Thank you for visiting. I'm Brenda, and I run a small fee-only financial planning practice from an office on the second floor above the bakery on Main Street. I work mostly with women, couples and young families who want to get organized about money without being sold anything. Most of my clients have never talked to a financial planner before, and a fair number tell me they were nervous about making the appointment. You don't need to be. Nobody has ever been asked a dumb question in my office, and nobody has ever been asked to buy anything.

I charge for my time, and only for my time. Fees are posted here so there are no surprises.

Evening and Saturday morning appointments are available, since most of my clients work during the day. I am happy to have children in the office; there is a box of crayons and a beanbag chair.

What we cover: the difference between fixed and variable expenses; the "pay yourself first" savings habit; a plain envelope-and-notebook system that works whether or not you own a computer (if you do, we'll talk about Quicken and the like, but you don't need one); how to get ahead of the holidays instead of behind them; and how to have a money conversation with a spouse without anyone leaving the room. The December session fills up fast, so if you want to get a jump on holiday spending, October is the one to come to.

There are three ways financial advisors get paid. Some earn commissions on the products they sell you: mutual funds, annuities, life insurance. Some are fee-based, which sounds like the same thing as fee-only but is not: they charge you a fee and may collect commissions. And some are fee-only: paid only by the client, for time or for a flat project fee, and paid nothing by anyone else.

I am fee-only because I want to be able to say "pay off the credit card before you do anything else" without it costing me a sale. Commission-paid advice is not always bad advice, and there are honest people in every part of this business. But when someone's income depends on what you buy, you have to wonder, and I would rather you didn't have to wonder about me. If the right answer for you is "put $50 a month in the savings account at your credit union and come back in a year," that is what you will hear.

How to tell: ask any advisor, in those words, "Are you fee-only? Do you receive any commissions, referral fees or other compensation from anyone other than me?" An honest advisor will not mind the question. See the full list of questions below.

1. The emergency fund comes first.
Before investing a dime, most people should have three to six months of essential living expenses set aside somewhere safe and boring: a savings account, a money market account, short certificates of deposit. Essential expenses means rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, insurance, minimum debt payments, gas, and nothing else. Add those up for one month and multiply by three (if you have a very steady job and two incomes) or six (if you are self-employed, on commission, or the only earner). It looks like a big number. Start with one month and build. This is the fund that keeps a transmission or a layoff from turning into credit card debt, and it is the single most common thing missing from the finances of the people who come to see me.

2. High-interest debt is an emergency too.
A credit card at 18% is very hard to beat with any investment. Once you have at least a small emergency cushion (say one month), paying down the highest-rate card is usually the best "return" available to you, and it is guaranteed.

3. Retirement accounts: the 1999 numbers.
General rules for 1999, subject to your own plan's rules and income limits:

• 401(k): the most you can put in from your own paycheck in 1999 is $10,000. If your employer matches any part of what you contribute, contribute at least enough to get the whole match. That is free money and there is no other kind.
• Traditional IRA: up to $2,000 a year (if you have at least that much earned income). Whether the contribution is deductible depends on your income and whether you or your spouse has a retirement plan at work.
• Roth IRA: also up to $2,000 a year, and the $2,000 is a combined limit with the traditional IRA, not on top of it. Roth IRAs have only been around since 1998. You get no deduction going in, but qualified withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. Roths have income limits, and they are not right for everyone, so this is one to talk through with someone.
• A non-working spouse can generally also have an IRA, funded from the working spouse's income. Women who take years away from paid work often miss this one.

4. Insurance is for disasters, not for saving.
If anyone depends on your income, you probably need life insurance, and plain term insurance is usually the least expensive way to get it. Disability insurance is the one most people skip and shouldn't. Be careful of anyone who wants to sell you an insurance policy as an investment; ask what the fees are, in dollars, in writing.

5. Write it down.
A net worth statement (what you own minus what you owe) once a year, and a budget once a month. It does not have to be fancy. A spiral notebook is fine. Knowing the number is half of the work.

Print this out and bring it to the first meeting. If someone gets huffy about being asked, that is your answer.

1. How are you paid? By me only, by commissions, or both? Will you put that in writing?
2. Do you receive anything, money or otherwise, for recommending a particular product or company?
3. What are your credentials, and who granted them? How long have you been doing this?
4. Have you ever been disciplined by a regulator or a professional body?
5. Who are your typical clients? Have you worked with people in my situation?
6. What exactly will I get for my money: a written plan, a meeting, ongoing calls?
7. What happens if I don't follow your recommendations? (The right answer is "nothing.")
8. Will you explain anything I don't understand until I do understand it?
9. Do you have a written statement of your fees and services I can take home?
10. May I have the names of two clients I can talk to?

My own answers to all ten are available in writing; just ask.

I have an M.B.A. with a concentration in finance and spent nine years in the accounting and budgeting departments of two mid-sized companies before opening this practice in 1996. I got into personal financial planning the way a lot of women do: my mother was widowed in her fifties and had never once seen the checkbook, and I spent a year helping her sort it out. I decided nobody else in my family, or my town, should have to start from there.

I hold the professional planning credential that requires an examination, continuing education and a code of ethics, and I am happy to show you the certificate and tell you exactly what it does and does not mean. I am not an attorney and not a stockbroker, and I will tell you when a question needs one.

Outside the office I have two teenagers, a garden that is mostly zucchini, and a growing collection of library books about the year-2000 computer problem, which I am reading so my clients don't have to. Short version: keep paper copies of your statements from the fall of 1999, and don't panic.