Where Should I Go for Financial Advice?

How are you making your financial decisions? Whose wisdom are you tapping into? Proverbs 15:22 reminds us, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Today, counsel isn’t hard to find. Technology has put a flood of advisors at our fingertips—so many that it’s hard to know whom to trust. That’s why choosing the right counselors matters more than ever.

In this article, I’ll walk through five common sources of financial advice, what each does well, and the biggest risks to watch for. Using them wisely can strengthen your stewardship.

1. The Bible and Church

Scripture is the first place to go, both for sound money principles and for the posture of your heart toward money. The wisdom it offers and the heart it shapes can’t be found anywhere else. The risk? Poor interpretation and application. The New Testament was written nearly 2,000 years ago in an agrarian economy, with no stock market, under an economic system designed to enrich a small political class. Our world looks very different, so we need to apply its timeless truths thoughtfully.

2. Financial Advisors

The biggest risk in hiring a financial advisor is paying more than the value you receive. If you’re young, single, and steadily contributing to your 401(k), you probably don’t need expert advice yet. So, what makes an advisor worth the cost?

• Inclination – The best money person in your family doesn’t enjoy managing money or simply lacks the time.

• Anxiety – The worst money person in your family feels anxious about money or isn’t confident in the best money person’s plan. (If you’re single, you get to be both!)

• Wealth – As your wealth grows, so does the risk and the cost of messing up.

• Complexity – Multiple account types, inheritances, real estate, capital gains, and charitable goals all increase the value of good advice.

A second risk is hiring someone who doesn’t share a biblical perspective on money. An advisor who operates from a secular mindset of scarcity or greed isn’t a good fit for someone seeking to faithfully steward God’s resources.

3. AI

Out of curiosity, I asked Microsoft Copilot how to manage a portfolio based on my net worth, age, family situation, and charitable goals. The advice was solid. If I hadn’t spent my career managing money, I would have found it very helpful. The risk is that AI’s answers are only as good as the questions you ask and the sources it draws from. And here’s the real test: my confidence in an AI-generated plan wouldn’t be enough to keep me invested if the market dropped 20%.

4. Social Media, Online, and Other Media

The most important decision here is whom you follow, and that comes down to alignment and motivation. Aligned readers of this blog are likely committed Christians who see financial discipleship as a vital part of following Jesus. (If you’re reading and hoping I’ll tell you when to rotate your portfolio into oil, this probably isn’t the blog for you!) Motivation matters, too. Many influencers profit from page views, which gives them every incentive to push short-term ideas, even when the best advice is to do nothing at all.

5. Friends and Family

This may be the riskiest source of all. Friends and family often aren’t the experts they think they are, and they usually talk only about their winners. I own two individual stocks. One has tripled; the other is down significantly. Which one do you think I’d bring up at dinner? The other risk is comparison. We’re most tempted to compare ourselves to the people we know best. Like social media, what we hear are their highlight reels, and that breeds unhealthy comparison.

Picking the right advisors and asking the right questions is as important as ever. No single source has all the answers. Each of these voices can play a helpful role, and each carries its own blind spots. The wisest stewards draw from several, weigh what they hear, and hold every piece of advice up to the light of Scripture.