Looking For a Financial Mentor? The 6 Important Things to Consider

When it comes to wealth and attitudes about wealth, some people have demonstrated their wisdom. Investors like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are not only successful individuals, but also financial mentors to many.

Emulating influential figures in finance is perhaps a natural instinct. After all, what easier way is there to success than simply emulating previous successes?

However, it’s hard to emulate such financial leaders in a way that will help you copy their success. But, many financial mentors have provided the details of their investment strategies and mentalities.

You won’t end up copying them trade for trade; that would be impossible. Still, understanding the mentality behind their successes is certainly helpful.

In this article, we will go over finding a financial mentor and how you can approach them.

How Do I Find a Finance Mentor?

Simply trying to copy leaders in any field won’t necessarily work out well. People want to emulate leaders naturally, but there is an appropriate way to incorporate financial expertise and wisdom into your own finances.

1. Where Do You Want To Be?

The first step in choosing a financial mentor to emulate is to look for someone who is where you want to be in terms of:

• Mentality
• Results
• Temperament
• Belief systems

Finding a mentor who can help you personally will likely take some time. It’s difficult to attract a millionaire mentor who is willing to help you without parting with a lot of money. But you don’t always need to spend thousands to find one.

2. Asking For Mentorship

Why not ask someone to mentor you directly?

Well, that’s a rather forward question that warrants a rather forward answer. What you can do is change the frame in a way that is better for your development, while also enabling you to gain from the wisdom accumulated by others.

Oftentimes, it’s better to go ahead and study your ideal mentor. Read their works, watch any public presentations they’re recorded in, etc. Learn about what they do and the logic behind it.

Then, try to recreate their success in a way that makes sense for you. Should you run into any confusion, then it’s time to request advice wherever you can.

3. Don’t Go For Success Alone

When looking for a mentor in any field, you don’t need to go for the most successful individuals right away. Sure, it pays to learn about them and why they’re successful. But their success may not be applicable to you for a number of reasons.

To start, not all financial leaders are necessarily geniuses. Their success often can largely be attributed to their intellect, but on the other hand, there are geniuses that don’t strike it rich as well. When it comes to any individual’s results, they are determined by a mix of:

• Intelligence
• Unique decision-making processes
• Personality traits
• Social connections
• Luck (being in the right place at the right time)
• Work ethic
• More

Warren Buffett’s beliefs on what led him to his success in finance are well-known, or at least well-recorded. Buffett makes no secret of his success formula, which includes, roughly speaking:

• Patience
• Being brave
• Recognizing and learning from mistakes
• Believing what you see with your own eyes in the real world (how consumers interact with brands/companies every day vs what reports say)

All in all, this kind of advice isn’t especially unique, but perhaps is an example of practicing what you preach vs just talking about it. But at this point you could easily ask “if I were to follow all of Warren Buffett’s advice, how would that make sure I get rich?” Well, the answer is it won’t…

How to Invest Like Warren Buffett

4. Don’t Compare Yourself To Others

Don’t just try to get the same results as successful individuals. Instead, work on gaining as much value as you can from their mindsets and insights. It’s helpful to go further and take inspiration from the finer details that the mentor holds as important to their success.

These factors can include:

• Mindset
• Financial philosophy
• Day-to-day behaviors
• Daily habits
• Other finer attributes that they believe are important to their success

5. Look to Multiple Examples

The right financial mentors for you may be exactly that – mentors. You don’t need to try to copy every aspect of a mentor’s life. But it’s good to broaden your horizons beyond the top leaders nationwide, or even locally. It’s also important to look into more than one type of leader.

6. Look Locally

You probably won’t reach out to the top investors out of the blue. However, looking into your local community can be helpful. You may already know someone who would be the ideal financial mentor for you!

Knowing your mentor personally and having common roots in your community or wider locality can be extremely beneficial.

Emulating a Financial Mentor

Emulating success is, logically, a surer path to success than many alternatives. But even the process of finding a mentor should be approached empirically. You may want the success of the world’s top leaders in finance. But are you one of them?

Seeing as you’re not, would it really be practical to try to recreate their successes?

You can end up being better served by trying to accumulate the wisdom of financial mentors, including their philosophies, habits, and lifestyles.

Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash