The old adage is that you have to spend money to make money. But investors don’t actually spend money — they risk losing it in the hopes of compounding it.

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But for common retail investors, a relatively modest $210 expenditure might be the only risk-free investment they ever make — and certainly one with the potential to pay the greatest long-term dividends of all.

Considering the complexities and volatility of the stock, bond, crypto, housing and other investment markets, ordinary players might not know that they’re under-diversified, over-leveraged or facing a tax-related catastrophe until they find out the hard way — by suffering losses that they couldn’t afford and might have avoided.

Then, there’s the easy way: A meeting with a qualified, certified professional advisor who studies the markets, has earned prestigious certifications, participates in ongoing education and serves as a fiduciary with only your best interests in mind.

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According to the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), a Fortune 500 financial services organization, there are five primary signs that it might be time to invest in professional financial guidance:

• You’re worried about paying for college, changing jobs, starting a business, retiring comfortably, being overinsured or underinsured, affording children, caring for an aging parent, or any other nagging financial concern.

• You’re unclear on your financial goals or how to achieve them.

• Your tax burden is growing or becoming more complex.

• You’re losing money to emotional or impulsive investments.

• You want to enlist the help of a financial professional, but you think you can’t afford it.

The red-flag anxieties that call for professional guidance are not unfounded. For example, according to the TIAA:

• A professional can optimize your asset allocation, which alone can boost after-tax returns by 0.3% annually — that’s $1,500 on a $500,000 portfolio. Over two decades of compounding, that seemingly modest sum could pad your nest egg by more than $30,000.

• You would have missed more than 40% of the S&P 500’s gains over the past two decades by missing only the 10 best trading days during that time. A professional advisor can help you remove emotion and bias from your strategy, eliminating panic-selling and attempts to time the market, which contribute to missed opportunities.