If you're not familiar with financial coaching, you most likely have some questions! Hopefully, we can help answer some of them here. If you still have more questions, please reach out to us!
If you're not familiar with financial coaching, you most likely have some questions! Hopefully, we can help answer some of them here. If you still have more questions, please reach out to us!
The short answer is no. Financial advisors are typically licensed to give you investment advice, open accounts for you, perform transactions at your direction and sell insurance. Some may offer financial coaching services as well, but it’s still not that common.
A financial coach is someone you connect with to help take the stress and uncertainty out of managing your finances. Financial coaches don’t access or manage your money for you. Instead it’s often more about helping you find ways of creating those streams of money that can pay off debts, be invested or saved for future goals. It can also be about managing debt, improving credit scores and planning expenditures so more money goes where you want it to and less goes where you don’t. A financial coach may be able to help you increase your income. They can help small businesses address their pain points, bottlenecks and frustrations. By including life coaching they can help with the big picture and the whole situation. Life situations affect personal and business finances, and finances can have a big effect on lives and relationships.
You (probably)
It’s not just for people facing a financial crisis. But it can be great for those people. Financial coaching will be beneficial for anyone who is willing to make changes, and also has debt to pay off, wants to save for an emergency fund, vacation, college or retirement. Coaching is great for younger people just starting out, but also can be very beneficial for those looking to stretch their retirement dollars. It can help someone prepare to find a better paying job or move up in the job they have. It can help a small business become more efficient so it benefits from growth rather than just creating bigger problems. Financial coaching can help people who aren’t really sure what to do to reach their goals and those who know what to do, but have trouble doing it consistently. Financial coaching can help you sort out what really matters most to you in the long run and help you utilize your money in a way that is consistent with those values.
So basically, if you think there’s even a chance that financial coaching can help you, it probably will. If I’m not absolutely sure I can help you, I’ll say so.
I won’t try to help people who are unwilling to change or try something new. I don’t tell people what to do or access their accounts. I don’t tell people what stocks to buy or open retirement accounts for them. I don’t sell insurance. (But I will refer them to people that I know and trust for each of those things) I won’t help someone try to get rich quick or chase some “money making secret.” Most of all, I won’t try to talk anyone into a program that isn’t a good value for them.
This is a bit of a tough one to answer, because I don’t do canned or one-size-fits-all programs. Everything is tailored to the individual’s situation and goals. There are many different financial experts and gurus out there with their own books, plans and programs. I’ve studied these and will draw the best solutions, processes and systems from them for each person and situation.
Generically, you will fill out a questionnaire that explores your situation and goals. From there, I’ll ask some follow-up questions if needed, and put together an initial plan. Then we’ll talk about that plan and refine it further so it fits and works for you. At that point I’ll also be able to determine the cost and an approximate time frame for implementing that plan.
Maybe a fictitious example will help. A client fills out the questionnaire and has been turned down for a home loan because their debt to income ratio is too high. Their income is good, but they have two car loans, are making payments on a boat and are carrying balances on several credit cards. They have hardly anything in savings, and no emergency fund. They are living paycheck to paycheck but still want to be paying on a house they own rather than just paying rent forever.
There’s a lot to unpack here. It isn’t going to get solved overnight, but it’s not insurmountable either. My plan would contain these points: 1. They need to determine what is most valuable (significant) to them in the long run. Situations like this develop from competing priorities that weren’t sorted out deliberately. At the end of this phase we’ll have a clear ranking of what is most and least important to them. 2. We will formulate a plan and/or system for increasing savings and decreasing debt by cutting spending on those things that are least important to the clients. Part of that process will be figuring out where the money has been going in the past. How aggressive we get here will depend on them. It may be possible to turn things around in a shorter time if they are willing to make some big changes. But I won’t push for that if it’s not what they want. I provide information and run projections. The client decides. I help them be sure their decisions align with their true values and will be beneficial to them over time. 3. We work that plan, adjusting as needed until their goals are reached. Getting them on track would likely take 3-6 months. Achieving their goals would likely take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending on how aggressive they want to get.
This client will likely elect to pay for this program a month at a time. But if a client is able, there will be a 10% discount for paying for the full program up front.
The best answer to this question depends on the total situation. If you can save up or work some extra hours to get the money to get started, the results of the coaching process will keep it going. We’ll find ways to shave expenses or earn extra income to not only cover the costs of coaching, but to put toward your goals as well. The time it takes for coaching results to become greater than the costs will depend on your situation, but I won’t take someone as a client if the value doesn’t significantly outweigh the cost within a time frame that is reasonable to both of us. It is ultimately up to the client to follow through and execute the plan.
If the client just can’t afford the cost to get coaching started there is presently one other limited time opportunity. That is for them to refer two separate clients to us who become paying coaching customers. That will cover their first month of coaching, and should allow us to find ways to fund the remaining coaching. If not, two more referrals will cover the next month of coaching and so on. This opportunity will only remain open as long as there is adequate unused capacity in our coaching schedule.