What is a Financial Coach?

'Financial Coach' is a fairly uncommon term in Australia, but a simple way to explain financial coaching is to contrast it with what a financial advisor does.

An advisor is fundamentally a financial manager of your money, whereas a coach is a financial educator who will teach you how to manage your money.

Financial advisors tend to focus on implementing financial products and strategies, while the financial coaches at The Money Game focus more on teaching clients smarter personal money management, identifying required behavioural changes, and making clients more aware of the influencers which can have a significant impact on their future financial self.

Another difference between financial coaching and advising is that our coaches have no tie-in with products at all; we do not manage investments, nor sell insurance. We educate our clients on the basic concepts of insurance, investing, and diversification (as well as many other things...), but we do not provide specific recommendations on where to invest. These are the skills you will learn over time.

Finally, and probably the most significant difference between a financial advisor and our coaches, is that most advisors want to build up a long term (even lifetime) relationship with you. They want you to keep needing their services for as long as possible, often making what they do for you seem much more complex than it really is….simply to keep you thinking you need their guiding hand.

Of course this is not the case with every financial advisor in Australia. There are many smart, ethical (often independent) advisors, but unfortunately it does represent the vast majority, especially those tied to the major banks and insurers which represents over 90% of the advisors currently licensed in this country. The 2018 Royal Banking Commission has exposed many of the disreputable practises of compromised advisors….

By contrast, our goal is to teach you financial skills and knowledge so that over time, you need us less and less…and eventually not at all….where you are in full control of your financial destiny.

There may however, be times where your situation does become complex and you will need the help of a professional advisor, whether this be an accountant, a solicitor, mortgage broker or a financial planner.  As part of our program we will teach you when to recognise these instances, how to find a good advisor and the things you need to ask to ensure they are acting in your best interests, and yours alone.