We both worked in a medium-big city and made fairly nice money. The only debt we had was the mortgage on our house, but we even paid that off in a 4-5 years. This took most of our extra money beyond very normal, plain monthly utilities and basic expenses. Any credit cards were paid off each month so we didn’t owe any interest on them. We even purchased our vehicles with cash. Our mantra was - All payments toward interest is money lost. After the mortgage was paid off (4-5 years), we saved all extra money until we had enough to invest with an investment advisor. A good one will ask you questions up front that will help him/her assess your level of risk and advise you what each level of risk means. A good financial advisor will also grant you a free interview/introduction so you can assess whether or not you’re comfortable with them helping you to invest. They will introduce themselves and their services, and let you know whether they can help you, or even tell you up front how much you will need to save before it’s worth their while. This annoyed me at first, but it was valuable information which gave us a clear goal. They will provide for you information on why certain investments suit you as opposed to others.

As you can tell, we did hire an investment advisor, and our comfort level for risk was low to not quite moderate. Through our 5 years of investing with this man, we asked many questions that he readily answered and explained. We basically learned how to invest without much risk, and without continuing with his services which had cost us around $10,000 per year. But it was completely worth it. We’ve done nicely. We are not rich, but live comfortably and were able to retire quite early. We then bought our homestead with cash. All our purchases are immediately paid for and so we never have to pay interest.