Whether it’s sport, business or in life in general, and whatever your definition of success is, it usually includes a coach, partner or mentor in the background. Whether you pay for someone who is a specialist or it’s a friend, family member or just someone you follow online or read their book (subtle hint), it’s important to realise you are not alone, and you don’t have to do it all yourself.

It’s strange in that for many it feels a sign of weakness that we ask for help for our own lives especially anything financial, and yet we wouldn’t hesitate to get someone in to fix the plumbing, do the landscaping or even anything medical for that matter.

I suppose for many of us we feel when it comes to money it should be easy to understand and take control of – its just numbers. But we need to understand MONEY = FEELINGS.  How else do you explain the feeling of greed, envy, the despair of feeling poor. We really don’t get taught this at school except maybe a bit on compounding interest, we definitely don’t get taught about budgeting for example.

My own particular favourite reason for having a coach is that they keep you accountable – whether in life, business or your money and finances. Having someone work with you to set goals, and then a plan to keep you on track to achieve them is so important. As in my experience, unless you are really dedicated to ‘the money stuff’ it just won’t happen, even with the best intentions.  Think of New Year’s resolutions goals and how long they last for most of us!

So if we look at this table for example, covering all the different areas of our life and when I ask clients what’s important, funny enough for most, they are all important.  It’s no wonder with only 24 hours in a day, why if we concentrate on work for example, our family life suffers and we often talk about how to balance life. Taking that even further, it’s no wonder our ‘Wealth’ and ‘Safety Net’ which most try to do themselves can be put into the too hard basket. And yet they are the areas that can so easily be outsourced. 

Key values Is my goal important? Can I outsource / delegate?
Health Yes No
Relationships Yes No
Wealth Yes Yes
Spirituality Yes No
Career/ Business Yes No
Safety Net – Insurance/Wills Yes Yes
Employment Yes No
Fun/Hobbies/ sport Yes No

So if still not sure why you should consider getting help with your money matters here are my top 5 reasons why I believe you should consider a coach:

Reason 1 – most of us lead busy lives (don’t have time).

Reason 2 – ‘money, tax and finance’ stuff is complicated.

Reason 3 – don’t you have better things to do?

Reason 4 – advisers and coaches keep you accountable and on track.

Reason 5 – value for money.

As I was told a long time ago, making a mistake with your money, buying a property or your super for example – can be very expensive, and so getting help is important.  You also only get one chance to retire and so you need to get it right.

So thinking about all the important things in life, only the management of your wealth and the ‘safety net’ of your estate planning and life insurances can be outsourced. Having someone else look after those things, getting your money working harder for you in the background, takes them off your plate so you can get on with enjoying your life. As what’s money for if not for the important things in life.

All the best on your own money journey.

 

Article by Marc Bineham – Money coach, speaker and award-winning author of The Money Sandwich