You're Just Not That Interested In Cars

The point of this post: It makes sense to hire a professional for an essential job you can't make time to do yourself.

Do you take your car to a mechanic?

You're smart. Presumably you can read. Why are you paying someone else to do work that you could - with a little time and effort - figure out how to do yourself?

I'll help you answer that: you're not interested in cars. You don't have experience fixing cars, and you don't have the time you need to get good enough at fixing cars to trust that you're doing the right thing every time. A good, honest mechanic has the right combination of technical training and actual experience to fix and maintain your car properly.

Because you rely on your car, you do what it takes to keep it reliable....

(Psst! You know we're really talking about money, right? Go back and read that again, but replace "cars" with "money" and "mechanic" with "financial planner". I'll wait.)...

Money is an essential tool that you rely on, and one that you need to maintain (and sometimes fix) in order to keep it reliable.

Mechanics exist because lots of people don't have the time, experience, interest, or confidence to maintain their own cars. Financial planners exist for the same reasons.

Although you use money every day, you don't feel up to figuring out the bigger picture without the help of someone with the right combination of technical training and actual experience.

I know there are intelligent, disciplined people out there with the right attitude about your money and great intentions, but no confidence (because you've bought into the "experts are people who understand things you never could, so don't try" lie).

Or, if you have a measure of confidence, you feel like you don't have the time to devote to learning how to do it right, or aren't interested enough in it to do a good job. You hire a professional who will either set you up and coach you to take over, or take care of you on a continuous basis.

In short: you're smart enough to figure out how to fix your own money, but pay someone else to do it because you're just not that interested in cars.