Becoming a financial advisor isn’t only for those with fancy degrees like CFA or CFP. In today’s world, anyone with strong financial knowledge, analytical thinking, and communication skills can build a career in financial advising — even starting from scratch and learning for free online.
In this post, we’ll guide you step-by-step on how to begin your journey toward becoming a financial advisor — without spending lakhs on expensive courses.
What Does a Financial Advisor Do?
A financial advisor helps people or businesses make smarter money decisions — from budgeting and investing to planning for retirement or taxes. Their role is to:
- Analyse the client’s income and expenses
- Suggest investment options (like mutual funds, stocks, or insurance)
- Build a financial plan that helps achieve long-term goals
- Monitor and adjust those plans regularly
In short, a financial advisor is someone who helps people make their money grow safely.
Step 1: Build a Strong Foundation in Financial Knowledge
Before you think of clients, start with your own financial literacy. Learn about:
- Budgeting and saving
- Stock markets and mutual funds
- Taxes and insurance basics
- Personal finance and wealth management
Note : You can learn all this for free on YouTube!
Some great free channels to start with:
- CA Rachana Ranade – for stock market and investment basics CA Rachana Phadke Ranade: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe3qdG0A_gr-sEdat5y2twQ
- Pranjal Kamra – for personal finance and real-world investing Pranjal Kamra: https://www.youtube.com/pranjalkamra
- The Valuation School – for learning Financial Modeling and valuation from scratch ( The Best )
You can explore The Valuation School YouTube Channel — they teach complete financial modeling step-by-step, completely free.
Step 2: Learn Financial Modeling and Excel
Financial modeling is the backbone of advisory work — it teaches you how to build Excel-based models to predict company performance, calculate valuations, and analyse investments.
You can start with:
- Excel basics and formulas
- Profit & loss, balance sheet, and cash flow structure
- Ratio analysis
- Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) models
After mastering financial modeling, you’ll be able to value companies, plan portfolios, and give data-backed financial advice — exactly what clients expect from a financial advisor.
Step 3: Optional — Get Certified (Later)
Once you have practical knowledge, you can add certifications like:
- CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) – for global credibility
- CFP (Certified Financial Planner) – focused on personal finance
- NISM or NCFM modules – for Indian stock market and mutual fund advisory
These aren’t mandatory to start, but they help build trust when you begin managing client portfolios professionally.
Step 4: Build Your Personal Brand and Client Base
Start small — you don’t need a big office to begin. You can:
- Share finance tips and insights on Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube
- Offer free consultation sessions to build trust
- Create financial templates or budgeting tools (Excel or PDF) to attract clients
- Publish blogs (like this one!) that explain real financial concepts simply
Once people start trusting your advice, you’ll naturally attract paying clients.
Step 5: Keep Learning and Stay Updated
Finance changes every day — new rules, tax laws, investment products.
To stay relevant:
- Follow SEBI and RBI news
- Watch finance podcasts
- Keep practising financial modeling and Excel-based analysis
- Learn tools like Power BI and Tableau to visualise financial data
Conclusion
You don’t need to be born into finance or spend lakhs on degrees to become a financial advisor.
All you need is consistent learning, curiosity, and the right practical skills.
Start with free YouTube channels, master Excel and financial modeling, and gradually build your brand.
Before you know it — you’ll be the person people trust for financial guidance.
