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Financial coaching is becoming more widely acknowledged. Certainly since I have started working in this area, I have seen a steady increase in its popularity.
This is great news as I believe that we as money coaches have the power to transform not only our immediate clients’ lives, but society in general, as a result of their greater financial literacy.
But there is still a lot of confusion about what a financial coach does, so I have answered that in this article here based on my own work with clients.
The three components of financial coaching
A financial coach, or money coach, may wear a few different hats, depending on the needs of the client and where they are at on their coaching journey.
Money coaching combines powerful coaching principles with practical mentoring and general advice to help people transform their relationship with money. Financial therapy has the benefit of psycho-therapeutic approaches in addition.
Coaching
In my role as a coach, my primary aim is to champion your success in understanding and managing your own relationship with money. I work alongside you to help you master your feelings about money, and install good habits and new behaviours.
My personal mission is for you to fall in love with your relationship with money
Coaching in its truest sense is client-driven and non directional; a positive practice which focuses on building someone’s resourcefulness and positive beliefs about themselves.
Solutions and strategies are client-generated through the powerful questioning of the coach and in the use of wide-ranging coaching tools which help the client generate possibilities and see a path for change.
A powerful coach will facilitate a hugely positive journey of self-discovery
In my coaching programme, we start by using personality profiling tools to dig deep into your unique perspectives on money and the opportunities it brings to your life.
If I gave 100 people £1000, they would all use it differently. Some would spend it on a holiday, others would gift to a family member in need, others still would leave it in the bank until they’d considered all the options for it.
Knowing how YOUR brain ticks helps us together to understand what might be holding you back from having a good relationship with money.
My belief is that the fundamentals of great financial coaching lie in this early work. Challenging the long held beliefs you have around money, identifying the triggers for the habits which are sabotaging your financial health, and then working to instill new, positive behaviours.
In coaching, we focus on setting goals, creating outcomes and managing personal change. I will be your cheerleader and hold you to account as you build both knowledge and confidence around your personal finances; accountability plays a huge role in a successful coaching relationship.
As a financial coach, it was important for me to be able to coach in a way which facilitates lasting change in my clients. Understanding neuroscience, what holds us back and the formation of new habits is crucial to this. To facilitate my work, I trained specifically in trauma informed coaching with an International Coaching Federation (ICF) accredited training school.
Whilst I don’t label myself as a financial therapist as this term is not widely used in the UK, I am also certified to undertake pyscho-therapeutic interventions.
I am a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Time Line Therapy™ Practitioner, and an Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner. This means I am qualified to work effectively with the subconscious mind, which is where our beliefs and habits reside! My training in Time Line Therapy enables me to use this therapeutic approach, if required, to get rid of negative emotions in your past which could be impacting how you behave today.
Advisor
A financial coach won’t try and sell you any financial products, ever. They are not authorised to do so.
Compare this to a financial advisor who is paid by clients to take full responsibility, based on their expertise, for managing your money. Some people want the services of a financial advisor when it comes to managing large amounts of money; I frequently refer clients to financial advisors either at the offset if it is clear from our discovery call that this is what they want, or if they don’t want to manage their money themselves at the end of our time coaching together.
A money coach will never perform the role of a financial advisor, but they will often take on the role of ‘general’ advisor at various points. It is not uncommon for those seeking help with their finances to want guidance around what is best practice in a given situation e.g. how to get out of debt, how to build an emergency fund.
I frequently give advice in the form of:
- Money management tips and tricks
- Providing my tools and resources for clients to use e.g. budget templates, worksheets, calculators
- Providing non-product related advice and directing people to resources available including charities who can assist with debt support, calculators, books and information resources
- Referencing information which clients can use to facilitate their decision making process
- Talking about generic guidance in common situations
- If asked, I can help solve problems by providing an alternative viewpoint
Mentor
A mentor is typically someone who shares life experiences and wisdom, as well as technical expertise, with those who are on the same journey but at an earlier point. They provide inspiration to those who want to achieve the same. A mentor is a great sounding board for ideas for those who want to achieve similar goals.
With my own clients, we frequently move in to a mentoring relationship once my clients have mastered their emotional relationship with money. I help clients implement the practical steps which are needed to be able to achieve their financial goals; the steps that I myself have already taken on my own financial journey.
As someone who has a fully funded emergency fund, has been investing in the stock market for almost 13 years, is a property investor and who is entirely debt-free, including mortgage, I walk the walk and talk the talk. I know how to do all the things which you aspire to do and I love nothing better than helping you to avoid the mistakes so that you can get there too.
I educate you to become empowered and have the tools to make your own decisions. You do the work.
Working with a money coach, you will be encouraged to take ownership of the outcome of the coaching journey. Ultimately, your openness to learn about yourself, your ability to acknowledge what needs to change, and your willingness to take action will determine your success.
Click here to book a call with me to explore if 1:1 coaching is right for you. Alternatively, if you are interested in accessing The Money Lounge to better your finances, join us here for 3 months of self-led study.
