Should You Work With a Financial Coach?

Jan 15, 2023 | Financial Wellness, Personal Finance Podcast | 0 comments

should you work with a financial coach?

In our years doing this, almost anyone can benefit from working with the right Financial Coach. There is always room for improvement and plenty of opportunities to increase your Net Wealth. But how can you tell if you should work with a Financial Coach?

Financial Coaching is a new, growing profession in the finance industry. Falling somewhere between a Financial Advisor and a Life Coach.

Before we jump into how to determine if you should work with a Financial Coach. Let’s talk about what Financial Coaching really is and how it works.


What is Financial Coaching?

A Financial Coach is a professional who teaches you how to manage your money, improve your finances and reach Financial Freedom. Programs vary in a few ways, depending on the Financial Coach.

Ways Financial Coaches Programs may vary:

  • Format: one-on-one sessions or group coaching

  • Focus: budgeting, setting goals, paying off debt, or others.

  • Frequency: meeting weekly, monthly, or quarterly

No matter the Financial Coach, a good one will help you work through and overcome limiting money beliefs. A true professional will also talk you through solutions to your problems in an objective manner.

Ideally, throughout the process, your Financial Coach asks you plenty of questions. About your life, goals, and plans to help make curated suggestions specific to you.

Finally, the goal of a good financial coach is to help you become self-sufficient as possible. Meaning as they guide you through the process, they are equipping you with the knowledge and confidence to accomplish your goals. But they are not doing the work for you. Read this to learn more about how to find the perfect Financial Coach for you!

Now you might be wondering, what’s the difference between a Financial Coach and a Financial Advisor? Isn’t it the same thing? The short answer is no. These financial professionals play a very different role in your overall strategy. Simply put, a financial coach helps you create wealth, a financial advisor helps you increase your wealth.

If you want to read more about the differences between a Financial Coach and a Financial Advisor, check out this Blog: Financial Coaches vs Financial Advisor.

While most everyone could benefit from working with the right Financial Coach, it isn’t for everyone. Sometimes you’re looking for other specialized financial professionals like a CPA to help you with your taxes, or a Financial Advisor to invest your money for you.

Take this quiz and find out if you should work with a Financial Coach!

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS WITH A YES or NO:

  1. Do you feel like you have little to no money at the end of the month? YES or NO
  2. Do you struggle to make consistent progress toward your financial goals? YES or NO
  3. Do you feel like debt is holding you back from living your life? YES or NO 
  4. Do you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or worried when thinking about money? YES or NO
  5. Do you lack confidence or find it difficult to navigate finances on your own? YES or NO
  6. Do you worry about having enough money for retirement? YES or NO
  7. Do you want more time and money to do the things you love? YES or NO

If you answered YES to 1 or more of these questions, it’s time to prioritize your financial wellness. Working with a Financial Coach might be right for you!

Continue reading to learn how Financial Coaching can help you overcome these challenges, build real wealth, and improve your life.


#1: You have little to no money at the end of the month.

Regardless of income level, more than 70% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Meaning there is little to no money at the end of the month to put towards paying off debt, saving, and investing.

Before reaching Financial Freedom, we used to be part of that 70%. We hated the feeling of spinning our wheels and clocking into jobs we hated because we needed the next paycheck. So we learned how to break the cycle and reach our financial goals.

Working with a Financial Coach can help you do the same. A Financial Coach can help you master your budget and understand your cash flow so instead of saving what is left at the end of the month, you hit your saving and investing goals first!

#2: You struggle to make consistent progress toward your financial goals.

Maybe you have traditional goals like getting out of debt, buying a home, and investing for retirement – or you want to take an adult gap year, travel the world, or start your own business! Either way you need a plan to make progress. Especially if you aren’t sure where to start, what your priorities should be, and what steps to take so you can make consistent progress toward reaching them.

When you don’t have a comprehensive strategy, consistency is impossible. We ought to know. We tried wingin’ it for a while too. It just kept us broke and frustrated.

Having dreams is different from setting actionable goals and breaking them down so you know what you need to do so you reach them. Working with a Financial Coach can help you get better results, in less time! Helping you create realistic goals and expectations, providing accountability and helping you stay motivated to make progress month after month.

#3 You feel like your life is on hold because debt is holding you back.

More adults than ever are putting their lives on hold because of their debt, but your Student Loans shouldn’t feel like a life sentence. Millennials are choosing not to date, get married, and become homeowners because of their burden of debt. We get it! Before we started our Journey to Financial Freedom, we thought homeownership was impossible. Feeling weighed down by student loan debt, we thought it wasn’t even worth thinking about.

If you can relate, you should strongly consider working with a Financial Coach. You do not need a lot of money to manage it well or to see progress. Which is why we help our clients come up with a realistic debt elimination strategy that helps you get out from crushing debt! So you don’t have to feel like you’re delaying life milestones.

#4 You feel overwhelmed, stressed, or worried when you think about money.

If you are stressed about your personal finances, you’re normal! Whether you feel like you lack the right information to make informed financial decision. If you’re overwhelmed because there is so much you need to research or teach yourself, but so little time to do it. Maybe you’re worried because you feel like you’re behind….if any of those things describe how you feel, you are in the majority.

According to the American Psychological Association, work and money are the leading cause of stress in America. Personal finance is emotional and complicated.

Working with a Financial Coach can help you close the information gap and feel better about your finances! A Financial Coach can teach you how to make well informed financial decisions and explaining financial concepts in an easy-to-understand way. While helping you process negative feelings of stress and overwhelm. A Financial Coach will help you live without financial stress.

#5 You don’t feel confident navigating finances on your own.

Managing money is more stressful and complicated than ever! Most Americans never received a formal education about how to manage our personal finances. Not to mention the endless information and conflicting opinions online that only add to the confusion. To top it off, the finance industry deliberately makes things sound more complicated than they really are, putting wealth further out of people’s reach. It is no wonder why when you try to Do-it-Yourself you lack clarity and confidence!

You shouldn’t have to figure it out alone. The truth is you can be very successful using simple financial concepts and principles. We paid off debt, saved up a 2-year emergency fund, and started a business using math a fourth grader could understand. But it takes an expert to sift good information from the bad.

A good Financial Coach will help you do just that! Build a simple, but effective financial foundation on which to build, that is based on your unique situation and goals.

#6 You worry you will not have enough money for retirement.

This is so normal it’s scary. Retirees are more afraid of running out of money than they are of dying. But with a little financial education and proper planning, you can put your mind at ease and enjoy your retirement! Intentionally planning for retirement was something we thought we would get to “one day.” But once we started our Journey to Financial Freedom, we realized we needed to prioritize our future selves.

A Financial Coach does not advise about securities (stocks, bonds, etc…), manage your retirement accounts or funds. Their involvement in the investment, tax, and legal side of our work is strategic strictly supportive.

But a Financial Coach can help you create cash flow in your budget to regularly contribute to your investment accounts. They can also provide general information, share personal experiences, and coach you through conversations with CPAs, Financial Advisors, etc. as you round out a comprehensive financial strategy.

#7 You want to spend more time doing what you love, not stressing about money.

Getting an education in personal finance takes a lot of time, energy, and effort. Not to say that it isn’t important, but it isn’t exactly your idea of fun. Simply put, you have other things in your life you would rather be doing. We get it.

We took the DIY approach and it cost a lot of time, money, uncertainty, and frustration. Had we known about Financial Coaches and worked with a professional, we would have been able to get better results faster, without the anxiety. Knowing what we know now, we definitely would have done a few things differently and built wealth faster!

Working with a Financial Coach saves you time and money so that you can put energy into the things that matter most to you. As professionals with your best interest at heart, we give you the information you need to know. While helping you understand it and make the best choices for you.

Because there is no good reason to spend more time learning about services, products and business ideas that aren’t a good fit for you. Wouldn’t you rather be out enjoying yourself doing things you are passionate about?


Hopefully, you have found this information helpful as you try to determine if you should work with a Financial Coach. Our advice is to do your research and find someone that you connect to and feel like you can trust. Learn about different Financial Coaching services and try to find the one that best suits your needs.

In this article, we shared our perspectives and examples of how we help our clients. But every Financial Coach works differently. Some focus strictly on budgeting, or debt, while others, like ourselves, offer more comprehensive services.

If you have decided you want to work with a Financial Coach – take your time to find the right one. Be sure that the Financial Coaches you interview can support you in the ways you need to improve your finances. To help you find the perfect Financial Coach for your needs we write this article.

Have any questions about financial coaching? Ask away in the comment section below.

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