Why Hire a Financial Coach (Or Other Professional)
Do you ever wonder why you would hire a financial coach when you can learn everything about personal finance online?
I totally understand asking this question. In fact, I regularly find myself wondering the same thing about other professionals.
Why would I hire a painter if I can paint the walls myself?
Why would I work with a fitness trainer when I can buy a treadmill or sign up for Peloton?
Why would I get a therapist when I can read personal development books and learn about creating healthier thoughts on my own?
5 reasons why it still makes sense to hire someone to help you even if you could figure it out on your own
1. You can save time and energy for more important things.
If I hire someone to paint a room in my home, I’m obviously freeing up time that I would have spent painting. But on top of that, the professional will get results in less time because they have more practice and know what they’re doing. They don’t have to stop and look for tape and then go to the store because you can’t find the tape that you know you have somewhere in your house. They have their supplies ready and just do it.
Financial coaching can also help you free up time.
Instead of spending weeks deliberating which high yield savings account to open, you learn how to confidently pick one and move on.
Instead of delaying your savings because you can’t figure out where your money went, you gain clarity and make a plan to start saving money immediately.
You have a debt payoff strategy that you can stick to and that helps you pay your debt off in the least amount of time.
2. You get better results.
Can I competently paint a room? Yes. Is it as good as when a professional does it? No. (Provided I hired a good professional who does quality work, which is sadly not guaranteed.)
On the other hand, I will probably never attempt to tile a floor. Anyone who has tiled a floor is likely to do a better job than I can, mostly because I would have no idea what to even do. Could I figure it out? Maybe, but it would take a LOOOOOOONG time and would likely have a lot of flaws simply because I don’t have any practice in doing it.
Similarly, with any type of coaching, you can get better results because your coach knows what to look for and what is most likely to work.
If my goal is to start building strength because I’m hoping it will help my back pain, I could look up exercises and start trying to do them on my own. I might even have some success. But hiring a personal trainer could help me know which exercises to do, how often to do them, how many reps to do, etc. That’s likely to be much more effective than me trying to make a plan with no knowledge or experience.
3. You reduce the potential for mistakes.
Sometimes the risk of doing things on your own is that you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know when following a piece of advice that “everyone” tells you is actually going to hurt you in the end (cough cough student loans cough cough).
You don’t know when those exercises you’re doing might end up hurting because you did too many too fast.
You don’t know when “fixing” something on your home solved the immediate problem, but ended up creating long-term damage that your child/grandchild (or new owner) will end up having to pay for in 20 years.
Hiring a professional also opens up the possibility of mistakes, but generally speaking, a professional is going to reduce the chance that you do something wrong simply because you’re not aware of the consequences. (Always do your research and make sure you feel like you can trust the person before hiring them.)
4. You gain clarity and confidence.
One of the things I struggle with most is the mind drama that happens when I try to make decisions.
It used to be so much easier. If you wanted a toaster, you went to the store and bought a toaster. There were maybe two options and you either wanted the cheaper one or you wanted the one with more features.
But then the internet happened and now Amazon has over 1000 results!
Any little decision turns into a rabbit hole of comparing toasters to find the best one based on price, features, reviews, and who knows what else.
Sometimes I just want someone to tell me what to do so I don’t spend days in indecision (without toast).
Having a coach can help you reduce decision fatigue, make smart decisions, and most importantly, how to trust yourself to make good decisions.
5. Knowing what to do is not the same as doing it.
A coach or professional can help you apply your knowledge of what to do. It’s absolutely true that you can learn anything you want to know about managing money on the internet. As a small blogger, it is hard to get eyes on my blog posts because there is SO. MUCH. personal finance content out there. Lack of information is not the problem.
The problem is that we can know what we’re supposed to do and still not do it.
In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I find having a therapist so valuable. (Side note: I think everyone could benefit from having a therapist, so if you’re on the fence, DO IT.)
I know many of the things that my therapist says or recommends. I know that I could be better at setting boundaries and having more self-compassion. I know that I should stop letting one troll on the internet affect how I feel about myself.
But knowing that I should do those things and actually doing them are two very different things. It’s the doing it that I need help with.
Similarly, coaches of all kinds are most helpful in that they help you apply rules and guidelines to your life.
I might know that I should do more strength training, but that doesn’t mean I know how to get started and do it safely and effectively. That’s why you hire a fitness trainer.
When it comes to your money, you likely know that you should save money, spend less than you earn, create a budget, etc. But knowing all of that doesn’t help when you’re on vacation and you’ve already spent thousands of dollars and you think that you might as well spring for one last amazing meal at the fancy restaurant given how much money you’ve already spent.
You don’t hire a financial coach to come in and tell you that you should spend less money and save more. You hire them to look at your entire financial picture, your values, goals, habits, etc and help you apply the information to your life. You hire a coach to help you use the resources you have to get to the place where you want to be.
A good financial coach isn’t going to tell you what (not) to buy or make you feel bad about your decisions—they will help you uncover a plan for your money that feels good and helps you live the life you want.
Working with a financial coach can be a powerful experience because you’ll:
Save time spent researching and agonizing over decisions
Get better (and faster) results than you might on your own
Reduce the chance that you’ll make costly mistakes (like putting your money in an investment account but not actually investing it)
Gain clarity and confidence and learn how to make good financial decisions on your own
Put all of that knowledge you have of what to do into practice in a way that makes sense for you
Do you always have to hire someone? No, of course not!
Sometimes doing things yourself makes sense. I am a firm believer in figuring things out on your own. I can’t tell you how many plumbing issues I’ve solved with the help of YouTube. This saves me money and makes me feel good about my ability to learn new things and solve problems.
I also manage my own investments, do my own social media, and figure out my own workouts. (I know I could do better with a personal trainer, but it is simply not a priority and it is not currently how I want to spend my money.)
So how do you know if you should do something on your own or hire a professional?
There’s no one right answer for everyone, but here are some questions you can ask that will help you decide:
What is my top priority right now? What would I be trying to get by hiring someone?
How much do I want to spend on this given my other priorities? If I spend money on this, what other opportunities will I have to say no to?
Do I have the money available to spend on this?
If I don’t have money, would investing in this option get me to a better place where I would ultimately come out ahead? (This applies to financial coaching, career training, or other training that could help increase your income.)
How much interest do I have in doing this on my own?
Do I have time for this right now?
What results am I hoping to get and would it be worth it?
Remember, with any decision like this, you are likely going to invest either money or time and energy. Each decision will require you to balance these things against each other.
Having a financial coach helps you make these decisions faster and more confidently, so that you can stop stressing over each little decision and start using your money to create the life you want to live.