Once, I worked with a couple who didn't realize the husband was spending $10,000 a year on video games...
I'd tell anyone planning to get financial help to start tracking their spending before their first meeting, because any professional will tell them that's the first step.I spent two years working as a financial adviser before starting my financial coaching practice in 2017, and over that time I've worked with about 50 clients. There were a lot of mistakes I've seen people make but the biggest mistake I saw was clear: People had no idea how they were spending their money.
At the start of a working relationship with clients I have them go through all of their income and expenses in order to determine their surplus, if they had one. If they didn't have a surplus, that was a huge red flag that needed to be addressed first and foremost.
Right before I gave birth to my first child, I took on a young couple as clients. They had just had their first child as well, and were looking to get their finances organized, plus get a professional recommendation on how to start planning for their future. They were completely stumped as to why they made good money but couldn't get their credit card balance down to zero.
After doing some review, they realized the husband was spending $10,000 a year on video games! That's $833 a month that could have been spent on other discretionary spending or put towards savings. It was no wonder theyUnfortunately, not having awareness of where money is being spent is a pretty common problem.
When discussing retirement goals and protection needs these clients were unsure of what their current lifestyle cost them, which made it very difficult to plan for the future. It also made it difficult to understand what their cash flow situation is like, and how much extra money they had to put towards their future financial goals. Future goals such as college planning for kids,
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