What’s the Difference Between a Financial Advisor and Financial Coach?

When I first started as a financial coach, people often thought I was a financial advisor or someone who told people to just stop spending money on lattes. Neither is true 😀. To clear up confusion, I started referring to myself as a money coach just to reframe it and make the difference a little more clear. 

I’m so grateful for my own financial advisor. He is an expert on investments, and I am so incredibly grateful for his years of work to help my husband and me be prepared for retirement one day and to make sure we are properly insured right now. Years ago, I asked our advisor for some help with budgeting, which he kindly explained wasn’t really what he was interested in. 

Now as a money coach, I understand. While we both deal with money and people, our roles are just different. As a money coach, I help people with their day to day money management. This is the money that needs our immediate attention, and honestly, it’s the management of this money that causes the most stress in our lives. 

Feeling stress around money is so normal, and it’s a big reason why people come to me for support. Most people have tried some form of traditional budgeting, only to end up feeling like a failure because they couldn’t “stick to it.” Or they may just feel totally overwhelmed with it all because random expenses just keep popping up or because they never learned how to manage their money. They may feel like everyone else has it together and there is something intrinsically wrong with them, which is not true!

The things I hear most often are:

“I’m not extravagant with spending, but there’s just not enough money left at the end of the month.”

“I want to take a vacation and allow my kids to do all the activities they want, but we never seem to have enough to make it happen.”

“I have no idea how much we spend on groceries and eating out, so I don’t know if we are overspending.”

“I keep trying to get out of credit card debt, but every time I make progress, something comes up that causes me to use the card again.”

“I’ve tried budgeting, but I never stick to it and I feel so much shame.”

“I want to make progress, but I just don’t know how.”

“I just need a plan.”

Sometimes it’s a lack of money issue, sometimes it’s a lack of planning ahead, but it mostly all comes down to not seeing our money clearly. The reason traditional budgeting doesn’t work is because every month is different. Do you need new tires every month? Do you pay for summer camp every month? Is it the holiday season every month? Do you take a vacation every month? No, so it’s hard to create a budget that you “stick to” when there is so much fluctuation.

That’s where I come in! My job is to meet you where you are with no judgement. Together, we gain total clarity around your money. It’s quite beautiful when this happens in a session. Clients always have their a-ha moment when they see their money clearly for the first time and say something like, “Oh! This is why I feel the way I do!” 

Once we have that clarity, we make a plan around your life and values. You can see what changes you need to make and we talk through what needs to happen for you to make those changes and reach your goals, whatever they may be. I teach you skills to make your money tangible, clear, and simple to manage. 

I’m here to support you live the life you want, and money is a tool to make that happen. I don’t promise that you can have everything you ever wanted all at once 😀, but I do believe that you can move the needle in the direction you want to go so you can reach your personal goals with your money. I also believe you can feel confident, calm, and empowered with your money, and that those feelings will spill over into other areas of your life.