Searching for best way to invest $500, $1,000, $10,000 or more, without using a financial planner? BiG’s found hundreds of investment ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’ – the good, the bad, the ugly.
What experts have, or do, you use?

Over the past few weeks on the BiG Challenge, we’ve seen how to get help with financial planning, investing strategies, finding and choosing financial advisers, where to get information (the media, websites, books, magazines) and more (check out previous Challenge posts).

We’ve also looked at Ancillary service providers in the BiG Directory. Financial planners fit in there, but so too do wealth managers, real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, conveyancers, mortgage brokers and more.
They’re not ‘advisers’ or listed as Analysts and Commentators because their specific services support investing processes themselves – the ‘nuts and bolts’ if you like.
They’re not rated by BiG’s traffic light system, because plenty of other sites do that (see some rating sites in Day 10).

Non-financial planner advisers

BiG’s ‘advisers’  who aren’t necessarily licensed financial planners and don’t give individualised financial advice, are classified as either ‘gurus’ or Analysts and Commentators (see more about them below)

Sometimes they’re in both lists in  wealth creation, business, property and share investing and investing in You.
Some might have financial planning qualifications (e.g. Scott Pape the Barefoot Investor used to be licensed and shown as a ‘guru’ and commentator, but since 2020 has changed careers and is instead a volunteer financial counsellor).

So,  you’ve got your hard earned money to invest. The million dollar question “what should I invest in?”
If you’ve got a financial adviser – ask them.
If you don’t, or just want to do your research you’ll come across:

Analysts and Commentators

These are economists, demographers, forecasters, journalists, or others with some form of business or finance qualification or interest.
You probably see some of them in the media – TV, radio, newspapers, magazines – online and elsewhere.
They’re everywhere in the Wealth, Business, Property and Share industries.

Do you have enough to invest in property? If not, should your $1,000 be placed in the stockmarket, term deposit, bonds? Is your $10,000 better off put into your mortgage? Is your portfolio diversified, or is it all tied up in property, so your $100,000 may be better off in shares, ETFs, a managed fund etc? These are specialist questions needing individualised, professional advice.

Or, go nuts doing it yourself! But the analysts can help (even their published or free stuff is often useful!).

In Analysts and Commentators I show you their claimed areas of expertise and strategies, such as:

• consumer advocates
• economics
• financial or property investing education
• finance and mortgage experts
• industry bodies
• networking
• portfolio managers
• research, statistical analysis and reports
• superannuation/SMSF
• think tanks
• valuers
• women and investing

You can also see their marketing spiel (claims) from their sites – to save you the time and distraction of having to go there.

But when you’re deciding who to trust with your financial future and life some experts are more aligned with your investing goals, wants, needs, and biases.

At BiG my values are credibilty, transparency and independence. So I disclose my favourite investing experts people, companies, associates and sites . You’ll see this throughout BiG and if you visit my Facebook Page.
Take a look at my background, motivations, associates, gurus etc in About me if you like.

Search BiG and you’ll see their spiels and specialties of some of my favourites. Some are:

• Australian Investors Association
• Rob Balanada
• Business Chicks
• Paul Clithero
• CoreLogic
• Robert Gottliebsen
• investEd (now on PropertyChat) – investing forum
• Alan Kohler eureka Report, InvestSMART
• Peter Koulizos
• John Lindeman
• Margaret Lomas – Destiny – property
• Michael Matusik
• MoneySmart (it’s ASIC – but it’s got great stuff!)
• Roger Montgomery
• Marcus Padley
• Scott Pape – the Barefoot Investor
• Phil Ruthven – IBISWorld
• Terry Ryder – Hotspotting – real estate
• Jan Somers
• Peter Switzer
• Kevin Turner – Real Estate Talk
• Noel Whittaker
• Women’s Agenda

That’s given you something to start with – and that’s only the Analysts and Commentators.
Next Day 15 – Part 4 Less Regulated Advisers Gurus, we’ll look more closely at the Gurus.