Consulation with Adam
I. Subjects Available in Consultations
II. Disclosure
III. Setting
IV. Fees
V. Alternatives to Consultations with Me
I. Subjects Available in Consultations:
Debit Cards
Investment Choices
Credit Boost (not including dispute letters which you can do after signing up for free DIY credit instructions here)
Other $ Saving Tips
Life Coaching & Spiritual Matters (I have a a Bachelors in Christian Education from Wheaton College & a Masters in Practical Theology from Regent University. You are also welcome in a Facebook group I admin & a Bible study I lead on Wed mornings at 7:45 in Newport News at the Garrett Realty Partners office)
For home purchases (usually free), sales (commission-based), rental assistance (hourly as described on the page for it), referrals (free), & other associated services, see my separate websites or reach out to me for fees & further information.
Programs to Reduce Your Home Cost including programs that can be as solid as $40,000 in down payment assistance, 50% off a home, 38 year loans, 0% interest for a limited # of buyers meeting certain unique criteria (which often but not always includes income limits). For buyers with time on their hands and willing to deal with the hassle of a gov. subsidized non-profit program with poor reviews, there is a widely available numerically unique option for "credit score not considered" no down payment very low-interest (as low as <.25%) mortgages due to an unmatched (unless compared to other programs where the rate is low without a buy down like the 0% interest option & another 1% interest 38 year no down payment loan option which are much more limited in terms of who is eligible for them) buy down feature on interest rates.
II. Disclosure:
I am not a certified public accountant or certified financial planner. I am giving my opinion on matters rather than certified professional advice. My primary business certification is in real estate where I am a licensed consultant. I may receive referral bonuses in the form of $ or points for services rendered. While I have a BA & MA in Christian degrees & am a former youth minister of over 4 years, I am not an ordained minister.
III. Setting:
Consultations best occur in person but are also available remotely. Adam is available at Garrett Realty Partners' office in Newport News for all receiving consultations. For real estate clients, he is available at the Williamsburg & Virginia Beach locations of Garrett Realty Partners as well as at mutually agreed upon locations elsewhere in Hampton Roads. For others, he is available for an additional travel fee of $3/mile up to 150 miles from the Newport News office. Contact Adam to discuss pricing for further distances which most often are available at a reduced rate (i.e. I wouldn't charge an unreasonable $7000 travel fee for a 2 hr consultation in CA because I'd be flying there which would cut down on my transit time, whereas 150 miles or less I'd most likely be driving).
IV. Fees:
Many in these industries either go by a strictly commission-based or strictly hourly based rate. I combine the two to enable both options as applicable to the situation, giving those being consulted the best of both worlds. Those that are being paid strictly by commission sometimes have no idea what they are talking about, such as 1 financial planner I once had a consultation with and who I fact-checked and proved wrong during my 1 meeting with them (I did not take any of their advice, none of which made sense for me if I remember correctly where they were sharing based on a script that was not beneficial & demonstrated their low level of knowledge on the industry) before they left the industry. Those that are paid by the hour can charge some rather high fees. For some, my fee (if you don't end up using any referral links especially, which can be worth as much as $400 for a single referral for an acquired card that I have which churns out much higher value for Garrett Realty Partners by spending on it) may be too high, which is one of the reasons why I provide alternative solutions below for you to get help from others, sometimes free & sometimes paid.
$125/hr of consultation Details here.
Reducing your costs
Up to 6 hours of all consultation options are free (excepting points booking options) for clients under buyer brokerage agreement or listing agreement with me for real estate sales. Former clients receive a 25% discount on all fees. Groups are welcome for the same hourly fee (so not charged per person) whether 1 person or 20.
Free for those exclusively receiving credit card acquisition advice where often (but not always) some of the cards I recommend include referral bonuses.
If any fee is being paid to Adam by those being consulted, and a referral bonus is acquired by Adam from some service or product you acquire, his rates will be reduced accordingly by the greater of the $ value or the TPG points value up to being a free consultation.
For instance, someone who uses a referral link from Adam (available upon request) for the Chase Ink Preferred business credit card could have a 5 hr session free if the referral possibilities for it are still 20k points and the TPG valuation is still 2 cents per point. While they would need to pay a $95 fee for the first year of the card (at month 11 they could downgrade to an Ink Unlimited or Ink Cash, which are no annual fee business varieties). If (at the rates at the time of this writing) they spent $5k on items they would normally be spending on anyways in 3 months after account opening, they would have at least 85k Chase Ultimate Rewards of their own, which has a TPG valuation at the time of this writing of $1700 or more flexible redemption options for >$1000 in widely varied travel spending. They could ask Adam for a link before they even met if desired or initially solely focus on credit cards to reduce or eliminate their hourly costs upfront. They could then ask Adam for ways to get >$1600 in value from those 85k+ points in their session. While there are a plethora of examples possible, if only looking at my favorite of the 1:1 transfer partners of Chase UR, Hyatt, 17 nights at the local Hyatt Place Chesapeake-Greenbrier or Hyatt Place Richmond Airport for family coming in town, the same amount for 17 nights at Hyatt Regency Dulles (where costs per night can be around $300 on paid peak dates), or for a more extremely high value, a greater than $13000 value points upgrade at times for the premium suite upgrade if paying in cash for the basic rate ($650 on the available dates checked vs. $2200) for a 9 night stay (or 9 nights from separate combined stays) at the Park Hyatt Zurich in Switzerland with alternatives like the Park Hyatt New York in a time like the time of this writing where the $ difference between basic rates and premium suite rates is more than $1500 per night in Zurich for a stay next month (a premium suite upgrade from a $ booking is only 9000 points per night no matter the hotel category at the time of this writing, so you'd be paying $650/night +9k points instead of $2200/night for the Park Corner Suite). Keep in mind that for premium suite upgrades, the online availability for $ options is not always available for 9k points +$, although the example below for the Park Hyatt Zurich is one where I confirmed availability for a $ + 9k points premium suite stay with a Hyatt Globalist rep.
To reduce your costs on a paid consultation, I recommend going through the sections on my website in advance specific to those arenas. Keep in mind that this website is still in its development stage so is relatively bare-bones (i.e. practically no pictures/video) & some elements may be out of place.
V. Alternatives (while I may be a one-stop-shop for these matters, there are others available who often have more training/experience than I do in their respective fields):
Paid options for points bookings
Budgeting (see free consultation options with non-profit or gov. subsidized providers at the bottom)
Many free resources are available on this website, my real estate website, my Youtube business channel, & my site geared toward those of low income, frugal & homeless.
Genesis Counseling & Mission Harbor Counseling (which I believe is superior to Genesis if a male Christian counselor in VB works for you) are 2 Christian counseling options that accept many insurance providers, whereas I do not due in part to my lack of certification/degrees in psychological fields. Many pastors of churches also provide free counseling. Some churches will even subsidize Christian counseling costs at established places like those.
Financial Advisor Matt Morgan with Cornerstone Wealth in Richmond. He has been a financial planner in VA since 2014. He does not charge based on commissions the last time I checked. He is a Wheaton College graduate that I played lacrosse with on the school's team while there. He is highly ethical, intelligent, & pursues excellence in every area that I have known him in. He has a much higher degree of knowledge regarding financial planning compared to me. I know a number of financial planners in the Hampton Roads area that are closer, but none that I would trust nearly as much as Matt. He is not cheap, which is understandable considering the excellence & ethics he brings to the table. If choosing someone other than Matt, someone like Matt, who has high ethical standards including years of experience working in ministry & has a BA from Wheaton College (ranked #58 in National Liberal Arts Colleges at the time of this writing by U.S. News & World Report) where he studied business and interpersonal communication, would be ideal.