Masters in Business · Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Physician and author Dr. Jordan Grummitt suggests that do-it-yourself (DIY) investors may need to 'fire themselves' and seek professional help as their financial needs become more complex. He advises that while accumulation phases are manageable for many DIY investors, significant life transitions like retirement, inheritance, divorce, or the shift from accumulation to decumulation are critical junctures where professional guidance is often necessary.
“As I get older, I realized that sometimes it makes sense to fire yourself. In other words, bring in the help when you need it because you can't know everything.”
“So you know, I think they're really two situations. One is where emotions play a big role, right, and so for some people retirement, they just get very emotional. They don't make great decisions. A family member dies and they get an inheritance, and you tend to make emotional decisions, especially at the beginning.”
“And the other time where I think it's really important is when the room for error is small and so for instance, and this is why I always say, when we go from accumulation to decumulation, we have to be really thoughtful because you might be depending on healthcare subsidies right and if you decumulate incorrectly, you may find that those subsidies are no longer there, or you might be making complex roth conversions, and if you do that wrong, it can really mess you up and put you in different tax brackets.”