How do you know when it’s time to schedule an appointment with a Financial Advisor or Wealth and Wellness Coach? There is so much financial information online that can make this confusing because that information is fairly general and isn’t customized for a person’s unique situation.

Financial Advisors have taken the necessary steps to become licensed to sell insurance, give investment advice and recommend investment products. Don’t worry! Just because they have the capacity to sell a product doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have your financial needs at the forefront. A good financial advisor will take the time to meet with you and talk with you about your financial goals.

A Wealth and Wellness Coach is a certified financial coach who doesn’t sell products. A coach is just that – a coach! A quality coach will take the time to have you share in detail your hopes, dreams, and innermost desires of the life you want now and the dreams you have for yourself and your family. A coach will work with you in mutual partnership to brainstorm on an action plan that works for you to learn healthier spending and saving habits for you to achieve your financial goals.

Let’s take the example of how a financial advisor and coach would approach a client who wants to purchase a home in 3-5 years. 

A Financial Advisor will want to know your financial situation right out the gate. Some of the things they’ll ask you to provide is information about your budgeting, cash flow, employment status, savings cushion, tax bracket, credit score, and retirement plans. They will also check if you are financially stable with adequate savings and insurance to protect yourself from unexpected life events. Wherever they see room for improvement, they will advise you to address those areas like saving more money to beef up your savings account. They might advise you to purchase a long term disability insurance policy that would replace your income in the event you couldn’t keep up with your bills in the event of sickness or injury. A Financial Advisor will request that you gather a bunch of financial documents before they will make any recommendations.

Now, let’s take a closer look at a Wealth & Wellness Coach. A coach will want to know in detail the life you envision for yourself. They’ll want to know your WHY when it comes to purchasing your home and gauge your satisfaction levels of reaching this goal. They’ll ask a lot of questions and have you do most of the talking, so that you can paint a picture of what you want to experience as a homeowner and what impact this will have on you emotionally and financially. With your permission, a coach will dig deep into your fears of becoming a homeowner and help you learn how to verbalize them and move through the unsettling emotions. A coach will also allow for you to be the driver in the areas of your financial life that you want to address first as you work towards creating a plan of home ownership. The coach will gently pull information out of you to see if you are moving towards or further away from your dream of becoming a homeowner.

Do you want to save more money in your bank account to start saving for a down payment? They’ll want to know how much you want to save, why you want to save the money, and then create a plan with you to build the habits to save consistently. Are you bothered that you can’t seem to stick to a budget when you walk into Target? Your coach will want to speak with you about what you experience when you go to Target and will work with you to learn how to set and maintain personal spending boundaries. A coach will not tell you what you need to do with your money. A financial coach is not a therapist, but you will likely have therapeutic experiences working with an excellent coach.

As you can see, both approaches have the clients financial needs and interests in mind. They have two different approaches. A coach and financial advisor may be needed at the same time and could work together as your team.

For example, perhaps you have a lot of anxiety and worry about your credit history and you are really embarrassed to have someone look at your situation. You understand in order to become a homeowner you need to have a good credit standing. A coach would be a great person to contact to help you overcome any feelings of shame and regret that you might have about your credit . A coach can help you create an action plan to begin the process of reaching out to the credit bureaus and begin chipping away at building your credit score. Then when the time comes to meet with a financial advisor, you can walk into their office free from shame and be proud of the work you have accomplished and speak to them knowledgeable about your credit.

Or maybe your financial advisor has given you the task to pull your credit report, but you feel anxious and know deep down that you will find any excuse not to look at your credit. Schedule a call with your coach to help you move through those feelings of anxiety and work together on a plan to help you move forward with your financial planning requirements. 

Working with a Financial Advisor and Wealth and Wellness Coach at the same time could be an excellent way for you to propel your financial goals into action. Both financial professionals working in tandem with you is a sure way for you to have support, accountability, guidance, and advice that is specifically centered around your unique financial situation.