 So how do you know you have the right guide? It really comes down to one important quality. Does your advisor listen to you? If they don't, that's a sign that you may be on the path to retirement, and it's not your own. Oftentimes, they start out as a good guide, but somewhere along the road, things change. It's life. These things happen. Take, for example, Amy. When I first met her, it was at one of our educational workshops. She was there because she was looking for answers that she wasn't getting from her current advisor.