You can help most of the people some of the time, but you can't help all of the people all of the time. Some of you will end up in the office of a financial planner or as they like to be called these days, financial advisor. You think that this is the kind of thing that you need to spend money on and because you think so, you will likely allow someone like these folks, help you make the decision.

Ultimately, you will still have to make the decision. What they will do for you varies from planned to planner. So as a courtesy to you, I will tell you a little of what to look for when you finally decide that money is just too complicated and you would like someone else to help. I'll do this while keeping my opinion of these people to myself...at least until I'm done.

One of the first things you end up doing is visiting someone that was recommended to you or you will find one via a seminar you might have attended. The latter is the easiest way for these people to find potential clients. They know that you are there for more than the free food. They know that you are there to buy their services. They know this the same way the grocer knows that when you walk through the front door, you will buy something. Only rarely, will you just look around and leave.

Once they have you set for the interview, they know the only thing left to do is make the sale. Okay, that doesn't sound non-biased, but I have a difficult time when drawing a line between planner and sales person.

They have a product to sell. They have a service to sell. They have to earn a living. This makes them a sales person. They may write a plan, but the products contained inside the plan will benefit both of you, at your expense.

vWhat happens during the interview process is basically a profile of your investment tolerance. This is determined from a series of questions about who you are and what you have done so far financially. This should be quite extensive. A "planner" who doesn't ask a lot is probably just in it for the sale.

Most people are at some sort of cross road when they decide that they need help. Maybe they have just realized that they have twenty years to work and nothing saved for their retirement. Maybe they have just given birth and want to ensure that the tiny one can attend Harvard or Yale if they grow up and choose to do so. Maybe, they just realize that they need help and haven't discovered the BlueCollarDollar.

These folks will analyze the data you have provided and create a profile. From that profile, they will tell you what you tolerance is for investing, where you should be, and where you would like to be. They have probably churned out some hypothetical numbers that are not necessarily grounded in reality.

Now comes the places that you should put your money. Now is when you should ask how they get paid. If they haven't already told you. The Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards conducted a survey and found that commissions are the main method of payment for about 60% of the Planners. 23% were paid on a fee only basis. 25% were commission only, and some 40% earned both commissions and fees. The leftovers were salary based. The hourly rates were north of the $100 mark and could take up to several hours of time before they were through with you.

Good idea? Bad idea? If you are completely clueless and do not want to spend a little time educating yourself, asking yourself who you are and what you want to do, these folks will be more than happy to take your cash. They will recommend funds that pay them as well, and may recommend changes only to create additional fees by restructuring your plan. (There was some questions raised by the Security and Exchange Commission about this type of planner who sells funds only to generate additional commissions. The SEC determined that if an investor holds a fund for at least 20 months, the planner is not wrong in recommending a switch. But short term trading on funds with loads can amount to 3-5% per trade.)

If you have minimum of investment savvy, you could probably steer clear of the types of sales people. You more than likely can find without too much difficulty, a good investment at a much lesser cost. Following the BCD criteria can be helpful.

Find a fund that is cheap, that is good, that has a good family.

That's not to say that these people can not help. They probably can. But is you enter into their office with debt, you are defeating the purpose of planning for your future. Send me $100 and I will tell you that this is the rock that is tied to your ankle. (Don't send me money...I was just kidding.) If you cannot get your bills paid, no help from an outside party at this time in your life will be money worth spending. But if you have pulled it together, and you are moving forward, great. You probably don't need their help now either.

The list of funds that the BlueCollarDollar recommends you look at, can be found here. These funds as I have said before are good performers (in their group), have low expenses and initial purchase fees, and are part of healthy fund families (Being part of a good family is important because of the ability to move money within the family allowing for greater diversification without having to spread your money in too many different directions. Good fund families often share investment ideas and compete against each other, creating a performance standard away from the group they are in.)

...and while we are on the subject of mutual funds, and now that I have trashed the CFP's of the world, I just want to take a minute and talk about passive and active managed mutual funds.

You vote with your money when it comes to mutual funds. If you like the way things are going, you leave your money where it is, and send more to the fund. If the performance is not what you think it should be, you move your money out of that fund and put it elsewhere. This is called flow. Managers of mutual funds live and die by the flow. If it is coming in, great. If it is going in the opposite direction, your management skills are brought into question.

But suppose the fund you are managing is passive. What that means is that it mimics a certain part of the market, like the S & P 500, or the Wilshire 5000. These funds have seen their flows go out instead of in, especially lately, as the bull market takes a bearish turn.

But stock picking has come back in style. For the last two decades, money indexed to the market has done much better than the funds that were considered actively traded. Vanguard, who is the master of the passive fund, has now admitted that passive may be passe'. They are adding two more actively traded and managed funds. They have 18 (of 124) funds that do trade actively, but their best, the PrimeCap, is closed to new investors. Look for a deal with Turner Investment Partners to turn their Turner Growth Equity Fund into the Vanguard Growth Equity. This fund has a track record of 35.8% over a five year period. A Value fund will be added soon. Those in the Turner fund will see expenses drop, and because of Vanguards relationship with the 401(k) market, asset growth can be considered a given.

If the money is headed out of Indexed funds, where is it going? Janus. During the month of January, Janus funds (Worldwide, Global Technology, Enterprise, Mercury, Global Life Sciences) received over $9 billion in new money, setting a single month record for fund families.

Indexing is still a good idea if you are timid about risk. And although this type of fund is not doing as well as some of the other high flying active funds, the expenses are right, the risk is minimal, and while the prices are cheap, you are buying more for the future, especially if you are employing the dollar cost average method of investing.

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