What is a financial coach?

I live in the West Lafayette, Indiana with my wife and 3 kids. I grew up always feeling like I never understood how finances truly worked. I didn’t learn much from my parents or at school, and I always thought you had to work on Wall Street to really understand the money world.

But there was one thing I did know. I hated debt. Ug, just the thought of having to pay someone or something else every month for what felt like the rest of my life put a pit in my stomach. My wife and I had school loans, a car loan, credit card bills, our mortgage, and we were starting our family, so the money stress was sky high. We also never had high-paying jobs (we never had a combined income over $100,000). But I remember sitting down with her, talking about what we really wanted for us and are family, and creating a financial plan that would help us get there.

It was tough. We worked hard to pay off any debt we had as quick as we could. When we were 32 I figured we could become completely debt free at age 42, but we actually hit that goal at age 37. 5 years sooner that I initially thought! Walking into the bank to write the last check for our mortgage is a memory I will never forget.

Hearing about other people struggle so much with their money made me realize that this is how I can make a difference in the world. Debbie and my lives have changed because of how we thought about money. I am passionate that I can help others to have a positive relationship with their money, and see that money is something that can give them joy, not stress and anxiety.

I went back to school and got a degree in personal finance, but I don’t use fancy spreadsheets or complicated formulas. Simply being someone that other can talk to about their money and figure out their options is where the true impact is.