Financial Management and Coaching Review

Just about everyone faces financial challenges at one time or another. Debt that’s out of control and the compound interest associated with it are among the most common problems. Failing to “pay yourself first” or generally to save money for emergencies and retirement are also common. Further, we’re all guilty of spending money almost unconsciously on unnecessary products and services. These little expenses add up quickly if not monitored.

Everybody has the ability to take control of these matters on their own, but it’s very easy in our instant gratification seeking, consumer oriented society to head down the path to debt and despair. Financial management and coaching companies can help in the case of those people who, whether due to lack of knowledge, self-discipline or other obstacles, don’t seem to be able to get a handle on their financial lives. It’s not easy and the best of these firms will be the first to admit that. If you decide that one of these companies may be right for your personal situation, we would especially encourage you to read our reviews of DaveRamsey.com, Berkshire Hills Financial and Osprey Money Management.

At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don’t Have To.™

Financial Management and Coaching Services: What to Look For

Below are the features that we considered important when rating companies for this review site.

Product Lineup
In this section of each review, we discuss the company’s orientation to helping clients with financial issues. We discuss some of the underlying philosophies of each firm and the way they convey information to customers. Most of the companies in this review offer a variety of products to support their training information. They may come in the form of books, audio or video courses, workbooks or other tools. Some providers, on the other hand, offer little to nothing in the form of physical products and we discuss the relative value of each approach.

Coaching
Coaching is the one-on-one contact between a client and the company. It tends to reinforce lessons that may be provided by other products, but most importantly coaching individualizes the information that’s provided to the customer’s specific needs. Effective coaching should also help the customer in maintaining the discipline that is required to achieve financial success.

Online Tools
There is a lot of free information on the internet and elsewhere that can help people in achieving their fiscal goals. We give credit to the sites in this survey that offer some of that free information as a public service rather than purely promoting their own success. Tools like debt repayment and mortgage refinancing calculators are also valuable offerings.

Reputation & Credibility
Personal finance can be a very emotional subject. Because of that, the market is ripe for unscrupulous companies and individuals to take advantage of those who find themselves experiencing difficulties. We’ve made every effort to evaluate the integrity of the services that are offered by each provider.

Help & Support
As with any service company, being able to reach them in a timely matter is critical. We take a look at the options that are available and recount our experiences with the various providers.

What to Look Out for in Financial Management and Coaching Services

There really aren’t any great secrets when it comes to sound personal financial management. Indeed, with some study and dedication, anyone can accomplish the results that such companies offer. Recognizing that is important, but many people will still find seeking such services to be a reasonable path. Nonetheless, there are a couple of specific precautions that we believe warrant special mention.

Protect Your Personal Information
You should never trust your personal account information to a third party. That includes bank account numbers, PINs, Social Security numbers and the like. We specifically disqualified InOut Cash.com from inclusion in this review site because their website asks for bank account numbers and PINs so that they can download account information to the My Accounts section of the InOut Cash program. Supposedly, this makes loading financial information into the system easy for the customer, and the site states that their system only stores “anonymous transaction information” so no transaction is ever tied to a name. Be that as it may, we’d never provide this sort of sensitive information to anyone and neither should you!

Tax Avoidance Schemes
Nobody wants to pay more in taxes than is required by law. Unfortunately, some financial advisory companies offer advice that promises to lower tax obligations by huge amounts legally. Unless you or your tax professional have been making tremendous errors in filing your returns, those claims are probably way off target. If you choose a financial management and coaching firm that offers to reduce your tax burden by a tremendous amount, you should question the veracity of the claim. Contact a reputable tax advisor before entering into any plan that seems to give tax advantages that seem too good to be true.

Being financially successful is a goal that’s within everyone’s reach but it isn’t necessarily easy. The services featured on this site may be useful to many people but there are alternatives that should be considered. For more information, be sure to read our articles on financial management and coaching.