Is working with a Coach right for you?

How often do you act or react with money in ways that don't serve you?   Do you find yourself doing the same thing time and time again but not making progress in your financial life?  Meeting with a Certified Financial Coach^TM can help.  

Q:  I don't need any help to learn what I need to learn.   I just need resources to find information out for myself. Why would I need a coach?

A:  While most people find it of great value to gain skill training and clarity by working with a Certified Financial Coach, some people are very happy with the way they handle their own financial situation, have great happiness in life and feel totally in control of their own life balance.  If this is the case, we at Wealth Strong Partners help you find and learn information you need to make sound financial decisions.  We invite you to learn more about the financial world by browsing the material on this site.   Go to the home page and click on the headers to find videos, articles and our newsletter to expand your knowledge.   Also feel free to call us to discuss your portolio strategies.   

Q:  My financial resources are adequate to provide me with a good living throughout my retirement but I am looking for more in life.   What does meeting with a Certified FInancial Coach mean to me?

A:  If you are looking for financial clarity.  If you are searching for the an understanding of how your financial resources can serve the other wealth in your life, we invite you to read on. 

Finding Financial Clarity through Financial Coaching and/or attending Fin LAB.    Help from a Certified Financial Coach^TM   can bring clarity in all areas of wealth.

Learning to LIGHTEN UP:       

Are you willing to have your life become easier?

Many people find that no matter how much money they have they still feel uneasy regarding their financial future.   As professionals who are interested in helping our clients not only with the technical and strategic aspects of their finances but also with helping our clients find a sense of ease and comfort around their finances, we have prefessionals on hand to help our clients develop financial clarity.   Clients who are interested in exploring this have access to Financial Coaching through our professional Certified Financial Coaches^TM.  Those interested in looking beyond financial coaching to see how coaching may help other areas of your life may want to take advantage of the work of people who are affiliated with WEALTH STRONG, the training and service company for Certified Financial Coaches.    

WHAT IS COACHING?

The International Coaching Federation ( ICF) defines coaching as "an ongoing partnership that helps clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives."

"For years, serious athletes, actors, and politicians have all used personal coaches to help maximize their skills and abilities. These professionals are often at the top of their game, yet wouldn't think of 'going it alone.' Many of us are now recognizing the value of this unique relationship and are adapting it to a personal level.  Personal coaches are more than a friend with whom to share problems. They are a sounding board for solutions to the challenges we face on a daily basis. They are mentors in some cases, cheerleaders in others. Part consultant, part family. Coaches unleash the power of partnership.

"With a coach, we do more than we would do on our own, go further and faster toward our goals, and take ourselves more seriously. We have an accountability partner who shares our best interest and keeps us moving forward. Personal coaching is about taking action and making things happen". 

Taking it up a notch

"Left to our own devices, we can often justify our average existence with the thought we are coping well considering all that the world is throwing at us. A personal coach helps us catch what we need, deflect the unnecessary, and totally disregard the irrelevant. We don't have to do it alone, but we are challenged to take responsibility for ourselves and to take action on our own behalf. Former Dallas Cowboys coach, Tom Landry, sums it up this way, 'A coach is someone who gets you to do what you don't want to do, so you can be who you want to be. The time for personal coaching is now. The reasons are the ones bouncing around in your head at this very moment. The question now becomes, are you ready for the rewards that come with taking the game of life to the next level?"        Will Craig,  Coach Training Alliance

 

Financial Coaching:

"The International Coaches Federation states that professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives".

"Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach's job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has."

 

"As a member of the International Coaches Federation and a coach trained at the Academy for Coaching Excellence in Sacramento, California, I think it is important for our clients to have a clear underatanding of what coaching is about.  Professional coaches are trained to support and help their cleints look at what they may preceive as 'blocks' in different ways.   Coaches help people not just gain insight about what has been preventing them from achieving their goals and dreams but they help the individual determine a course of action and stay on track to find success". 
 

"Below are answers to questions regarding financial coaching and how to determine if a financial coach is right for you". 

 

                               Evonne Ryan, Wealth Strong Partners, Inc.

 

 

 

 PUTTING TOGETHER THE PIECES:  

HOW DO I KNOW IF A COACH IS TRAINED AND  WHAT IS A FINANCIAL COACH?

The title "Coach" has become popular in our culture.   People interested in becoming a professional coach enroll in training programs and work on certification to gain the skills, credibitity and respect in the coaching field.    Coaching is not psychotherapy. 

Financial Coaching blends the skills of a person who is a licensed and experienced financial professional with formal training from a coaching institute.    There are several people in both the coaching and the financial industries who will call themselves "financial coaches".  The only way for you to be sure the title isn't self imposed is to ask the "financial coach" a few questions.    

           1.What are your qualifications in the financial field and the coaching field?
           2. How much experience do you have? 
           3. What kind of bias regarding investments do you have?  (If there is a bias, this person is not a coach).    

WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR MONEY,

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO PROTECT YOURSELF

It is important to ask questions about both coaching training and financial experience.

REGARDING COACHING 

       The coaching industry is not regulated.  The only way to protect yourself is to ask about the person's formal education and background.  Ask the following questions.  

         1.  "What formal training as a coach do you have?"   "Is the title 'Coach' a title you earned through formal training or is the title one you have given yourself?"  The person should be able to give you a rundown of the coaching training they undertook.  Asking for a web address will allow you to do researh to understand what kind of training the coach undertook and how intensive the training was.  You also want to ask what organizations the coach is a membr of and if they subscribe to the ICF code of ethics. (See below) You need to protect yourself from people using a title that doesn't reflect training and experience in both the coaching and financial profession.

ON THE FINANCIAL SIDE

        Understanding credentials is easier on the financial side.   Ask these questions. 

          1."What licenses or certifications do you hold?"  To obtain licensing or certification, financial professionals need to take licensing/certification tests. Ask to see evidence of these. To continue to hold licenses and credentials, financial professionals must continually take continuing education classes. 

         2. "How long have you been in business?"  Experience is important. One can look up a person's FINRA record at www.NSADR.gov to see if they have complaints against them.  You can do that by going to the FINRA site www.NASDr.gov"

         3. "If I do business with any firm you are associated with, do you have a disclosure and can I see it".  Asking and reading disclosure statements is important so you will know the exact relationships between your financial coach and anyone who invests your money. 

CHECK YOUR GUT:

           Most importantly, check how you feel about the person.  Do a GUT CHECK.   Does the person act like a coach, or are they telling you what to do.   Formally trained coaches don't tell you what to do.   They work alongside you to help you come up with your own answers and hold you accountable in your quest to attain success of your own goals.     
 

 Once you have gained the knowledge that comes from asking these important questions and feel you are comfortable with the answers, you can make an intelligent decision.  Once you find the right coach, the next step is to be willing to work side by side with your coach to help them bring out the best in you.       
                                                                             

HISTORY: 

 Certified Financial Coach Services, a WEALTH STRONG company works exclusively in the coaching arena - helping people look at all areas of their lives.  Clients start by initially looking at how money is related to their life's intentions and their Standards of Integrity.  From that point, clients look at 11 areas of Wealth and Human Strength (EAWAHS) to find balance in their life. Using a patented five step process, clients start from the financial but move into coaching in all areas of their life.   Certified Financial Coach Services work helps people see that money is one area where clarity is important and that how they handle money is representative of all areas of their lives.   Certified Financial Coach Services partners with the Newfield Network, an internationally known Coaching and transformational training institution to provide training to provide Certified Financial Coaches with the skills and compentancies necessary to meet ICF (International Coach Federation) standards for certification.  

Need information about different types of investments, need a calculator or want definitions of specific investment terms?  GO back to our home page and click on links to these resourses.  Link to Articles, eseminars, quotes, calcluators and many more resources by clicking on those words at the top menu bar on our home page.

Learning information is not enough if your relationship with money is one that doesn't empower you. Ask us about the work of a Certified Financial Coach.