NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - I have $18,000 I want to invest, but I'm having trouble finding a helpful financial adviser. I talked to one who seemed promising, but I never heard back from him -- no suggestions, nothing. Others create good first impressions, but once the money is transferred, I feel I'm not respected as a client. Isn't this a sign they're being lazy? After all, my business means commissions for them. Have I just run into the wrong advisers, or what?

-- Karen Fahringer, York, Pennsylvania

Let's face it. From an adviser's point of view, you are not exactly a client to die for. First of all, the amount of money you're talking about investing -- $18,000 -- isn't anywhere near large enough to have advisers elbowing each other out of the way to get to you.

That's not to say $18,000 is peanuts. But when it comes to someone earning commissions off that sum, well, we're hardly talking the potential for big bucks. I suspect that's why you're not getting the attention you feel you deserve.

As I see it, you have a few courses of action. One is to look for an adviser who is a better fit. Veteran advisers usually have developed a roster of clients with substantial assets, so it's not economically worthwhile for them to add clients with small accounts.

Advisers who are new to the business, however, are still building their client rosters and thus likely to be much more flexible about who they'll take on. They'll consider advisees with smaller amounts of money to invest, particularly if they feel there's a chance of building a long-term relationship that could be more profitable down the road.

So maybe you'll have success if you deal with an adviser -- a broker or even a financial planner, say -- who is just starting out and eager to forge relationships with new clients. Be careful, though. You don't want someone who's so eager to drum up new business and commissions that he or she ends up moving your money around just to create commissions. In the investment world, a lot of attention can sometimes be a bad thing.

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Another way to go is to deal with a firm that can provide enough guidance so that you can make reasonable choices on your own. Here, I'm thinking of firms like Schwab and Fidelity, both of which have customer representatives in branch offices that you can deal with face to face.

These reps won't necessarily tell you exactly which stocks or funds to buy. But they should be able help you narrow down the field to investments that are compatible with your risk tolerance and goals and explain the pros and cons of various choices. You would be making the ultimate decision, though.

Finally, there's always the option of simply educating yourself and doing your investing on your own. Sure, you'll have to put in a little time and effort familiarizing yourself with the financial markets and learning how various investments work. But we're not talking rocket science here.

In fact, I'd say if you spend some time browsing through a few of the investing lessons in our Money 100 series and check out some of the educational material on sites like Morningstar, you can easily build a firm enough foundation to begin making investment decisions on your own.

And if you decide you'd still rather work with an adviser than go it alone? Well, that's fine too since you can apply the knowledge and experience you gained investing on your own to finding, choosing and working with an adviser.

Walter Updegrave is a senior editor at MONEY Magazine and is the author of "Investing for the Financially Challenged." He can be seen regularly Monday mornings at 7:40 am on CNNfn.