A trusting rapport with the right financial advisor. Your advisor should know you well and be 100% invested in helping you achieve your financial goals, even if you’re a stubborn stick in the mud.

Your advisor should be willing to have the hard conversations with you. Some investors want more market exposure than what’s safe for them. Some investors have unhealthy fears of market exposure and are limiting their much-needed opportunities for growth. A good advisor won’t just tell you whatever you want to hear; they will strongly make a recommendation on what they believe is truly the most sensible strategy for you. You don’t have to follow their advice. It’s still your money and your choice what you do with it. But they should at least be willing to put in the work of explaining their professional opinion, even if they know it’s not what you want to hear.

Kids only want to eat candy and ice cream, and letting them live on candy and ice cream would be easier than the long, drawn-out fights at the dinner table over how many more bites of their broccoli they need to finish. Some investment advising conversations are no different. Your advisor can make a quick, easy deal by opening an account for you and investing in whatever hot new idea you heard about on the internet, regardless of how sensible it is for you. That’s an easy paycheck. That’s letting you have your candy and charging you for it, even if it’s not what’s best for you.

Some advisors let investors remain trapped by their own fears. It’s less work to let a timid investor hide from volatility than it is to help them gain experience and comfort with a growth strategy that they may very well need, especially if they have been hiding from the market for too long and have missed out on years of growth. Didn’t you come to an advisor to benefit from their experience and expertise? Do you want to pay them to just let you sit inside the box you’ve trapped yourself in? Or do you want them to guide you out of it and help you become a confident, seasoned investor who understands market cycles and fundamental analysis, and position you for what’s truly in your best interest, not just the easiest strategy for them to get paid?

A good advisor will ask if she can take a minute to discuss and compare your idea with something that might be a healthier, more sensible choice for you, like broccoli. A good advisor should also be compensated the same, regardless of what you invest in, so that the only thing influencing their recommendation is truly serving your best interest.

Like I said, you can do whatever you choose to do with your money. It might work out just fine, but if you trust your advisor’s wisdom and honesty and believe they truly care about the outcome of your finances, you will be more likely to take their words to heart. The words of a good advisor can make all the difference in allocating your assets into the right investment portfolio. After all, isn’t that what you’re paying them for?