Have you ever had a “coach” who provided support and accountability in any area of your life? Perhaps it was a high-school basketball coach you had or a helpful guidance counselor. The relationship we build with coaches are the kind of relationships that really make a difference in how we live our lives. We learn skills and life lessons from coaches. The help a coach can provide is especially useful when it comes to your finances.
Handling your financial well-being can be tricky. It’s a combination of emotion, experience, and knowing which path is the right one. When it comes to money, there are a lot of blind spots. Many of us have no idea if we’re making the right choices. And if we discover that we’re not making good choices, there’s not always a clear way to get back on track. That’s where having a financial coach can come into play. Part-expert, part-cheerleader, part-accountability partner, a financial coach will help educate you in how to pay off your debts, build up your bank account, and ultimately give you peace of mind because your financial coach will make sure you understand your choices. What a financial coach is most of all is an investment you make in yourself. A financial coach is a person trained (and trusted) to look at your finances and identify opportunities for you to better manage your money. Instead of making decisions for you, they’ll focus more on teaching you money management skills to help you become more confident in reaching your financial goals and to enable you to build a solid financial foundation.
So exactly what will a financial coach do for you?
Financial advisors give you advice they expect you to follow. Financial planners develop a plan you can follow to reach your financial goals. In contrast, a financial coach enables you to take a holistic view of your financial situation. Coaching sessions with a financial coach are tailored to your specific goals and enable you to work on achieving financial freedom for yourself. In a typical coaching session, you might learn more about the fundamentals of personal finance, learn how to pay off your credit cards and other debt, or even discuss how you can save money for your children’s education or retirement. Financial coaching helps you not only set goals for yourself, but your financial coach will guide you to actually achieve those goals. Examples of goals you can define include:
• How to pay off debt, like student loans or credit cards,
• Learn about personal finance and how to make good money decisions,
• Raise your credit score for future financial goals, like buying a house or starting a business, • Learn what stage of retirement planning you’re in and ensure that you’re on the right path for a financially stable retirement,
• Build an emergency fund for a rainy day or in case you lose your job,
• Understand different financial products and which ones make the most sense for you.
Financial coaches don’t just tell you what to do, they drive behavior change by helping you to understand how your money habits and financial life affect every other area of your life.
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