Do You Need a Financial Independence Coach?
Do You Need a Financial Independence Coach?
Discovering financial independence is magical. After tripping over a blog or listening to a podcast, change comes quickly. Most can plot major life reorganization in those first six months after deciding on financial freedom. Debts are paid. Assets are reallocated. Revenue streams are optimized. Some even start a side hustle. With what seems like a little work, you can set your life and goals on autopilot. And then you hit a roadblock. Those beginning steps are so easy, but you stumble on breaking through to what comes next. Better. Better is the state you continuously strive towards. But how do you get better after you accomplish the basic tasks set out before you. Is it time to consider a financial independence coach?
Coaching is not a new concept. Back in 2011 surgeon Atul Gawande, in The New Yorker, described his use of a coach in the operating room to improve technique and outcomes. Like in athletics, the idea was to have an outside expert observe and critique performance from afar. Unchained by internal conflicts of interest and emotions, the coach was able to point out unnoticed flaws in Gawande’s performance. His patients improved.
Could a financial independence coach do the same for our bank accounts as well as our sense of contentment?
Career Coach
I often get questions through social media or on my blog about how to boost income as a physician. I’m amazed at how many doctors feel boxed by a salary that seems to neither go up nor down. It is stagnant. Usually, with just a little investigation, I am able to offer all sorts of helpful tips and tricks to turn the revenue streams around. The examples are numerous:
- Lazy side hustles
- Medical expert work
- Chopping overhead
- Seeing patients in a different venue like a nursing home
- Developing a unique procedure or skill
What I have generally found is that it is not the sophistication of ideas, but rather the fresh pair of scrutinizing eyes that makes all the difference. It helps if the person using those eyes has a few years of experience at solving such problems.
A little good advice can knock years off the trajectory. Why not have a financial independence coach?
Financial Coach
Although you might be well and good to put your money into a lazy fund portfolio, set it, and forget it, the majority of us have vastly more complex financial lives. Between debt, various vehicles of tax advantaged savings, real estate, and expenses, one size certainly doesn’t fit all.
The majority of us feel that with a little work we could eventually have a handle on our financial lives. But are we leaving money on the table? The good thing about a financial independence coach is they can use their experience and knowledge to not only suggest alternatives but also keep you accountable.
- Did you make that Roth Conversion?
- Are you paying down the student loan debt efficiently? Being tax efficient?
- Are you rebalancing your portfolio?
- Has lifestyle creep gobbled up your extra savings?
Often it takes an outsider to both recognize and tactfully correct the bad habits that go unnoticed. A financial independence coach would fulfill this need expertly.
Personal coach
The journey to financial independence is not only paved in cash, but also psychological growth and struggle. There are many pitfalls that can occasionally lead to depression. One must not only avoid the hedonic treadmill but also the stoic treadmill.
The money mind meld is prone to shadow all concerns in one’s life, except money. Once you reach financial independence, other ignored life issues tend to bubble up to the surface.
A financial independence coach can be the voice of reason. They can be a ladder helping you climb out of the pit of despair. This is true not only in the midst of the struggle, but also later when sapped by the depression of meeting your goals and wondering what comes next.
Final Thoughts
The idea of coaching outside of the athletic arena has been slowly gaining speed. Financial independence, like any other hard-fought accomplishment, is rife with pitfalls both economically and socially.
We could all use an experienced hand to guide us from time to time. Whether this ends up being a mentor or group of mentors, our community is full of smart people.
What do you think?
I think the multitude of personal finance blogs, including yours, serve as a pretty good collective coach. And they’re free!
While I mostly agree, I wonder if someone more intimately appraising our individual financial and emotional situation could be more specific and helpful than general blog advice. Thanks for the compliment!
Hey Doc G, I have three major thoughts on this:
1) This is one reason I am writing a book. I think it is a more substantial medium than blogging to provide the “need to know” material on physician finance.
2) I had given up on the financial advising community to provide this sort of help until I learned more about the fee-only hourly rate financial advisors out there who are really trying to run that business in the ethical and proper way.
3) I’ve given thought to doing consulting at some point down the road for physicians who are looking to do it themselves, but think they’ll need a little help. But number 2 above has kept me from pursuing that completely.
I think the idea is wonderful and would probably be worthwhile for many! The question is who should be performing this function?
TPP
I think it should be peer to peer. Whether one charges or not is up to the individual. I love books and blogs, but I think one needs to be specifically scrutinized to define individualized advice.
That’s almost certainly true.
What qualifications do you think the person needs to do that?
There are plenty of online courses and certifications. But some use their notoriety from blogging to get clients and wing it!
Sign me up. That’s right up my alley haha
Nice, i agree people take for granted the value of an outside eye pouring over finances. Especially people in the FI community, we may feel like we are “experts” in regards to money, but again, we do not know what we don’t know, or we may be a little biased to some aspects of our own situation.
Maybe you should offer coaching services?
I could do life coaching, but the financial part…there are many better than I.
I think anybody who wants to improve a facet of their lives can benefit from a good coach. In order to get better at something, people can learn via trial and error, but I think a good coach will make learning and improvement more efficient. A good coach is also better at keep us accountable for our actions. Sometimes if we do everything DIY, we could become lazy, too easy on ourselves, and sometimes even too hard on ourselves as well. A good coach has the perspective of experience and will keep us on track appropriately.
I totally agree. I used a career coach for about a year. It made a huge difference.
In some ways, starting a blog is like having a coach from afar. As I try to write something, I question myself and wonder if I’ve become lazy, neglected an area of optimization, or could have a better approach to our finances. As I read other blogs, I look at alternate ways of doing things and ask myself if they fit or not. Like travel hacking for instance. Does it fit our situation or not, since we mostly use our trailer. At a recent ChooseFI local meetup, I talked with a guy who is a true expert on travel rewards, and he focuses on the cash rather than points. It made me go “hmmm”.
Likewise, your suggestion for using a coach also makes me go “hmmm”.
BTW, DocG, I have to comment on this line “but also later when sapped by the depression of meeting your goals and wondering what comes next”. Is that you? Are we helping in some way, I hope?
On my other blog, I wrote a post about an elderly patient who was always so dour in the exam room. I once spotted her out in the world amongst grandchildren and she was so joyful. When I asked her she said…
Meh, I come to the doctor to complain!
I feel much the same about blogging. I also really enjoy the community. Thanks for reading. It is an honor to have someone ponder your words.
Whew! Glad you get that out, coach. Can I call you coach? I’ll send you my therapist bill shortly 🙂
I would be the worst client if I got a coach. I rarely follow advice. I think you just have to know yourself. I don’t side hustle since I know I already leave millions on the table by working minimally. I don’t travel hack since I do not care all that much about traveling in style. It’s whatever your priorities are. I am also a satsificer. Most things are simply good enough for me. I rarely need to get fancier than Costco.
Having a low bar for accomplishment and being a satisficer keeps my life very simple.
MB, you seem to have the right outlook. Low expectations leads to low stress and apparently much contentedness!
I have a financial coach. He is my financial adviser. He adds value and diversity to my financial life in excess of his cost, so I effectively get his advice for free. He is expert at what he does for me. I’m a financial geek and spend some of my navel gazing time wondering about financial things but my wife has no interest in engaging at my level. My financial adviser will protect her and guide her on her trip upon my demise. I pay him as much for this post mortum security as anything, because her future is more important to me than a couple of basis points. Running a portfolio is like sailing and sailing is about trimming. You don’t control the wind but you do control how your sail interacts with the wind. If you know trimming, you’re a pretty good sailor. If you don’t, you’re sending up flares.
My adviser is a fiduciary, has a PhD, has written 10 books, been a CNBC contributor and publishes regularly in Forbes. He manages for some extremely wealthy clients. I’ve read everything he has written and my financial sails are trimmed to a fare thee well. In fact that is how I chose him. I read his stuff, knew I needed what he had, called him up and gave him $1M to manage and later pretty much the whole shootin match except for my 401K trading and bank accounts. He knows what is in those accounts and includes them in my aggregated portfolio but charges only on AUM. I knew exactly what I was signing up for. My point is if you think I’m going to hand over my financial future to some dipsh** MD with a blog your nuts. A dipsh** with a blog is a perfect target for a lawsuit if things go bad and frankly deserves to get sued. He might just as well share in the pain of the lousy advice. I can see it now at trial: “well, well, your honor the White Coat Investor says… the Bogelheads say… MisterMoneyMustache says… , get out the checkbook. I’ve seen some pretty stupid things published by bloggers who think their financial knowledge is pristine. If you’re an MD and a CFP that’s a different story. The CFP guy took the time to learn at least some chops and probably is appropriately insured. A blog, a book = entertainment, = 1st amendment rights. You start putting people’s money at risk with your brilliance and the yummy torts will start being served.
I will share my personal experience with anyone for free and hope it’s useful, poignant or entertaining, but I want nothing to do with “advising” anyone. That steps over to hubris.
Here is your competition: https://www.nationalspeakers.com/topic/finance/ check out their credentials.
I think it is hard for a financial advisor to be a true financial independence coach. First, there are still conflicts of interest whether judiciary or not (How many advisors tell you to avoid real estate for the stock market?). Second, most of them have no idea what financial independence is and aren’t financially independent themselves. They may understand stocks and bonds, but have no experience in frugality, side hustles, travel hacking, etc, etc.
BTW, not espousing bloggers to become financial coaches. I have no interest in that. But it may be nice to have an expert who actually looks over your different, investing, work, and spending to help optimize.
Wouldn’t this essentially be a mentor?
Yes. In essence. Just like any other career coach.
Who’s an expert and what’s the value of the advice?
This is almost exactly what I want to do with my life. I realized my life goal is not to become as wealthy as possible nor is it to retire early without a purpose . I’m currently enrolled in a CFP educational coursework to make sure I have all the technical expertise and make sure I’m not winging it.
Congrats. I applaud your career path!