Financially fit for life

Are you in denial about your pension, tax return and credit cards? Do 'don't go there' signs pop into your mind every time you consider sorting out your finances? Then you may benefit from a life coach.

Life coaches help you assess your life now and work out how to change it to the way you want to be in future - fitter, happier and possibly richer. Getting a life coach may seem as indulgent as having a personal trainer to drag you out of bed to go jogging every morning, yet life coaching, which originated in the US, is gaining popularity in the UK.

There are about 450 life coaches in this country, which means there are probably up to 20,000 people involved in life coaching, according to Aboodi Shaby, president of the International Coach Federation in the UK.

He coaches 14 clients, spending hours on the phone with them each week. He also keeps up with clients via emails in between calls, as well as maintaining a website and writing a book. 'I'm not a guru, I'm not a magician, but I am keeping people on track,' he says.

The coaching is rarely conducted face to face - so the next time you see a colleague sitting on a park bench at lunchtime, talking seriously into a mobile phone and nodding sagely, you could be witnessing a coaching session. Sometimes with as little as one half-hour telephone call each week, life coaches check in with their clients to support, encourage and galvanise people to continue with the commitments they have already made.

But if you need to change your attitudes towards money - curbing compulsive spending and keeping to a budget while you pay off your debts - possibly the last thing you want to do is shell out up to £200 each month just to chat to someone whom you may have never met about how you can't stop money trickling through your fingers.

And surely the best person to advise you on your finances is an independent financial adviser?

But while a financial adviser may wheel out the latest on the best Tessa-only Isa, he's unlikely to truffle out what really trips you up when grappling with your finances.

'People have one or two issues about money,' explains coach Niki Cassidy. These issues could be related to how our parents perceived money: was it hard or easy to come by in your family home?

The work ethic may have conditioned us to believe that you have to work really hard to earn money, and a lifetime of positive or negative money-related experiences can colour our view of our finances.

'Some people have some shame around money,' says Cassidy. 'And there do seem to be people who feel they don't have any control over it.'

One of her aims as a coach is to 'create lightness' around the subject. 'When I'm coaching, I'm standing in the middle of a river. A fish is coming down the river. I'm waiting for that fish and I will leap on it, explore it and rip that fish to shreds.'

Quite. In researching this piece, salmon, bikes and streams were all popular metaphors.

'It offers a soft-focus approach to money,' is how Cassidy regards life coaching and money. For the 'hard' bit, your life coach is likely to recommend a financial adviser.

And even if you're fully invested, have your retirement plans sorted out and have never been overdrawn, life coaching can help you to do even greater things with your money.

Indeed, as Shaby explains, while many people seek out a coach to help them to make big changes in their lives, at the same time there are thousands of others who get a coach after musing contentedly: 'Life's all right, but how could it be better?'

'Things felt bigger in my head than they were in life'

Jan (not her real name) is a university lecturer. She has been working with life coach Fiona Reed for 10 months.

'Life coaching still feels terribly indulgent to me - it's so American and indulgent that a large part of the British population will think it's simpering and over the top. And yet, at the same time, it works.'

Jan originally started working with Reed to help her to make better use of her time. 'Things felt bigger in my head than they were in real life,' she now realises.

'If you go on a time-management course, once you're away from it, everything you've learnt goes. It's the ongoing nature of life coaching which seems to help people. It's regular and in short, sharp bursts.'

Another area of her life which Jan wanted to sort out was her desk. 'You can't go to a therapist and say, "I can't get my desk sorted," ' she says. 'But Fiona is much more practical than a therapist.' Desk tidying and paper sorting finally led to looking at money. Jan had never really looked at her finances before.

'I knew I could bring down my mortgage and that I should be putting more into savings, but I thought I had to make the best decision, so I put it off.'

Fiona recommended a financial adviser and Jan's homework one week was to call him. 'The only reason I did it was because I couldn't bear to tell Fiona that I hadn't done it.' When Jan finally met the financial adviser, she thought: 'He's going to think that I am the saddest person in the world.' With Reed's encouragement, Jan worked with the financial adviser, with remarkable results, which included renting out her flat overnight and discovering that she was due a payment of ?40,000 from a critical health policy.

'Once I got started, I was on a roll. It was as if the universe fell into help,' is how she describes it. Jan believes she would never have got her life sorted out without Reed. 'She helps me prioritise and it doesn't seem like such a big deal.'

Reed helped Jan discover that she constantly gave away her time by accepting invitations and helping people, but then felt exhausted when she didn't have enough time to herself. 'And Fiona was keen that I didn't do with my money what I usually did with my life.'

The ?40,000 has now been invested for Jan's pension and retirement, and she has been able to invest in ethical funds - something she feels strongly about.

'Now I know where my money is going, whereas before it got me tied in knots. There's a feeling of joy that I don't have to worry about it.'

'It's money well spent'

Anthony Nally is a hospital manager and works in private health-care. He started working with his life coach, Jadzia Kopiel, three years ago, when he was 'earning good money but spending a lot', he had amassed huge credit-card debts, and had completely given up opening bank statements.

'The important thing around coaching and money was recognising that it was a symptom of other things not being right,' is how Nally sees it. 'My coach said I was using money as an excuse. It was a block. I couldn't confront this spending. It was a compulsive thing.'

Working with Kopiel, Nally was able to recognise the role money was playing in his life. 'I managed a multi-million pound business but I couldn't manage my own money. I felt flawed.'

By addressing his own beliefs around money, he was able to change his life. He left his job, paid off his debts, now has a long-term pension plan and is doing work he enjoys. 'Coaching gave me objective help, having someone who challenged me.'

Nally's coaching started with the 'Clean Sweep' questionnaire. 'Although money wasn't one of my worst scores, my job was,' he admits. 'But I depended on the job for the money. I was constantly saying: "I've got to stick at this job," and it was preventing me from planning ahead.'

He spends ?200 a month on four hours of phone calls with unlimited emails. 'It's money well spent. Coaching is about life balance, as it looks at environment, well-being, relationships and financial responsibilities.'

So is it for you?

Life coaches often take on pro-bono clients, so it's fairly easy to give a coach a whirl before you take them on. Fees range from ?30-?50 an hour and coaching is by phone with email contact in between calls. The International Coach Federation in the UK is the professional body for coaches.

Coach University
Mark Forster
Niki Cassidy
Fiona Reed
Aboodi Shaby
Carole Gaskell
Jadzia Kopiel

'Transform Your Life' by Carole Gaskell (Thorsons)
'Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play', by Mark Forster (Hodder & Stoughton)
'Be Your Own Life Coach', by Fiona Harrold (H&S)

Training

See www.coachu.com for information on how to be a coach. Reckon on investing up to ?3,000 to qualify. Training takes up to three years.

The Coaches Training Institute
International Coach Federation
Life Coaching Academy