Financial Coaching. And the roll it can play…

What IS financial coaching, you may ask? These days our lives are much more complicated than decades ago. In the “good old days” there was maybe a list of  6-10 ESSENCIAL monthly bills most people probably had.

Mortgage or rent, utility bill, homeowners’ insurance & car insurance. Maybe a car payment, property tax bill if it was not part of the mortgage payment.

Not much else, for EVERY Month bills. It seemed much easier to keep track of your monthly spending. Even credit cards were just used for “emergencies.”

These days, EVERYTHING is on “credit” or is a must Have! We borrow for college, we HAVE a cable bill, wi-fi bill, streaming services, cell phone bills to cover EVERYONE in the family. Maybe you have water delivered to the house vs drinking it from the tap. We eat more takeout food; we go out to eat more than years ago. We pay to have food delivered. We pay random people to pick us up and drive us places, we MUST have a credit card for MOST if not all of these things! Hey, I just switched my cell carrier, and to get the “deal”. Which did save me $100.00 a month, 😊You need to allow automatic payments on your credit card. They do not tell you that till the very end of the transaction, and it took 2 hours to get it set up! Long story, but at that point I was like, I just want out of here!

The point here is as a society we seem to “need” all this stuff.  Can you really survive without a cell phone? You need an App. for everything! I digress…

So, what does a Financial Coach have to do with all this? The world is busier, and we can easily go down a rabbit hole and overspend, which can lead to more debt than in the old days. A “Coach” is the person that helps you get your arms around your personal finance lifer. The “Coach” helps you face your fears, vs putting your head in the sand, thinking this will pass. It does not pass; it usually gets worse.  The “Coach” is that person that’s right by your side helping you make better decisions one step at as time. Money can be stressful when there is not enough, or when you are having a hard time changing your habits. People have life coaches, why not a  coach that helps people make changes in their financial life? People pay a coach to “force” them to work out or get on track with better eating habits. It makes sense, right?

It’s a thing! And I think it would be a cool gig to be part of! Talking to people about how to help them de-stress over money and help them create a feeling of being in control. I think I may do this!

2024 Financial Goals!!!

Happy New Year!!!

2024 is here! For most people the new year signals a time for some positive changes they want to make in their lives. We all know by the end of January, most of us have “broken” these “promises” we have made to OURSELVES. The odds are pretty good these “promises” were unrealistic anyway, so we kind of set ourselves up to fail, right? This year if the “resolution/promise” is to be more Financially Fit, Let’s start this week or even today with doing one simple task to start to pave that path.

 We could do a simple task like, writing down a simple goal for ourselves and give ourselves ONE week to complete it… This task should be simple…and if your motivated, just do it today! Maybe that task is REALLY looking at your checking account and seeing where your money is going. This should not take that much time… We need to look back at least 3 months if not 4-6 months. Some banks will break it down for you… This might not be pretty not be pretty… But just do it…

Once you have done that… Check this off you’re to do list you have at least accomplished SOMEWTHING! Now the following week, or the same day the goal is to find a “habit” that you have with your money that you’re not happy with and need to change. It could be as simple as I take out too much cash every week and spend it on???  Fill in the blank…Maybe too much takeout food, maybe it’s on Uber, when the walk would be a double dip for another 2024 goal, just find something small to change and stick with it… If we set a very small goal, there is a better chance of that goal becoming a reality and a better chance of us sticking to the small changes. The following month we set another small goal… And so on… little changes…

It’s like saying you want to lose 50 Lbs.; we all know this will not happen in 30 days. The same goes for getting financially fit, this takes time and confidence building. Hang out with people that are trying to do the same thing or are already there… This helps a lot! It keeps you on track.  You did not get financially UNFIT overnight, so you cannot expect to get financially fit overnight either.

Good luck getting and keeping your small goals today/this week!!! Happy New Year everyone and let’s get financially fit in 2024!