage. Economists have been explaining for centuries why we shouldn’t try to do everything ourselves. And although most of us still have a DIY streak, we all have limits. I do my own landscaping, but draw the line at tree removal. I’ve hung drywall and painted walls, but I couldn’t build a house. And although I brush and floss religiously, I’ll leave the root canals to the professionals.

But what about your finances? On the one hand, there’s never been a better time to be the captain of your own financial ship. Commission-free brokerages now offer fundamental data, charting packages, stock screeners, and research tools that would have made many professional traders jealous a generation ago. Fractional shares, ETFs, target-date funds, and robo-advisors make diversification easier than ever. And now AI can sift through earnings reports, summarize research, and answer questions that once required hours of digging. 

But all that information can create its own challenges. More data can lead to “analysis paralysis.” More choices can make decisions harder, not easier. And because humans are still humans, there are times when another set of eyes—or several—can be worth more than one more chart, screen, or AI-generated recommendation. Which raises a question every investor eventually faces: When should you trust yourself, and when should you trust an advisor?

When I first started investing a few decades ago, building a portfolio required a lot of effort. Every trade carried a hefty commission, which made it harder—and more expensive—to diversify. Investment research wasn’t exactly at our fingertips, either. After my first trip to Disney World, I loved it so much that I bought a few shares of Disney stock. Not exactly a sophisticated investment process, but back then, familiarity was often the starting point for the small investor.

Today, you can open an account on your smartphone during your lunch break. With a few clicks, you can buy a low-cost fund that owns hundreds—or even thousands—of stocks and bonds. You can automatically invest a set amount every month, reinvest dividends and interest payments, and monitor everything from bond ratings to retirement projections from the same dashboard. If you’re saving for retirement, a target-date fund can even adjust your stock and bond mix as you age. 

And if you have a question, you don’t need to wait for a broker to call you back. You can pull up company financial statements, screen stocks based on dozens of criteria, compare investments side by side, or ask an AI tool to explain an unfamiliar term. Managing your own money still takes effort, but, logistically, it’s never been easier.

A good financial advisor doesn’t start by recommending investments. They start by understanding who you are, what you’re trying to accomplish, and how much risk you’re willing to take along the way. Then they develop a plan for getting from here to there. In the financial planning world, that road map is often formalized in a document called an investment policy statement (IPS). An IPS outlines your goals, time horizon, tolerance for risk, and the guidelines you’ll use to make decisions when markets—and life—don’t go according to plan.

That’s important because investing is only one piece of financial planning. As life becomes more complicated, so do the decisions. Retirement planning, college savings, aging parents, taxes, insurance needs, and estate planning can all affect the choices you make with your portfolio. A target-date fund can automatically adjust your investments as retirement approaches, but it can’t account for job loss, inheritance, health issues, or a major change in priorities.

Technology can help you manage your investments, but an advisor can help manage the decisions surrounding them.

Managing your own finances and seeking professional guidance shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. I would guess that we all rely on some combination of our own judgment and input from others, formally or informally. The key is finding the right balance. There’s no magic dollar amount—or level of complexity—where you suddenly need help from a professional, nor is there a special prize for doing everything yourself.

It’s perfectly reasonable to seek help from experts. We do it all the time. As with any of life’s tasks—from landscaping to dental hygiene—the trick isn’t knowing how to do everything. It’s knowing when to tackle a job yourself, when to seek help, and how to remain engaged either way.

Whatever path you choose, be an active participant in your financial life. Ask questions. Understand the strategy. Revisit the plan from time to time. After all, no one—not an advisor, not an algorithm, not a target-date fund—has a bigger stake in the outcome than you do.