Congratulations – you’ve made it to Day 5.
Or if you’ve just joined the Challenge, welcome. Never fear, at any time you can catch up on any days you might have missed.

What stage of life are you at? Are you in your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s or other?
Do you want to invest for yourself or your kids – for now, lifestyle, a holiday, the future, your retirement?
If you want to buy a home in the next 5 yrs are you better off putting all, or some, of your money into an interest bearing account, would the short term risk of shares work against you?

Have you got, or want to make, an investing plan?
If you know your investing timeframe, you can decide which investments you’re more attracted to, and who can help you invest.

So far in the Challenge we’ve seen some basics of investing:

• financial planning
• setting and achieving investing goals
• numerous investment options – strategies, specialties and issues

Who can help?

3 main providers of financial advice and information that you find in the media, online – blogs, podcasts, YouTube, forums, even old school magazines and books, are:

1. Formal providers – such as licensed financial planners (often affiliated with banks, financial institutions, accountants and others with ‘wealth management teams’). Unless you’re a client, they can only give general information – disclaim they must!
2. Less regulated providers – ‘gurus’ and ‘non gurus’ such as analysts, commentators, finfluencers, educators, mentors, coaches – especially in the wealth creation and property investment industries. They often push the boundaries as their advice is pretty close to financial advice, for which you need a licence.
   Oh, but wait – they’re just giving general, educational information AND they’ve got a disclaimer – it’s all good!
   But more of that in guru cops and scams.
3. Unregulated providers – other investors, friends, family, taxi drivers…

Formal providers

You’ll find some in the many articles, rating, comparison, and “find a” sites, that list and/or analyse the performance of financial planners and the like. (So we don’t ‘rate’ them, only the less regulated ones). In the Big Directory are some:

• general sites – Canstar, Choice, Money Buddy, Mortgage and finance association of Australia, Compare the market, iSelect, Moneyhound, RateCity, InfoChoice (inc stock brokers), financial products such as credit cards, mortgages and insurance
• specific sites – eg accountants and financial planners

MoneySmart (ASIC) Choosing a financial adviser/ CPAAustralia (CPA) “Find a CPA (certified practising accountant) or financial planner”/ Financial Advice Association of Australia – Financial Advice Association of Australia – Find a financial planner/Quotify – Choosing a Financial Planner/ Top10 financial planners”.

Less regulated providers

Many people get their information and research from the Analysts and Commentators that BiG lists. These experts include:

• economists
• financial planners
• journalists, or
• others with some form of banking or financial qualifications

Usually they don’t give personalised advice, just analysis, commentary, education or networking.
They may cover general wealth creation, or specialise, for example in property (they may also be in the relevant BiG area and not listed here) , shares or business.

Some are (pop a name in BiG’s Search Bar to find out more about them):

• Australian property forum
• Australian Shareholders Association
• Bruce Brammal, Debt Man
• Business Chicks
• Choice
• Christopher Joy, SQM Research
• Paul Clithero
• David Koch
• Domain
• John Edwards (previously Residex)
• Fat Prophets
• Fat Cat
• Flying Solo
• Grattan Institute
• Home Guru
• Homesales.com
• HouseNet
• Neil Jenman
• John Lindeman
• Christopher Joyce Rismark International
• Alan Kohler, Eureka Report, Business Spectator, InvestSmart
• Peter Koulizos
• Lowy Institute
• MacrobusinessSuperblog
• Michael Matusik
• Michael Lewis
• MoneySmart
• Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon, The Money Mentor Way
• OntheHouse
• Peter Thornhill, Motivated Money
• PriceFinder
• SAILIS
• Real Estate Investar
• Real Estate Investment Information Australia
• realstate.com.au
• realestateview.com
• Regional Australia Institute
• Rob Balanada
• Margaret Lomas, Destiny Financial Solutions
• Scott Pape, The Barefoot Investor
• Phil Ruthven, IbisWorld
• Terry Ryder, Hotspotting
• Kris Sace, Money Morning
• Search Investment Properties
• Simple Home Invest
• Somersoft Property Investment Forums (now PropertyChat)
• Peter Switzer
• Talking Trading
• The Motley Fool
• Kevin Turner, Real Estate Talk
• Noel Whittaker
• Women’s Agenda

Most of these experts and gurus are BiG’s Analysts and Commentators or the 5 Spending your Money Guru lists. They’re rated using BiG’s Traffic Light system. Tell us about your experiences of them or others not there and they’ll be added.

You’re welcome to send any information, on any gurus and experts.

Unregulated providers – good luck with them, you’re largely on your own. Although some of the Guru Cops in BiG will help you avoid scams and scammers.

As you can see you’re spoilt for choice with the huge number of people and players who offer financial information and advice.

Day 9 shows you how to choose one you can trust.