Top non-financial skills required in personal’ finance

While finance requires deep knowledge which includes ability to sue excel, mathematical skills among other qualities, making a success of personal finance also requires that you develop keen interest in finance, in addition to securing the services of a professional.

Amy Fontinelle writing for Investopadea, in the piece “Top 7 Non-Financial Skills Required in Finance” and quoting ‘Mitch Pisik’, who has over 20 years of experience in business development, operations and finance, advises that, “The accounting/financial aspect of the job is the floor, not the ceiling.”

This means that if your personal finance professional can’t perform the other basic functions of you’re the job, your investment is at risk, and you as the fund owner also need to be abreast of these qualities to know when to act.

Mastering the qualities below, places you, your financial adviser, your funds, investment in a vintage position.

It is therefore imperative to look out for the following qualities on your financial advisor, while you also try to inculcate such qualities, failure of which may put your investment or savings at risk.

Communication skills
You should have a good communication skill to also know if your financial advisor is communicating well to be understood, Amy Fontinelle said that financial professionals can’t just be good at only numbers,

but they must also be able to communicate their knowledge effectively to you their client, with solid speaking, writing and presentation skills.

Beverly D. Flaxington, author of “7 Steps to Effective Business Building for Financial Advisors, advises on how to convey complex information to clients ”

when you are presenting to a board, an investor or a prospect, you need to know how to convey complex information in a way people can easily understand.

Technological Savvy
Being into personal finance not only demands that you follow your investments as well as you follow your personal finance advisor, you also need to be computer literate and information technology driven.

Being information technology compliant enable you to embark the spirit of doing it yourself in many situations, seeking for more and better information on prevailing investments opportunities, earnings, charges and maturity dates.

No matter where you work, you will need to be proficient with computer hardware and software and able to pick up new programs related to your investments and job.

The more shortcuts, keys, programs and functions you know in Excel, the better off you will be in finance. You should also get familiar with marketing and communication software tools.

The information technology compliant skill is one of the qualities you need to ensure that yout finance advisor has a full grasp of.

Relationship-Management Skills
The people skills you need in order to succeed as a financial professional include understanding different personality types, listening, asking the right questions, resolving conflicts, educating others and counseling clients.

Ontario-based financial planner Judith Cane says that success in finance is “15% technical knowledge and 85% psychology. When people come to see me it’s because they have issues with money.

They spend too much, they don’t save anything or they save everything.” What clients often need, therefore, is an unbiased advisor who can understand their needs and help them make financial decisions.

Managing relationships is an important life skill, whether you’re dealing with subordinates, co-workers, bosses or people outside your company.

When people trust you, like you and feel that you respect them, they will want to help you succeed, whether it’s by speaking highly of you, promoting you or signing up to be your client.

Marketing and Sales Skills
Knowing how to sell the information you have to generate more patrons or even directly dispose of any asset you want to sell will attract more benefit to you.

Being into personal finance confers in you the privilege of disseminating information on financial products to friends and relatives and could attract certain benefits on the number of clients you attract to the pool or network.

Robert L. Riedl, director of wealth management for Endowment Wealth Management in Appleton, Wisconsin, says financial professionals need to be able to market their professional skills and knowledge to prospects in their niche markets.

To do so, it’s imperative to have a complete understanding of both your personal strengths and your firm’s professional strengths.

He further advises that in marketing yourself to clients, you shouldn’t just communicate how much you know, but also how much you care, because “the client’s most valuable assets and their biggest daily concern is not their monetary wealth, but rather their family.”

Your financial advisor should show interest on your family long term financial needs, because clients want to know that you can help them manage their money to best provide for their family’s long-term needs.

Project Management Ability, Organizational Skills and Attention to Detail
Any task that takes more than a few minutes is essentially a project – one that you’ll need to manage effectively in order to be profitable.

You’ll need to efficiently and effectively schedule your time, manage budgets, meet deadlines and get what you need from other people in time to complete your project successfully.

Both during and after any project, staying organized and paying attention to detail are also key.

Corporate finance professional Myles Wolfe says, “For any analytical project, someone will usually have questions about the inputs and assumptions. If you can’t deliver timely backup information, even if it is 100% accurate, people will question the accuracy of the final output.”

He says that it’s critical to have both your electronic files and hard copies organized to access information quickly.

You might be asked a question months after your initial analysis by a CFO who needs the information in 30 minutes for a conference call. “Especially in the financial world, sloppiness is intolerable,” he says.

Problem-Solving Skills
Problem solving skill helps you to manage challenges you identify on you investments portfolios and also should be a good skill you need to find in your financial advisor before hiring.

You will always encounter problems in any job, and being able to solve them rather than cracking under pressure is essential.
To get ahead, it can also be helpful to look beyond your own personal responsibilities.

Mitch Pisik, a U.S financial expert, in one of his presentations, advises that by helping your coworkers solve their problems rather than simply reporting them to upper management, you’ll be viewed as a team player.

“People will gravitate toward you and your career will flourish,” he says.

Tenacity and Ethics
As a financial expert or engaged in personal finance , you need to persevere and ensure that rules are not broken, paying your premium and other payments when they are due to save you the challenge of running into debt or higher interest rates which will impact negatively on your anticipated earnings

A competitive personality, passion for your investment, work and the stamina to work long hours and go above and beyond what’s expected of you and what your co-workers and competitors are doing are all crucial to success in finance.

At the same time, you can’t be so competitive that you make poor choices, or your career and reputation will suffer.