Frequently Asked Questions

Financial coaching is a blend of generic advice, mentoring and pure coaching.

Being good with money is just another form of fitness. Just as with losing weight or getting physically fit, it takes the same sort of commitment to get on top of your finances and remain motivated so that you reach your goals and overcome the obstacles in the way.

Financial coaches use proven coaching techniques and technical expertise to help clients identify and understand their financial goals, and put in place realistic and measurable strategies to meet them.

People seek financial coaching for many different reasons. Some require information and only minimal guidance. For instance, to discuss whether the plans a client has in place are sufficient to meet their future goals.

Others may want considerable support facing up to financial difficulties, which often involves examining the emotions surrounding their relationship with money. For example, tackling a long-term issue, such as out-of-control spending habits, or working through money worries and anxieties. 

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Less than 10% of the population seek financial advice.

Most people don’t fit the traditional model of financial advice. They don’t have money to invest, but they do need help navigating the practical and emotional aspects of their finances. Help considering the financial implications of life decisions or divorce, getting out of the cycle of debt, working out ways of managing their money better, building better habits, improving their financial literacy or simply aligning their finances with what’s truly important to them in their lives.

Many have money worries that keep them awake at night; fears and insecurities that don’t necessarily relate to the truth of their financial situation; deep shame that leaves them feeling sick inside, paralysed by fear and not taking any action. Money is still such a taboo subject that people don’t talk about their relationship with money. Some people have piles of unopened bills, and haven’t even told their partners about their debt. Others feel uncomfortable about receiving a large inheritance. Many often feel isolated and alone.

And many use money to regulate their emotions. Shopping is a drug of choice for many people to fill a void or temporarily feel better about themselves.

At the same time, most financial advisors focus on the investment side (requiring that clients have at least £50L - £100K in assets - often a lot more). But the urgent work is often not in selecting pension products or estate planning. People are mismanaging their own money. They need help on the financial literacy side, and the behavioural side. Money is the context, not the content. Many people don't want to buy anything or to be told what to do – they’re seeking a sounding board to help them think through the financial implications of decisions or empowerment and confidence to make good financial choices.

Financial Coaching provides an alternative to traditional advice. Coaching assumes that the client is the expert in the room. It helps people articulate their feelings, make their own connections, and create their own solutions.

Financial coaching can provide emotional and practical support. For the former, it looks beyond immediate obstacles, towards the habits and behaviours formed by underlying attitudes, beliefs, memories, emotions and values. In terms of practical support, coaching stays away from recommending specific financial products, but can nonetheless answer questions such as “can we afford to privately educate our kids?”, “can I retire in 5 years?”, and “how might I come to terms with an inheritance I feel uncomfortable about?”. A coach may introduce cash flow modelling, or use Excel spreadsheets to demonstrate "What if" scenarios.

Financial advice still has a place, but Financial Coaching can be a powerful precursor for people who aren’t ready to see an advisor – a stepping stone into the world of personal finance.

It's also a service that can be offered to clients who have a Financial Adviser, but value time for themselves to explore and transform the way they feel about, or behave with, money.

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It tends to attract people who feel out of control when it comes to their finances. Not so much the financially disadvantaged, more about people mismanaging money - perhaps earning well, but nothing to show for it or in debt. Some may be low earners wanting help to shift their mindset to attract more money in their lives. Or people who have an emotional block when it comes to money and want help to transform their relationship with money.

Clients may also seek out financial coaching as a stepping stone to the world of personal finance. Perhaps newly in a position of having wealth to invest, and wanting to explore options before seeking advice or considering a DIY approach. Or it could be a client who wants to start making financial plans and is seeking some help with this and someone to hold them to account on their goals. 

Or they could be considering a decision which has financial implications and be seeking a sounding board or financial expert to help with the figures. Such as: "Can I afford to retire?"; "Can I afford to leave my partner?'; 'Can I afford to take voluntary redundancy and write that book?'.

Take a look at Simonne's Wise Monkey site for further information on the different ways she helps her clients.

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Our Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate Training attracts people from all kinds of backgrounds, not just financial planners or advisers. Only about 25% to 30% of the people coming on the training have a financial advisory background. 

Some are coaches or therapists. Others are accountants, bookkeepers or people with experience working in the finance industry in areas such as marketing. Others are money bloggers, say, or simply have a keen interest and passion in personal finance without necessarily any qualifications or work experience - for instance, the go-to-person amongst their friends and family when it comes to dealing with questions around money. Or have a coaching background and interest in specialising in this area.

Having a financial services background gives people the confidence to deal with any financial matter that comes up with a client, but is not absolutely required depending on the service you plan to offer. Without the experience of working with individuals on this topic, your role as a financial coach will be less as an expert and more as a coach - helping clients find solutions for themselves.

If you don't come from a financial services background, we would encourage you to attend our Personal Finance Seminar Series. This course is delivered live online over three 90-minute sessions, held on Zoom. It's run by Professor George Callaghan, an Economist at the Open University teaching in the area of Personal Finance, and takes place in the 3 weeks leading up to the start of the Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate Training.

Topics have been selected to help you prepare for the Practitioner Certificate Training, and for future work with clients thereafter. This course also serves as a stand alone training for those wanting to learn about finance topics or prepare for a future training.

We've created a competency checklist we share in each of the courses, which identifies all the key topics which require knowledge, skills or experience that may come up in a coaching session to help you assess your skills and identify any additional training needs. 

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Many go onto to create their own Financial Coaching practices. While others integrate it into their existing practice.

Here's a sample of websites from some of the people who've trained with us:

• http://www.arrowcoach.ie/financial-coaching
• https://berkshirecreative.ie
• https://beemoneyhappy.com
• https://www.callfc.co.uk
• http://www.catplummer.com
• https://www.charlottelidstone.com
• http://www.cubiccoaching.co.uk
• https://thefemalemoneydoctor.com
• https://www.figureoutmoney.co.uk
• https://www.financialmindsetcoaching.com
• https://financiallyhappy.ltd
• https://futurebalance.co.uk
  
• https://growiser.coach
• https://healthymoneymind.co.uk 
• https://lollywise.com
• https://www.makingsenseofmoney.co.uk
• https://www.marleyfinancecoaching.co.uk
• https://www.marthalawton.com
• https://www.masteryourmoney.co.uk
• https://www.mint-coaching.com
• https://www.moneyflowmastery.co.uk
• https://www.moneygoatfinancecoaching.com
• https://www.moneymattersfinancialcoaching.co.uk
• http://www.moneymindsetcoaching.co.uk
• https://moneymindsetmother.co.uk
• www.myfinancialcoach.co.uk
• https://www.pachiramoney.com
• https://www.pantheralife.co.uk
• https://www.paulclaireaux.com
• https://www.positivemoneyhabits.co.uk
• http://www.projectm-mindmoney.com 
• https://resourcefulplanner.co.uk
• https://rosebudfinancialwellbeing.com
• https://www.sashaspeed.com
• http://www.savvymoneymentor.co.uk
• https://separationoptions.co.uk
• http://serenitylifestyle.co.uk
• https://thefwforum.com
• https://thegoslingfactor.com
• https://www.themindfulmoneycoach.co.uk
• http://www.themoneypanel.co.uk
• http://www.thenetworthacademy.com
• https://www.thesavvycorner.com
• https://thisgirltalksmoney.com
• http://www.wealth-coach.co.uk
• https://www.yourmoneysorted.co.uk
• https://www.youronelife.co.uk

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Yes!

The course is designed for you to attend live. But if for any reason you can't make any of the sessions, recordings of each session - plus any documents created during that session - will always be posted right away on our online platform.

You can also ask questions or participate in discussion before or after the session via the online platform (in our 'Members Area' of the platform) which you'll have access to throughout the training.

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You'll receive a training manual by post packed full of information, as well as our online platform which runs alongside the live training sessions. 

During the course, you’ll be able to download and save all materials on the platform.

At the end of the course, we’ll keep your access to the online platform open for at least 12 months, though most resources will continue to be available once you join our Membership. We'll also provide you with a link that has access to all the recordings. Plus you'll receive access to a dropbox folder with a wide range of resources, tools and exercises, for you to use with your clients in the future. 

As an alumni, you'll be eligible to join our thriving Membership to receive ongoing live support from business skills to Continuing Professional Development, and networking with our collaborative community.

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While this isn't part of our training, we have a short business development session at the end of the 10 week course.

By joining our  Wise Monkey membership after completing our training, you'll also have access to a FREE business course to help you grow your coaching business. It's a 17-module self-study programme that takes you through all key business success steps at your own pace.

We regularly focus on 'Business Development' within our regular Wise Monkey Community Membership sessions. External expertise and guest speakers focus on topics like marketing, social media, business systems and lead generation. A library of past  sessions is made available to members. 

We can also connect recent trainees with buddies within the wider Wise Monkey community. The community and topics is very supportive in coming up with ideas to generate clients

Plus, as a Financial Coach trained by Wise Monkey, you'll be eligible to be listed on consumer directory websites like VouchedFor and Boring Money. These platforms can help you raise your profile online and match you with clients.

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The course has been accredited by the Institute of Financial Wellbeing.

Financial Coaching isn't yet a recognised profession in the UK, so there is no external qualification body to align with. We provide certification upon successful completion of the course.

Our desire has always been to find a way to enable our alumni to obtain a nationally recognised qualification that builds on the training they  already have. Our aim was to enhance their skills and provide external validation that their coaching skills are of a high standard.  

In 2023 we partnered with a coach training company who have designed a bespoke training programme for our alumni to earn an Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 5 Coaching and Mentoring qualification. 

This is a fast-tracked training programme, which takes full account of the skills taught and practised within the Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate Training. Plus, it provides extensive support post training to help them complete the qualification and ensure that their coaching satisfies the high standard required to pass. 

The written part of the ILM assignment has been specially adapted to acknowledge the work we do as financial coaches. But the ILM qualification will still be recognised as a standard ILM Level 5 coaching and mentoring qualification, enabling people to coach clients on non-financial topics too. 

Further details can be found here.

Both Simonne Gnessen and George Callaghan have undertaken and earned their own Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 7 coaching and mentoring qualification to help prepare for this move towards enabling trainees to earn a nationally recognised qualification.

Read more on our latest developments in two recent blogs:

• New Chapter for Wise Monkey 
• Our Wise Monkey Love Your Coaching partnership sees its first graduates 

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Wise Monkey's Financial Coach Practitioner Certificate Training is an intensive ten week course, with 54 hours of live online training sessions, at least 14 hours of self study and access to an online training platform, which offers an unrivalled blended learning experience. The platform offers access to a wealth of valuable additional resources, recorded sessions, demo coaching videos and exercises which everyone can access for at least 12 months following the training. Plus you’ll get online access to a Dropbox folder containing all the resources developed by Wise Monkey and a broad and wide range of additional resources, and spreadsheets which will help you get going with your own Financial Coaching practice.

The course teaches you a broad and comprehensive range of skills for coaching clients both in relation to behavioural change as well as the practical aspects of money. You're taught a number of coaching models and through interactive role plays are able to consolidate your learning process. You're taught about the practical aspects of money management including budgeting, debt management, the differences between coaching, mentoring and advice, and how to gather the information required to coach clients effectively. You also spend time learning about money and emotion, common money behaviours and challenges and are then shown a number of methods and techniques for promoting successful behaviour change. At the end of the course you have everything you need to coach clients on both the behavioural and practical aspects of money. 

The Certified Money coach course is a distance learning programme taught remotely via zoom. It provides a certification after completing case studies based around the course content. The course teaches a very specific 4 stage process designed by the Money Coaching Institute in helping clients to identify their behaviours and patterns around money, and provides a structure for working through these patterns and behaviours to promote change where behaviours are challenging. You learn about brain function and chemistry and the history of money as an introduction to the theory. You're also taught how to use the Institute’s money archetypes (as detailed in Deborah Price’s book ‘Money Magic’) as both a theory and tool for working with clients to promote behavioural change. The course therefore gives you a specific and focused method to follow with clients on creating money behaviour changes. 

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Yes, you're more that welcome to come along to the 3 evening seminar series, starting on 13 September 2022, which teaches some of the financial content you may need in a future role as a Financial Coach. It provides plenty of opportunity for participation and to answer questions in a very small and safe group. George is a brilliant trainer and as an economist too, talks through the economic landscape explaining why Financial Coaching is gaining so much traction right now, and provides lots of business ideas along the way.

Many people attend this training before the main training, so it's fine if you want to do it as a stand alone for now.

You'll be invited to an online platform to go alongside the live training sessions and this will host resources that George will refer to, plus slides and recordings of each of the training sessions. You'll be able to access these for at least 6 months after the training and be able to download the slides via the platform for future reference. You can also gain access to the recordings to watch at any point in the future outside of the online platform.

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Most Financial Coaches offer coaching packages to their clients, and these range significantly from coach to coach.

Some charge by the hour and their revenue is directly linked to the number of hours they coach.

Many offer group coaching sessions and workshops, which may be priced differently. 

Your future revenue is not necessarily linked to hours in front of a client. But if we take a simplistic example of charging £100 per hour, say, for 14 coaching hours per week, over 46 weeks a year, this would add up to about £64K per annum turnover. 

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If you don't come from a financial services background, we'd suggest attending our Personal Finance Seminar Series.

Recommended Books: Pinterest board on Books.

Books which could specifically help with the training include: Sheconomics; The Solutions Focus; The Chimp Paradox; Money on Your Mind; Seven Stages of Money Maturity; Coaching Skills: A Handbook; Co-Active Coaching & Financial Therapy

Recommended TED Talks: Pinterest board on TED Talks

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