Andrew LisaWed, Jun 18, 2025, 5:00 PM 3 min readThe old adage is that you have to spend money to make money. But investors don’t actually spend money — they risk losing it in the hopes of compounding it.Learn More: 12 Best Safe Investments To Grow Your Money in 2025Consider This: The New Retirement Problem Boomers Are FacingBut for common retail investors, a relatively modest $210 expenditure might be the only risk-free investment they ever make — and certainly one with the potential to pay the greatest long-term dividends of all.Considering the complexities and volatility of the stock, bond, crypto, housing and other investment markets, ordinary players might not know that they’re under-diversified, over-leveraged or facing a tax-related catastrophe until they find out the hard way — by suffering losses that they couldn’t afford and might have avoided.Then, there’s the easy way: A meeting with a qualified, certified professional advisor who studies the markets, has earned prestigious certifications, participates in ongoing education and serves as a fiduciary with only your best interests in mind.Find Out: Money Influencer Delyanne Barros — Why Boring Could Be Best for InvestingAccording to the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), a Fortune 500 financial services organization, there are five primary signs that it might be time to invest in professional financial guidance:You’re worried about paying for college, changing jobs, starting a business, retiring comfortably, being overinsured or underinsured, affording children, caring for an aging parent, or any other nagging financial concern.You’re unclear on your financial goals or how to achieve them.Your tax burden is growing or becoming more complex.You’re losing money to emotional or impulsive investments.You want to enlist the help of a financial professional, but you think you can’t afford it.The red-flag anxieties that call for professional guidance are not unfounded. For example, according to the TIAA:A professional can optimize your asset allocation, which alone can boost after-tax returns by 0.3% annually — that’s $1,500 on a $500,000 portfolio. Over two decades of compounding, that seemingly modest sum could pad your nest egg by more than $30,000.You would have missed more than 40% of the S&P 500’s gains over the past two decades by missing only the 10 best trading days during that time. A professional advisor can help you remove emotion and bias from your strategy, eliminating panic-selling and attempts to time the market, which contribute to missed opportunities.Terms and Privacy PolicyPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore InfoS&P 5005,980.87 -1.85 (-0.03%)Dow 3042,171.66 -44.14 (-0.10%)Nasdaq19,546.27 +25.18 (+0.13%)Russell 20002,112.96 +11.00 (+0.52%)VIX22.17 +2.03 (+10.08%)Gold3,370.70 -37.40 (-1.10%)PortfolioSign in to access your portfolioSign inTop gainersTMC TMC the metals company Inc. 6.75 +1.32 (+24.29%)SRRK Scholar Rock Holding Corporation 36.32 +5.17 (+16.60%)OSCR Oscar Health, Inc. 18.77 +2.66 (+16.51%)COIN Coinbase Global, Inc. 295.29 +41.44 (+16.32%)SYM Symbotic Inc. 35.70 +4.54 (+14.57%)Top losersTMDX TransMedics Group, Inc. 124.00 -12.20 (-8.96%)TCOM Trip.com Group Limited 56.54 -4.13 (-6.81%)FRHC Freedom Holding Corp. 140.43 -9.82 (-6.54%)EXLS ExlService Holdings, Inc. 45.21 -2.85 (-5.93%)MA Mastercard Incorporated 538.73 -30.72 (-5.39%)Most activeNVDA NVIDIA Corporation 145.48 +1.36 (+0.94%)TSLA Tesla, Inc. 322.05 +5.77 (+1.82%)INTC Intel Corporation 21.49 +0.69 (+3.32%)LCID Lucid Group, Inc. 2.2200 +0.0700 (+3.26%)SOFI SoFi Technologies, Inc. 15.36 +0.93 (+6.44%)Earnings eventsTrending tickers^IXIC NASDAQ Composite 19,546.27 +25.18 (+0.13%)^GSPC S&P 500 5,980.87 -1.85 (-0.03%)^DJI Dow Jones Industrial Average 42,171.66 -44.14 (-0.10%)CL=F Crude Oil Jul 25 75.67 +0.53 (+0.71%)BTC-USD Bitcoin USD 104,650.59 -129.95 (-0.12%)Top economic eventsPowered by Money.com - Yahoo may earn commission from the links above.