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We all do that sort of day-to-day, paycheck-to-paycheck financial planning.

But at what point do you turn to a professional financial planner?

It usually happens when you want to plan for your future. In this case, the future means something way, way beyond a week from next Thursday.

Most of us tend to think that financial planners are for the very rich, or at least the comfortable. They are. They are also for those who would like to join them.

Scott Browning, who is both an attorney and a CPA, is also a partner with Deloitte & Touche. As head of the international consulting firm's western region's financial planning operation, he heads a group of 38 Southern California financial planners.

Mike McAfee is an investment advisor with Goodlife America, a small financial, estate and tax planning service in Bakersfield, CA.

Browning says Deloitte & Touche will handle clients "with assets over $1 million, but our bread and butter accounts are those worth between $5 million and $25 million, and up."

McAfee says Goodlife America often handles those who haven't made their first million - yet. "About 70% of my clients are retired, because that's the sort of practice I've established. The rest are young folks wanting to get started." His firm handles a wide variety of clients.

"Folks come to me who are retiring or getting the golden handshake and want to know what to do with their severance packages or 401Ks. Or they come to me because they want to get started."

Unlike many financial planners, McAfee says he is willing to work with young people who might have only a little bit to invest every month. "Any broker who reads this will think we're fools. But we make our living off the other end." He says he can afford to start with someone young "in the hope that he's still with me when he's 45 and has more to invest."

Regardless of the amount of money they are working with, financial planners all do pretty much the same thing.

"It's not what you make that counts," McAfee says, "it's what you keep. It is illegal to evade taxes, but it is our responsibility to avoid them." He and Browning are both dedicated to helping people keep as much as they can.

Browning says the industry started "because people were interested in having someone looking over - and after - their financial position.

"There may be 30,000 different investment companies and products out there. People need someone to sort through the maze for them. They are so busy today that they do not have time. They need outside professionals."

Financial planners will look at a client's income, investments, property and insurance in terms of where their finances are today, and where the client wants them to be in 10, 20, 30, or more years.

There are actually three phases in financial planning: accumulation, distribution and preservation.

You start in the accumulation phase. Every time you get a paycheck you pay yourself first. You make a determination of how much you can take off the top of your monthly income. If you take home $2,000 a month maybe you can afford to take 10 per cent off the top and put $200 into savings. Can you afford five per cent? Five per cent would be $100 a month, or $1,200 a year. As your income increases, you can invest more. If your investments work out, the value of your investments goes up.

Finding investments that will work out is just one of the reasons you deal with the professionals.

So can you bring yourself to set aside money every month? How much is your future, and your family's, worth to you?

There are many ways to save: 401Ks, IRAs, CDs, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, even standard savings accounts, to name just some of them.

Ask a financial planner about them. That's what they deal with every day, and that's why they spend as much time as they do studying them. There are low-risk investments and high-risk investments, and investments in between.

You also have to consider what your family will be left with if something happens to you, or your spouse, or to both of you. That's where insurance comes in. There are a lot of different factors to consider when dealing with insurance.

After accumulation comes distribution. This happens when you start collecting, and doing so without losing most of it to taxes. This requires a financial planner well grounded in the intricacies of IRS rules, regulations, machinations and law.

Finally comes preservation. This is what you leave for your family and heirs when you're gone. The job here is to keep it intact and do as much as possible to protect it from inheritance tax; to arrange things in such a way so that the family home or holdings don't have to be sold off to pay those taxes. Estate planning and the laws and taxes that are involved require an expert's attention.

There are different types of financial consultants, and a wide range of people who use the term. Some are consultants. They help you create an investment plan and guide you to the people to carry it out: brokers, insurance agents, investment advisors and so on. Others are stockbrokers, mortgage fund managers, insurance agents or others who will sell you their own product or products. If, for example, you went to an XYZ Insurance Corp. agent looking for insurance, you'd wind up with an XYZ Insurance Corp. insurance policy. But if you went to an insurance broker or a consultant who deals with a number of different insurance companies you might wind up with XYZ Insurance, or a policy with another company - depending upon whom you and the broker decide would best fill your needs.

One of the first questions to ask any financial planner is how they charge. Some are consultants who bill for the time they spend working with you to develop a financial plan and the strategy for carrying it out. Others operate on a commission basis.

Do you need a financial planner?

Only you can decide that. You can also discuss it with a financial planner and make your decision after you've shopped around and spoken to several of them to find out what they say, and what they can offer you and your future.

Of course, you can do it all yourself. However, as McAfee points out, you can also buy a book about dentistry, a pair of pliers "and pull your own tooth. But wouldn't you rather go to a professional and have it done right?"