I will continue to keep my eye out for other resources geared towards that demographic.

If personal finance becomes mandatory for high school, I’ll be the first in line to apply for teacher’s college!

Would you consider writing a series of articles that are aimed at the younger demographic just entering into the world of work, credit cards, bank accounts, etc.?

I’m just starting to have conversations with my teenage daughters but I’m doing it ad hoc and haphazardly. Materials I’ve seen before are geared for very small children or adults. And, I know that I have to do this face-to-face – pointing them towards websites and books won’t work.

If that is not possible, do you have any particular resources that would help me achieve my goal?

I don’t feel the need for a refresher. I read about personal finance constantly and keep up to date as much as possible. I have a small fear that one day on the verge of being offered a dream job of working as a financial coach for employees of a large corporation, having a more ‘official’ designation / certification may be required. At this point I can’t justify the expense of the official designation but I’m tempted by it.

Do you have to (or feel the need to) go back for ‘refresher’ training? Or, because you are dealing not at a very granular level, the fundamentals of what you are teaching don’t change thus allowing you to still be relevant years later?

I was away for a few days and missed your post. You didn’t leave an e-mail. I can always be reached at kathrynthecanadian@gmail.com I should probably include that as part of my biographical information.

Cannon_fodder:
I missed your post too. I liked how you explained the total cost of the credit card loan. I often try to find ways to simplify the math for people so the impact of their total purchase is crystal clear. I had someone else who was ‘renting’ a laptop with a 3 year contract at $100 a month. This was a cheap $600 laptop. She’d never done the math on it. When I showed her what the total amount was over 3 years she was shocked.

My costs for certification were covered because I was a volunteer. I’m finding Christine’s suggestion tempting but can’t justify the $1000 when there isn’t much of a market to make money off it. Ideally an employer who saw the value in such a certification might pick up the tab.

I don’t coach family. I referred someone in my family to someone else when they asked.

It helps when I open up about my own struggles with weight loss and having to use a weight loss coach to reach my weight loss goal. I just stress that we each have our own strengths and I’m happy to help out in whatever way they’d like. People tend to open up more as the trust builds from session to session and I am open with them about my struggles an areas where I needed improvement / tweaking.

That’s a good article. I have found it tough however to offer financial advice to friends/relatives who are having financial difficulties. They simply get defensive and irritable. How would you approach such a situation where it seems to me that they don’t want to admit they have a problem.

I’ve been looking for a financial coach for a few months now and was wondering if I could work with you (for a fee, of course).

I’ve looked all over this blog for a contact email id for you but cannot find one.

Can you please send me an email, if this is something you’re willing to help me with?

If not, could you please recommend someone who can help us?

My partner and I make a good living together but need to start planning our retirement and a way to pay off our mortgage and her student loans quickly.

We also have no clue about how to invest and so most of our savings are languishing in pitiful low interest savings accounts.

Thanks in advance.

Others?

At what age would you advise a person should have a will?

Do you find when discussing the costs of credit card “loans” (which is a great way to think of it rather than carrying a balance) or not packing a lunch, do you often have to aggregate the costs over a year before people understand how detrimental it is?

I think of young people who use anyone’s ATM to grab a quick $20 or $40 and pay $2 or more in total fees. They probably just think that it is $2 here or there and maybe totals $75 for the year. So, aggregating that cost might not hit home. But reflect it as a percent of the money – you are giving the banks 5% or even 10% of your money when they don’t give you 0.25% on a $1,000 in your chequing account MIGHT strike a note.

How much did it cost you to become certified?

I am looking to get certified as a Financial Coach – I agree with the disclaimers comment – however, I’m hoping I won’t be dishing out advice that is going to get people into a lot of trouble where they would need to make a claim against me.

However, that’s why I would like to get certified, than I can feel like I have a backing and solid education and can be confident in my suggestions to others.

Also – I do not plan to sell anything (except perhaps my services) but no ‘investments’.

Anyways – I am looking into the OACCS – http://www.oaccs.com

I talked to the admin this morning and it seems like a great program.

Christine

As I meet with people I repeatedly explain that I am just a coach, that I can give them suggestions and help them find answers but the decisions are ultimately up to them to make. When it comes to investing we refer them to a professional.

Tim: This is so true. The people I meet with are surprisingly brilliant in their area of expertise and are somewhat embarrassed at their lack of knowledge. One top notch teacher with 15 years experience teaching challenging students recently e-mailed me with this question.

_______________________

What is a GIC and is it something I want to purchase? If so, how many? Why are they good and/or bad? My brother has them and claims I should too, but when I asked why all I heard was “blah, blah, blah”

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My role as a coach is to explain the basics while respecting that the questions are coming from extremely bright people with very little financial knowledge.

Your points seem “obvious” yet they clearly aren’t based on your experience. Since we learn about finances while growing up, there must be
(a) poor teachers
(b) poor students
(c) all of the above

I wonder whether Canadians are saving for retirement adequately (#6).

For people with a variable income, I highly recommend 6-9 months emergency fund. Our income is variable and our EF is at 3 months and has been for months. I know I would sleep better if I got it back to six but in the last year we had a car purchase and to avoid going into debt we dipped into the emergency fund after we emptied the ‘car savings’ fund.

Anyone else not taking their own advice as well as they’d like?