the Price of a Financial Planner

The service involved help managing my set of low-risk investments and getting them closer to a set and forget state.

It was done at a full service bank that offered basic checking through escrow for high dollar sales and international purchases.

I learned a lot about financial risk management over the course of several visits it took to get everything sorted, but I'm happy with the results and the fees paid off (or should pay off) in lowered tax rates for the rest of this year.

Know the difference between investment and speculation and distribute your money accordingly.

Investments are safe and reliable places to put your money. Places you understand either because of study or because of your association with a particular industry. They are the "get rich slowly" places of stashing your money like government bonds, money market accounts, and precious metals. You'll almost never lose your money with them, but they don't pay huge interest. Nearly all your investment money should go here (80% -ish)

Speculation is where you're trying to use your mad skills to beat the gains everyone else is getting. I.e. you're trying to game the market. These kids of things are highly volatile and high-risk. Meaning you're very likely to lose all the money you put in here, but it's possible to make enormous gains that offset that disadvantage. Very little of your investment money would go here (20% -ish)