What is a Personal Money Coach?  What does a Personal Money Coach do?

Well, let’s start with what I’m not and what I don’t do:

• I’m not a CFA (Chartered Financial Advisor) — I don’t provide investment advice and I don’t sell investment products;
• I’m not a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) — I don’t provide tax advice, estate advice, etc;
• I don’t shill for Get Rich Quick schemes;
• I’m not a extreme couponer or Frugalista.

What I do is help people.

I like to describe my work as a combination of tutoring, coaching, and counseling.  I believe that we cannot have healthy relationships — with ourselves, our families, our significant others, our children, our higher power, our society — if we do not have a healthy relationship with money.  But if we had unhealthy role models or no role models at all, if we don’t innately understand money, how do we build healthy money muscles?  With a Personal Money Coach, of course.

In my own life I have experienced a level of joy and freedom that comes from not being continually stressed about money and my main objective as a personal money coach is to help others achieve that same joy and freedom.

Who can I help with personal money coaching?  Chances are, you’re the ideal client.  My clients range from high school students to great-grandmothers; they range in income from people making very “decent” salaries to those making less than minimum wage; and they range in existing financial situations from being debt-free and saving for retirement to being in the process of declaring bankruptcy and mired in past-due bills.

Anyone who learns well in a personalized, one-to-one setting will benefit from working with a money coach.  I tailor my work to fit your learning style, your goals, and your personal values.  Think of personal money coaching as an equivalent to having a personal trainer, individual tutor, or personal weight-loss coach.

I’m a details person so enough with the generalities.  Here are some of the specific things we might work on in the course of our coaching sessions:

• Learn how to budget (that’s a verb, not a noun)
• Learn to identify Wants and Needs and differentiate between the two
• Learn techniques that develop the ability to delay gratification
• Learn critical thinking skills
• Learn basic money management terminology and skills — debit, credit, reconciliation, savings, IRAs, CDs, investments, 401k
• Learn how to stop being the sucker who pays late fees and interest charges
• Learn how to make money work for us rather than always having to work so hard for our money
• Learn how to deal with a windfall
• Learn about Debt Snowballs, and Debt Avalanches,  and Savings Snowballs
• Learn how to break out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle and/or get off the credit card float
• Learn how to think about and plan for the medium- and long-term
• Learn discipline techniques
• Learn how to honor your values and priorities and not be pressured by external/commercial forces
• Learn how to be a good steward of your money and plan for a responsible future without having to compromise your ideals

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how much money can be the source of stress and strife in interpersonal relationships.  I work with couples for whom money is a source of conflict, confusion, or frustration.