You’re a what?

I had dinner with my wife and some of her friends the other day. During the evening, one of her friends asked me what I do. “I’m in the business of helping people change their habits and behaviours with their money,” I said.

“What exactly is your job title?” he asked with an interested look on his face.

“I’m a financial trainer.”

“Ohhhh, a financial advisor.”

“Not exactly, actually we do totally different things.”

“What do you mean?”

The difference between a Financial Trainer and a Financial Advisor

If you want help with building your wealth, for example through investment recommendations, or protecting your lifestyle with insurance recommendations you would seek out a Financial Advisor. But if you need help with getting your finances in order or learning how to manage your money better, that’s where I’d come in.

What is a Financial Trainer?

I help my clients with the basics of money management – a critical life skill, which isn’t really taught. Think about how you learnt about money management. For most of us, we probably learned how to manage money based on what we saw our parents do. That could be good…or very bad.

These learned behaviours create our money story – the story of our relationship with money. Just like human relationships, money relationships come in all shapes and sizes. But if you want to change your relationship with money, improve it, make it better, less stressful and more enjoyable (yes, that IS possible), you need to understand how you ended up in that kind of relationship in the first place. Hint: it has a LOT to do with how you think about money and act with money.

My goal is to help you understand your money behaviour, develop healthy money habits that will last and create a plan to achieve your vision of financial success – whatever that looks like. But I don’t leave you there to go it alone; I’ll come on the journey with you like your own sidekick to keep you accountable and encourage you when you feel like giving up…like the Samwise to your Frodo or the Robin to your Batman.

I’m not sure I can afford sidekick services

Yes, you can. Another key difference between a Financial Trainer and a Financial Advisor is the cost involved. You don’t need to have thousands of dollars in assets to have me on your team. In fact, most of my clients have little savings, are in debt and have poor spending habits. If you could afford a personal trainer, you can definitely afford me!

In a nutshell

In general, if your finances are in good order and you’re looking for ways to grow your wealth, then a Financial Advisor is the guy for you. However, if you need to start with money management 101, then I’m the guy for you.

I can help you with saving money, managing your money better and making the whole ‘money thing’ less confusing and daunting to tackle. I’m the guy you’d call if you:

• run out of money before your next pay,
• want to build an emergency savings fund, or
• have a growing debt that you’re not sure how to deal with.

Do you need a sidekick to get your finances on the right track?