As a financial coach, I often get confused for a financial advisor, but the two roles are very different:

A financial advisor helps their clients invest their money to meet their financial goals.

A financial coach partners with their clients to:

• Understand their feelings about money and how it has impacted their current financial situation,
• Clarify their goals and the underlying values and aspirations behind them,
• Identify the behaviours that are not aligned with these goals and replace them with more productive ones,
• Stay accountable to these new behaviours,
• Be kind to themselves when things don’t go as planned, learn the lessons and start again,
• Celebrate their progress and achievements.

At then end of their coaching journey, the clients are self-confident about their ability to be the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of their money: they have a clear path to improve their financial health and know how to select the people, including a financial advisor, who will help them reach their goals.

Partnering with a financial coach can therefore increase your wealth by:

1. Increasing your self-confidence to go for that promotion or better job.
2. Seeing the impact of impulse money decisions and the upside of changing them.
3. Realizing that managing your money is not complicated.
4. Recognizing that budgeting is telling your money where to go so you don’t wonder where it went.
5. Only choosing to partner with financial professionals who respect you and can explain their services and value in terms you understand.

How to find your financial coach?

It’s probably obvious to you by now that trust is key if you want to get the most out of your partnership with a financial coach (or a therapist or even a financial advisor).

Full trust will take time but here are a few recommendations that have helped me find trustworthy partners:

• Find somebody who has a recognized accreditation, especially one that requires the coach to follow ethical standards, like an ICF credentialed coach.
• Look for experience in coaching and finance, as well as relevant testimonials from clients.
• Most coaches offer a free discovery session to check that you are a good fit for each other: take advantage of it.
• Last but not least, trust your gut and your heart before taking the leap: a great coach always wants the best for their active and potential clients, and will be grateful for your honesty if you let them know he/she is not a good fit for you.

I wish you the best on your road to financial health. As it improves, I promise you that you will notice the powerful impact it has on the other aspects of your life, as I have.

I will leave you with this quote from Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, which reflects how I feel about money:

“You don’t need to work hard for money. Nothing in nature works hard. Instead, it’s just about adding value and contributing good to society, being joyful, being open to receive, feeling gratitude, and feeling rich. Do these things and the money flows in.”