Seeking Financial Planner and Financial Software Program

I just started using You Need A Budget (www.ynab.com).  It seems more geared to people struggling with debt/overspending (which I'm not), but I still found it useful for laying out expanses and doing some medium-term planning. Takes a lot more leg work than a financial planner . . . but it's also a lot cheaper. 

Sean Burgess, who is based in SF, is a fantastic, fee-based financial planner. [ https://www.burgessfinancial.com/ ] This is an important distinction, as if you visit a planner associated with a bank, brokerage, etc. they make their money on commissions, and will be enticed to sell you their products regardless of if you need them or where your money currently resides is a better option.  (I have friends in these roles, view them as important jobs and my friends as people of integrity, but unless you already have all your products at that institution, and substantial investments, they simply aren't the right partner for most middle class folks!)   Sean charges a flat fee of $360 for the first session, and sends you prep documents to return in advance so your time is 100% purposeful (he already knows all the details of your situation when you walk in).  He also sent us many helpful follow-up documents.   We have recouped the fee several times over in both peace of mind and better financial choices.   If you do need help with investing, he does offer a service where he will manage investments for a commission, but he never once suggested we do this with him, as he knew it wasn't advantageous for our current situation, which we found to be a strong mark of his integrity.   We've visited 3 times over 7 years as our situation changed (purchasing a home, starting a family) and each time got great counsel we were able to immediately put into practice.

To your note on a budget, you're right - Sean or another planner can only help you if you have some sense of your incoming cash flow and what you're spending it on.   Personally I dislike Mint as the auto-categories don't help you pinpoint and track your bad habits (mine is eating out - very different from a 'food' that includes groceries and eating out!), and as it automatically processes your spending, it doesn't build accountability for the consequences of each purchase.  (Ex: If you don't check it before swiping your card - it's not really a budget, it's a tracker!)   I would highly recommend an envelope-based budgeting system (think Dave Ramsey books) that has grace for moving money category-to-category during the month and keeping you on-track for long-term saving goals. (Think, you save $800/month for property taxes so when December comes you already have the money you need, and you're not scrambling to find $5K to pay the bill!)  You Need a Budget (YNAB) is a great, sophisticated tool that is inexpensive but requires 4-5 hours watching their videos/webinars to learn their unique system for budgeting.  My favorite is Pear Budget - it's intuitive with no training, and easy-to-use but has *no* import features, so you do need to enter every receipt.  We find it takes 1 hour per week to enter them, and the 'go card' feature let's us check how much money we have to spend before we walk into the store with a quick glance.   It's ~$50/year.   www.pearbudget.com.  If you're cash-strapped, they originally were famous for their free budgeting spreadsheet which is still free - www.pearbudget.com/spreadsheet 

Happy planning!