What Is a Financial Coach and What Can They Help You With?

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Claire Coleman
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A financial coach is someone who will help you successfully manage your money. They provide you with strategies to organize your finances, and provide support and guidance to ensure you meet your life and financial goals.

The Power of a Coach

A fitness coach can help you with your health and fitness. A career coach might help you with navigating your professional life.

A financial coach is someone who will help you successfully manage your money. They provide you with strategies to organize your finances, and provide support and guidance to ensure you meet your life and financial goals.

What is a Financial Coach?

A financial coach helps their clients with basic money management. Their goal is to help their clients develop healthy money habits that will last. A financial coach may work with people who have a bad relationship with money or other obstacles keeping them from managing their finances well. 

Financial coaches often assist their clients with the behavioral and emotional side of managing money. A coach can help you unearth what drives your financial decisions, so you can create a healthier attitude that leads to better money habits.

When Should You Work With a Financial Coach?

A financial coach can help you find more clarity around your finances. It may sound odd to hear that you could be doing something better with your money, but there are a lot of things we don’t think about when it comes to managing our finances. With a coach, you’ll be able to identify where there might be problems and come up with ways for change and growth. 

A financial coach can then help you:

  • Understand your spending habits
  • Create and stick to a budget
  • Help you define and achieve your future goals
  • Understand the emotional components of dealing with money
  • Manage and pay off debt
  • Help you navigate difficult money situations and conversations at work and in your personal life
  • Guide you on how to begin investing and building wealth

If you’re looking for investment recommendations or management, a financial coach likely won’t be able to help you. In that case, it may be best to look for a robo-advisor or a financial advisor.

What's the difference between Financial Advisors and Financial Coaches?

Financial coaches are able to address both the emotional and practical side of money, and also hold you accountable as you work towards your goals. Most financial advisors are hands-off money managers. 

A financial advisor works with clients who need help managing and investing their assets. An advisor provides options for developing an investment portfolio to build wealth for their clients to meet future financial goals. They typically charge their fees based on a percentage of asset under management, as opposed to coaches who typically charge a flat retainer fee. Advisors often require a minimum asset level to begin service.

How do you find a Financial Coach and how much do they cost?

Financial coaches typically work on a fee-only basis. Some charge based on how long you plan to work together (for example, a set fee for a period of six months) or per individual session, while others charge based on a percentage of income. Since financial coaches do not usually handle a client’s investments, they typically do not charge based on assets under management, which is a common fee model among financial advisors.

Some financial coaching packages can cost thousands of dollars a year. Coaching rates are typically between $100 to $300 an hour. Because of the wide range of fees charged by coaches, it’s important to ask about expected costs upfront.

What about Bolder Money coaches?

Our financial coaches are certified experts, and our membership provides members with a ongoing access to coaching for $49 a month. The membership includes personal text-based coaching from your coach, as well as access to a community of Bolder women all working on their money goals.

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