Mirror, Mirror . . . Who's the Best? (Hint: It's Not Suze)

This morning while paying bills on-line, I had CNNMoney.com’s video clips playing in the background. When I heard a piece on “who do you trust and what makes a good financial advisor” with Suze Orman, I was reminded again of how important it is when dealing with your finances to find someone who really knows you.

“The best advisor,” Suze said, “is the one you see looking back at you when you look in the mirror.”

No one knows your habits, your strengths, your limits and your risk profile better than you. And no one, but no one, cares more about your money than you.

Whatever you may think of Suze Orman and her advice to the masses, it’s hard to argue the point she made here, and it serves as a great rule of thumb whether you’re talking about credit building, financial planning, mortgage financing, insurance plans or whatever.

While we all know ourselves better than anyone else does, it’s unlikely we know financial planning, mortgage financing or how to reduce and eliminate debt as well as an experienced professional. That’s why it’s essential to find someone technically sharp and adept at dealing with the problem you are trying to solve.

More important, however, is finding someone willing to get to know you--your priorities, your needs and where you are in your life—if not as well as you do yourself, as close as they can come.

In conversations with prospective clients, I sometimes worry about them feeling they are in the interrogation room when 7 out of 10 questions have nothing to do with their current financing or interest rate.

It comes from my commitment to knowing what they really need before suggesting loan programs, rates and payment scenarios. In fact, it’s my way of determining whether we are truly a good fit in the first place.

So when you are searching for your next loan, make sure you’re listening for the way you’re being listened to. After all, we mortgage advisors have to look in the mirror every morning, too.

And some of us actually care about who we see looking back.

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