Financial Advocacy
Financial advisors are required to pass intense securities exams and have enormous technical knowledge about finance, investing, taxes, and more.
However, beyond creating a financial plan, managing investments, and navigating the technicalities of finance, you should expect a financial advisor to do a whole heckuva lot more.
What people often need beyond a financial plan is coaching and support to transform their money mindset to be more accountable to their own money. A financial advisor who is invested in your success will ask:
- Are you saving enough?
- Are you getting into too much debt?
- Are you overspending?
- Are you risking disaster by not having the right insurance?
- Are you trying to retire too early?
- Are you overlooking what could go wrong? (Fraud, business failure, divorce, disability, natural disaster, or economic meltdown are just a few unexpected situations to plan for.)
Many psychological elements go way beyond what you might think an advisor normally does.
Are you experienced?
You haven’t lived through everything. Some things you can’t understand until they happen to you. A holistic advisor will have experience with all types of financial situations that can be applied to your benefit.
For example, if I ask someone if they have thought about long-term care planning, and they have no experience. They’ll say something like, “Oh, when I get to the point where I can’t wipe my butt, put me on a raft and ship me out to sea.”
When I ask that same question to someone who has labored over a loved one, the agony washes over their face, and they say something like, “I will never put someone through what I went through. I will never have my kids have to do what I did for my mother.”
Quite a difference between those two answers, and it comes from lived experiences. No amount of studying it or reading about it will do.
A coaching-oriented advisor, working with you on an ongoing basis, will help you absorb this so that it changes your behavior.
Which of these money behaviors describes you?
- Money Silence: Let’s just not talk about it.
- Money Shame: I’m ashamed of my debt, I haven’t saved enough, I am behind my peers and family members, I can’t provide enough for my loved ones, I can’t seem to control my spending, etc.
- Everyone Does It: Student loans, keeping up with the Joneses, gotta have crypto or the hottest meme stock.
- Avoiding Unpleasant Topics: Fear of facing extremely unlikely but absolutely ruinous things, such as disability or premature death.
- Sunk Cost: Continue throwing good money after bad, compounding mistakes.
- Rescue Fantasies: Fooling yourself that things will be different in the future.
- Needs vs. Wants: Can you spot the conflict between what you want and what is best for you?
- In The Moment: Paying too much attention to NOW and not your FUTURE, underestimating your longevity.
- Making Bad Decisions ... or avoiding making a decision.
Do you need to transform your money mindset?
Identify with any of the above behaviors? We’re here to help.
Schedule a quick consult with Team Treece.
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