• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wealth Pilgrim

No Money Worries. No Matter What.

Neal Frankle featured in
  • Home
  • Life Insurance
  • Investing
    • Build Strong Investment Building Blocks To Avoid Going Broke In Retirement
    • Systematic Mutual Fund and ETF Investing
    • Stock Market Investing Guide
    • Choosing the Right Investment Brokerage Guide
    • How Bonds Work Guide
    • How Banks Really Work Guide
    • Annuities – What You Need To Know Before You Invest
    • A Beginners Guide To Buying Individual Stocks
    • Create A Pool Of Great Mutual Funds and ETFs To Pick From To Secure Your Retirement
    • ETF and Index Fund Investment Guide
  • Earn More
  • Banking
  • Retirement Planning
    • Retirement Guide
  • Reviews
    • Upgrade Personal Loans Review
    • Lending Club Review
    • Prosper Review
    • Ally Invest TradeKing Review
    • CIT Bank Review
    • LegalZoom Review
    • Lexington Law Review
    • Airbnb Host Review
    • Should You Drive For Uber?
  • Tax
  • Courses
    • Raise Your Credit Score So You Can Buy a House – Free Video Course

Why Have a Mentor? Plus…How to Find Yours For Free

by Neal Frankle, CFP ®, The article represents the author's opinion. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.

Even if you have a successful career and/or personal life, you have a lot to gain by having a mentor. But why have a mentor if everything is going so well? Why rock the boat?

I’ll answer that. But first let me ask you a question. Have you ever met someone who thinks his or her life is pretty good…. but you know that with a few simple changes they could vastly improve their situation? I know you have seen these people. They are everywhere. One of them is me. And one of them is you.

The truth is we don’t know what we don’t know. If you are anything like me there are probably a dozen things you could do to significantly improve your life. But like me, you can’t or won’t see them. I know this is true because my mentor points things out to me constantly. Even though I do implement most of the ideas he comes up with, there are always new opportunities to improve.

It doesn’t matter if you are looking to improve your business, have a social life that is more satisfying, change your career, have a stronger personal finance or improve your health situation. A mentor can help you achieve far more than you can achieve on your own. If you aren’t where you want to be in some aspect of your life, having a mentor is the missing ingredient for your success.

Is an accountability partner the same as a mentor?

Maybe. Your mentor may indeed act as your accountability partner but your accountability partner may not be your mentor. You see, the accountability partner’s job is to hold you accountable. Together you agree on a course of action and you promise to complete steps in a timely manner. Then you check in with your accountability partner to make sure you are on track.

A mentor has a far different role. As I said, your mentor will certainly hold you accountable but her job goes beyond just that. Her role is to provide direction. And your mentor will provide that direction based on her own experience.

Your mentor will suggest the best path for you given your objectives. That’s pretty valuable input. Agreed? Good. Let’s move on.

How do you find your mentor?

This is the fun part. Look for someone who has overcome the obstacles you now face. This is critical. Are you trying to advance your career? Go to your boss and just ask him or her to mentor you. Are you trying to save more money or invest better? Approach someone who has what you want.

Why would anyone mentor you for free?

Shut your eyes (after you read this paragraph) and think how you’d feel if someone came up and asked you to mentor them? It feels pretty good….right? They are giving you just about the greatest compliment you will ever get. They are saying they respect and trust you and that they look up to you. They want your guidance.

That’s the gift you give someone else when you ask them to mentor you. Most people just love to help others. Only punks don’t care about others and you don’t want a punk for a mentor anyway. If he or she declines your offer, consider yourself lucky. This person automatically disqualified themselves. Cool beans.

Keep in mind that mentors get a lot out of working with you too. When someone teaches something to someone else their own understanding gets much deeper. That’s been my experience anyway and it’s a tremendous benefit of becoming a mentor to others. Your mentor has as much to gain from the relationship as you do.

How to Work With Your Mentor

Explain exactly what it is you would like to accomplish and then take direction. That’s it. Take direction. Listen to what your mentor says and implement the ideas. If your mentor has crazy nutty ideas, change your mentor. But if you agree to have a mentor, you must learn from her and embrace her knowledge. What sense does it make to have a valuable resource and not take advantage of it? None. Take direction.

There is nothing wrong with having multiple mentors. There is also nothing wrong with working with a mentor for a period of time and then moving on. I have a number of people on my “team” who act as mentors. They have been an invaluable resource for me.

Do you have a mentor or mentors? How have you worked together? How has it helped you? What has been the result?

Tweet
Pin
Share4

Reader Interactions

User Generated Content (UGC) Disclosure: Please note that the opinions of the commenters are not necessarily the opinions of this site.

Comments

  1. Lacy @EarnVerse says

    March 11, 2013 at 9:59 AM

    I think mentorship is something that is greatly overlooked these days. I have people who where at one point or another a mentor in my life, who maybe now I have outgrown as life changed, but their influence on my development has been huge. But a key point is that life does change so that you may need to continue to look for and expand your possible mentors so that the relationships continue to have meaning and benefit.

    Reply
    • Neal Frankle says

      March 11, 2013 at 10:08 AM

      Excellent point. I also think that both parties really benefit by the relationship. When it’s time to move on, it’s a good thing for both parties…..

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Are You Human? * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

Primary Sidebar

Who is Neal Frankle

Neal Frankle

I'm a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional with more than 25 years of experience. I feel very blessed and hope to share my personal financial experience and professional wisdom with readers of WealthPilgrim.
Read More »

Stay Connected

Facebook Twitter YouTube RSS
We are on YouTube
Retirement financial education for people age 55+ seeking to retire well and for those retired seeking to enjoy a better retirement.  We discuss retirement planning, retirement investments, taxes in retirement, retirement spending, IRA and 401k distributions and we will personally answer questions that you pose in the video comments.

While so much financial information is about preparing for retirement, what about managing your finances in your retirement years? That's exactly what we cover at Retirement Crusaders.

Neal Frankle is a retired registered investment adviser. Larry Klein is a retired financial advisor and retired CPA. They have 70 years of financial advising experience to share so that you have your best retirement years.

Retirement financial education for people age 55+ seeking to retire well and for those retired seeking to enjoy a better retirement. We discuss retirement planning, retirement investments, taxes in retirement, retirement spending, IRA and 401k distributions and we will personally answer questions that you pose in the video comments.

While so much financial information is about preparing for retirement, what about managing your finances in your retirement years? That's exactly what we cover at Retirement Crusaders.

Neal Frankle is a retired registered investment adviser. Larry Klein is a retired financial advisor and retired CPA. They have 70 years of financial advising experience to share so that you have your best retirement years.

YouTube Video UCoU0buhwVplzXrsyf342nOg

Retirement Crusaders

June 10, 2022 1:19 PM

Subscribe
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error 403: Requests from referer are blocked..

Domain code: global
Reason code: forbidden

More Categories

Career Development
College Funding
Credit Cards
Credit Score Fixes
Money and Marriage
Debt Relief
Estate Protection
Property Investment Loans
Small Business Strategies
Spend Less Money
Retirement financial education for people age 55+ seeking to retire well and for those retired seeking to enjoy a better retirement.  We discuss retirement planning, retirement investments, taxes in retirement, retirement spending, IRA and 401k distributions and we will personally answer questions that you pose in the video comments.

While so much financial information is about preparing for retirement, what about managing your finances in your retirement years? That's exactly what we cover at Retirement Crusaders.

Neal Frankle is a retired registered investment adviser. Larry Klein is a retired financial advisor and retired CPA. They have 70 years of financial advising experience to share so that you have your best retirement years.

Retirement financial education for people age 55+ seeking to retire well and for those retired seeking to enjoy a better retirement. We discuss retirement planning, retirement investments, taxes in retirement, retirement spending, IRA and 401k distributions and we will personally answer questions that you pose in the video comments.

While so much financial information is about preparing for retirement, what about managing your finances in your retirement years? That's exactly what we cover at Retirement Crusaders.

Neal Frankle is a retired registered investment adviser. Larry Klein is a retired financial advisor and retired CPA. They have 70 years of financial advising experience to share so that you have your best retirement years.

YouTube Video UCoU0buhwVplzXrsyf342nOg

Retirement Crusaders

June 10, 2022 1:19 PM

Subscribe
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error 403: Requests from referer are blocked..

Domain code: global
Reason code: forbidden

Disclaimer

Wealth Pilgrim is not responsible for and does not endorse any advertising, products or resource available from advertisements on this website. Wealth Pilgrim receives compensation from Google for advertising space on this website, but does not control the advertising selection or content. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers. The information contained in WealthPilgrim.com is for general information or entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your specific situation. Wealth Pilgrim does not provide investment advisory services and is not a registered investment adviser. Neal may provide advisory services through Wealth Resources Group, a registered investment adviser. Wealth Pilgrim and Wealth Resources Group are affiliated companies. In accordance with FTC guidelines, we state that we have a financial relationship with some of the companies mentioned in this website. This may include receiving payments,access to free products and services for product and service reviews and giveaways. Any references to third party products, rates, or websites are subject to change without notice. We do our best to maintain current information, but due to the rapidly changing environment, some information may have changed since it was published. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers.


About · Contact · Disclaimer & Privacy policy

Copyright © Wealth Pilgrim 2023 All Rights Reserved