No, not really. They are all 3 very different types of services.

Financial advisors primarily manage your money most often in respect to investment portfolios; buying and selling stocks, researching the best diversification based on your personal risk tolerance and retirement needs.

Financial Planners provide a comprehensive and often holistic money management services which include guidance and planning for retirement thru saving, investing, tax planning, and life insurance.

A financial coach is a money expert that provides reliable advice to help you define your financial goals, develop a personalized plan, and provides strategies on how you can manage your own finances. A financial coach will not do the work for you. Instead, they teach you how to do the work to improve your financial health yourself. Think of a financial coach as a personal trainer for your wallet.

Most couples have different ideas of how to manage money. Some like to save and some like to spend. Some like to budget and some feel like it will feel restricting.

Unfortunately, 41% of Americans state financial disagreements as the cause for the dissolution of their marriage. A financial coach is a non-bias, non family-member, that will guide you in discussion of your financial goals, needs, and desires. At the end of the day, marriage is a “we” not a “me”. Getting on the same page financially can actually bring you closer together and strengthen your marriage.

A financial coach will assist you in reaching your financial goals through a holistic approach. They assist their clients with the behavioral and emotional components of managing your finances. A coach can help you unearth what drives your financial decisions and spending habits, so you can develop a healthier attitude that will ultimately lead to better money habits.

Do you feel like you’re barely making ends meet? Are you staying a job you hate because you have student loans or credit card debit to pay off? At the end of the month do you look at your bank account and wonder where all your money went? Do you feel like you’ve tried everything to reduce your debit and you never make headway? Regardless of your situation, a financial coach will meet you where you’re at in your current situation and listen to your struggles. Your financial coach will help you structure your budget, develop a personalized plan for reaching your goals, and hold you accountable throughout the process.

Financial coaching is meant to put money back into your pocket, not take it out. It is the most effective way to develop healthy spending habits and put an end to your money problems. If what you are currently doing isn’t working, why keep doing it the same way. Most debt reduction services don’t fix the root of the problem, your spending habits, they just put a temporary band-aid on it.

Having a personal money mentor who understands your situation, isn’t judging you, but encourages you, and holds you accountable, will give you more traction to reach your goals than going it alone.