You don’t need savings to get good financial advice. Free help covers most of what people with modest incomes or early careers need: tax filing, debt, housing and student loans. When you want a plan of your own, a fee-only planner who bills by the hour charges a median $300 an hour, and a quarter of firms that publish a one-time plan price start at $845 or less.
Start with what’s free
Taxes
The IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) prepares returns free for people who generally make about $70,244 or less, people with disabilities and people who speak limited English. Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) does the same for people 60 and older.
Debt
Nonprofit credit counselors review your budget and debts and can set up a debt management plan, where they arrange a payment schedule with your creditors, who may lower interest or waive some fees. The FTC’s advice, from December 2025:
- Nonprofit status doesn’t guarantee the service is free, affordable or legitimate. Ask for any fees in writing.
- A reputable counselor sends free information about its services before asking about your situation.
- A debt management plan can take 48 months or longer, and doesn’t cover secured debts such as a mortgage or car loan.
- If a counselor says a debt management plan is your only option, find another counselor.
- Choose one that will help even if you can’t afford its fees.
Housing
HUD-approved housing counselors advise on renting, buying a home, missed payments, forbearance, foreclosure and credit, often at little or no cost. The CFPB has a search tool to find one near you.
Student loans
Federal student loan help is free. Repayment changed in 2026: the Repayment Assistance Plan became available by July 1, 2026, and anyone with a new federal loan from that date, including a consolidation, chooses between it and a new Tiered Standard plan. Borrowers with no new loans can keep the ICR and PAYE plans until those end in July 2028. You never have to pay for federal programs, including forgiveness, and a company that charges to enroll you is a warning sign.
If the choices get complicated, for example with Public Service Loan Forgiveness or a mix of old and new loans, the student loans specialty in the public graph lists advisors who do this work.
Your city or a volunteer planner
Some cities run free counseling. New York City’s Financial Empowerment Centers, for example, offer free one-on-one help with debt and student loans to anyone 18 or older who lives or works there. The Financial Planning Association runs a pro bono program through which its chapters and members give free one-on-one advice.
Use what your employer already pays for
The match. If your employer matches retirement contributions, putting in at least enough to get the full match is money you’d otherwise leave behind. Check your plan’s rules.
The Saver’s Credit. For 2026, workers with income up to $80,500 on a joint return, $60,375 as head of household or $40,250 as a single filer can get a tax credit for saving in a retirement plan or IRA. The credit is 50%, 20% or 10% of what you put in, depending on income, up to $1,000, or $2,000 for a married couple filing jointly.
Benefits help. Some employers offer free financial counseling through a wellness or employee assistance program. Ask HR what yours includes.
When paying for advice makes sense
Paying a planner makes sense when you have a decision that’s large for you: how to pay down several debts at once, whether to buy a home, how to use a new job’s benefits, or how to handle a windfall. You don’t need a large balance for that.
- Hourly. A median $300 an hour, with the middle half of firms between $250 and $350. Good for one question or a yearly check-up. In Canada the median is C$250. See what an hourly planner costs.
- A one-time plan. A median $2,000, with the middle half between $845 and $3,600. A simple plan for a household with a salary and some debt usually sits at the lower end. See what a one-time plan costs.
- A subscription. Ongoing planning fees have a median of $4,500 a year, and some firms bill them monthly. See subscription financial planning.
Minimums aren’t the barrier people expect. Of 781 US fee-only firms whose websites state a minimum, 50% say they have none. Our guide to whether you need $1 million for an advisor has more.
What to watch for
- “Free” advice paid for by a product. An advisor who doesn’t charge you may be paid a commission on insurance, annuities or investments. A fee-only planner is paid only by you.
- A percentage-of-assets fee on a small balance. It looks cheap in dollars, but ask how much planning comes with it.
- Debt settlement pitched as counseling. Counseling arranges payments with your creditors. Debt settlement companies, usually for-profit, negotiate to pay less than you owe and often encourage you to stop paying creditors in the meantime, which can bring late fees, damaged credit and lawsuits. Ask which one you’re being offered.
What a good advisor brings at this stage
The work is cash flow, debt and benefits, not picking investments. A good planner for this stage builds a budget you’ll keep, puts your debts in order, sets up an emergency fund, gets the most from your employer’s benefits, and knows the student loan rules. Planners who serve early-career professionals do this work deliberately.
Questions to ask a planner
| Ask | A good answer includes |
|---|---|
| What would this cost me, in dollars? | A fixed price or an hour estimate, in writing |
| Do you have a minimum? | No minimum, or one you meet |
| Have you worked with people paying off debt, or on my income? | Examples of similar clients |
| Do you know the current student loan plans? | RAP, the Tiered Standard plan and PSLF, without a sales pitch |
| Do you earn anything other than what I pay you? | No |
How to find one
In the public graph, start with advisors for early-career professionals, the student loans specialty, or flat-fee advisors, who charge a set price instead of a share of assets. Every record shows how the advisor charges, so you can filter out the ones who need assets you don’t have yet. Our guide to advice-only planning explains planners who give advice without managing money at all.