How to manage your personal wealth without an advisor
Wealth management sounds like private banking and €500,000 minimums. For most people it is something else: knowing what you own, what you owe, where it is and whether it is improving. That does not need a wealth manager. It needs a method and one hour a month.
What managing your wealth is (and is not)
Managing your wealth means having four answers at any time: what everything you own is worth, what you owe, how it is spread out and where it is heading. With those four, any big decision (moving home, repaying mortgage, leaving a job) is made on data.
What it is not: picking funds, timing the market or following investment tips. That is a different conversation, and if you need it, you have it with a regulated financial advisor. What is here comes first, and without it no advisor can help you.
Step 1: the full inventory
Write down everything you own: accounts, cash, funds, stocks, ETFs, crypto, pension plans, your home, your car and what you are owed. And everything you owe: mortgage, loans, deferred card balances and, if you are self-employed, the VAT and income tax collected and not yet paid.
The first time takes an afternoon. Almost everyone finds a forgotten account, a pension plan from a previous job or a debt they had lost track of.
Step 2: give everything a price and a date
An asset without a price is not data. Equities and crypto have a market price. The home, the car and the pension plan are valued by hand: the area's average price minus 10%, what you would get for the car today, the latest statement from the pension provider.
And every price with its date. Net worth is a snapshot, and a snapshot without a date is useless for comparing with the next one.
Step 3: look at the allocation, not just the total
Add up by asset class and work out what percentage each one is. In Spain the typical result is a surprise: housing is 70% or 80% and everything else fits in the rest.
That is neither good nor bad, it is information. It means your wealth moves with the property market of your neighbourhood more than with any decision you make at the broker. And that liquidity (what you can turn into cash within a week) is a small fraction of the total.
Step 4: separate personal, freelance and company
If you invoice as a freelancer or own a company, mixing everything into one number hides what matters. A good quarter of invoicing inflates your wealth until the VAT return arrives. The company's cash is not your money until it is distributed.
Keep three wallets and look at each one on its own, then at the total. That is how you know whether what is growing is your life or your business, and how much of the figure is really yours.
Step 5: one snapshot a month and one decision
Pick a fixed day. Update the balances, check that prices are current and save the snapshot. Compare it with last month's and with the one from a year ago.
Then make a single decision. Raise the contribution to a goal. Repay some mortgage. Set aside this quarter's VAT. One a month is enough and, above all, it gets done.
When you do need a professional
A tax advisor, whenever you run a business: the quarter's draft is theirs to review. A regulated financial advisor, when the financial wealth is large, the horizon is long or the situation is complex (inheritances, several jurisdictions, a company to sell).
Neither replaces the five steps above. Quite the opposite: arriving with the inventory done, dated and split by wallet, is what makes an hour with them worth what it costs.
Do it with Fider
Fider does the five steps on one screen: the inventory by asset class, the price with its time, the allocation, the three wallets and the daily snapshot with its curve. It does not manage your money or tell you where to invest. It gives you the number, dated, so you decide. Free to start and with no bank connection.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between managing my wealth and a bank's wealth management?
Private banking wealth management is a service: someone decides for you where your money goes in exchange for a fee, usually above a high minimum. Managing your wealth means having it measured and under control. Anyone can do the second, and it is worth doing before the first.
Do I need a lot of money to start managing my wealth?
No. The method is the same with €5,000 or €500,000, and it is more useful the earlier you start, because the curve of the first years is what teaches you what works.
How often should I review my wealth?
Once a month for the snapshot and the decision. Daily only if the app updates it on its own and watching the market's swings does not make you anxious.
Which app can I use to manage my wealth?
One that adds up all your assets and debts, gives them a price and a date, and keeps the history. Fider does that, separates personal, freelance and company, and is free to start.