Here are ten reasons to get a comprehensive financial plan if you don’t have one yourself:

1. It will help you define your financial goals.

Most financial planners will begin your plan by asking you what your financial goals are. For couples, sometimes doing this exercise alone is enough to get the two partners on the same page. Most people spend more time planning their vacation than planning for retirement or for their financial goals.

2. It will help you see whether your goals are realistic, especially for your timeline.

After taking a look at the goals, You need to see how you can get there — how much to save, what types of investments to make. Then, the planner will show you wheteher your goals realistic? Are they attainable? Most of us have more goals than financial resources. It’s usually not that the goal is not attainable, it’s that the timeline is not attainable. Many goals, such as saving for retirement, a mortgage or a child’s college education and paying off debt, take years to accomplish.

3. It will help you see how you can bring your spending in line with your goals. 

Once you know where you’re headed and how long it will take to get there, then you can look at your cash flow to find out if you’re spending more money than you’re taking in. “If you have negative cash flow, there’s no way you can meet your goals. The exercise of analyzing expenses often surprises people. They say, ‘I had no idea I was spending that much on McDonald’s or eating lunch out’

4. It will show you what money mistakes you’re currently making.

Aside from spending too much, Pemberton says analyzing not just spending but the overall financial picture sometimes exposes mistakes — and easy fixes. Pemberton said, sometimes people look at their credit card debt and say, “I’m paying 18% on interest to a bank. Am I making anywhere near 18% on any of my investments?”

5. It will allow you to measure your progress on your goals.

Once the plan is in place, you can set up measurable goals, such as regularly contributing a specific amount of money toward either savings or debt over a period of time. Then, I can say a year from now, ‘Did we do what we said we were going to do?’.

6. It will help you find new ways to maximize your money.

Having an outside expert look at your financial picture might reveal opportunities to make or save money that you hadn’t thought of. We sometimes realizes that clients aren’t taking advantage of a flexible spending plan at work that allows them to pay for health care expenses using pre-tax dollars. He said, assuming their tax bracket is 28%, “I’ll say, ‘Why aren’t you putting money in your flex spending? If I told you you could buy everything at a 28% discount, wouldn’t you want to?’ And they say, ‘Absolutely.’” Other missed opportunities he sees are passing up the company 401(k) match, which he calls a “guaranteed 100% return on investment.”

7. It will help you identify risks you hadn’t thought of.

Part of a financial plan is looking at risk capacity: What is your risk of becoming disabled and being unable to support yourself or your family, or dying early and saddling your family with an un-manageable mortgage payment?

Pemberton recalled a couple that came to him on top of all their finances. “No will,” he said. “In the state of North Carolina, if one of them was to die and had assets in their name alone, half of those assets would go to that person’s parents, not to their spouse.”

8. It will make you more confident with your money. 

According to the CFP Board survey, 52% of those with a plan feel “very confident” about managing money, savings and investments, while just 30% of those without do. Pemberton saud that when he’s finished plans for people, they generally feel in control of their finances, and they also feel a new sense of discipline. He said they feel, “I know what I need to do to achieve my goals. I don’t feel like my life is out of control anymore, but I’m in control.”

9. It will help you build wealth. 

The CFP Board survey showed that those with a plan also have more money saved and are more likely to pay their credit card bills in full. Notably, even those who make less than $25,000 are more likely to pay their credit card bill if they have a plan than people who make from $25,000 to $49,999 and don’t have a plan — 41% to 26%.

10. It will help you live more comfortably.

Those with a plan are also more likely to say they are living comfortably — 48% to 22%, according to the CFP Board survey. Even more remarkable is that those with a plan making between $50,000 and $99,999 are more likely to live comfortably than even those making $100,000+ without a plan: 50% to 46%.

While you don’t necessarily need to hire an outside person to create a financial plan for you, a lot of people do so to save themselves the time and energy of sifting through a lot of advice, some of it potentially contradictory.

But, as you’ll see, “financial advisor” is a loose term that covers all kinds of people who say they can help you with your money. How to choose among them? Here are ten questions to ask a potential financial advisor.