Financial Coaching

Apr 03, 2024

I help people through financial coaching. Here’s how it works.

It’s not easy to find independent financial guidance at a reasonable cost. Most wealth managers and financial advisers charge % fees and have to sell product (expensive active funds, insurance) to make their commission targets.

Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcome: most financial advisers are salespeople whose job it is to push product.

Whether your goal is achieving financial freedom, planning for early retirement, career change or just making your money work harder for you, everyone needs to take control of their money and make the best of their situation.

I can teach you to manage your own money better. Or act as an independent sounding board to discuss career, finance and investment challenges.

I have a degree in economics, I’m a qualified chartered accountant and I worked in corporate finance in the City over 20 years and reaching partner / MD level…whilst managing my own portfolio and finances to financial independence.

My approach is very different from traditional financial advice. I’m not on commission and I never try to sell you anything. I work with intelligent people who want to learn and make their own decisions.

I don’t provide regulated investment advice or product recommendations or hold client money.

I run most of my coaching sessions via Zoom. I’ve done this for people in the UK, America, Dubai, UAE, Finland, France, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, India, Thailand and Australia as well as from all over the UK.

I can also meet face to face in central London (Portman Square W1) or at my home in Farnham, Surrey. In person meetings are particularly valuable when meeting for the first time.

What clients say

“My husband and I had a coaching session with Barney…and he was fantastic. He added so much value…”
“consider a meeting with Barney. He’s a good guy, very easy to talk to, speaks plainly, and makes a great sounding board”
“unique combination of impressive financial knowledge with the softer side of personal development. Thoroughly recommended…”
“I got way more from the session than I ever thought possible”
“the value you will get from him is beyond money”

It’s good to talk

Yes, I’m biased but you should talk to someone about your plan. The best plans are simple and robust and have been looked at and challenged by someone that’s on your side.

Yes, it’s possible for some people to do it on their own. You can learn from your own expensive mistakes (as I did). But it generally works out cheaper to get help and learn from other people’s mistakes.

Price is what you pay and value is what you get. The value you get from the coaching should be >10x the price.

How you benefit

You get to pick the brain of someone that has already faced the issues that you are facing. You get to ask questions and bounce ideas off someone who has achieved financial freedom.

You get the confidence of knowing whether you are on the right track. You get transparency from me (I will tell you anything you want to know about how I invest, spend less and earn more). You get total confidentiality.

There are lots of different areas where I can help. The coaching is holistic in the sense that money issues are personal, they depend on an individual’s values and unique circumstances and they overlap with career, health and wellness.

We can focus on what is most important to you but here are some of the things that I have helped people with:

learn to take control and manage your own portfolio, pension etc
understanding your ability to bear risk and setting a target asset allocation
how to minimise investing fees and costs
moving country (many of my clients are internationally mobile)
how to invest tax efficiently
how to overcome financial anxiety
how to think about asset allocation, diversification and volatility
transitioning to financial independence / retirement-
how much is enough?

Am I offering a shortcut to financial freedom?

Yes and no. There are no get rich quick schemes and no gimmicks. You still have to do the work of spending less than you earn and investing wisely. But if you want to greatly accelerate your progress, you can pick my mind in a few hours for what I learned over the last 25 years.

Why have financial coaching?

For the same reasons that all top sports people and business executives have coaching.

Reading books and blogs is great, but its not enough on its own: we learn best when we combine reading with a mixture of Q&A, personal interaction, accountability, discussion, encouragement and practical guidance.

Getting to financial independence is as much about psychology and motivation as it is about the simple mechanics of earning more, spending less and investing wisely and on a tax efficient basis. Talking these issues through with someone that has been through them before is hugely beneficial. Everyone has blind spots and you don’t know what you don’t know.

Here’s what Vanguard say on the subject of financial coaching:

Clients may not realize they need coaching, but many do. In the investing world, clients’ otherwise sensible instincts and habits can fall short.
Vanguard

In other words, you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know your own blindspots. That is just as true for career issues as it is for investing and money issues.

Everyone is different and so different people have different areas that they want to focus on. The coaching sessions work best when you have identified beforehand what areas you would like help with.

To ensure you get best value from the time and to structure the conversation, I ask clients to email me beforehand with a list of discussion topics that we can use as an agenda.

Monthly subscription

This is a recurring monthly subscription. There is an initial payment of £250 followed by a subscription of £50 per month. The subscription auto-renews but you can cancel any time by emailing me.

This includes as much coaching time over Zoom as you need plus access to all of the articles, spreadsheets and charts on The Escape Manual.

You can pay securely by Paypal here or using the button below:

Or you can pay here securely by debit card (processed by Stripe).

Annual subscription

This is an annual subscription and the cost is £460 in the first year.

After the first year, the renewal price is lower (£350 per year) to encourage and reward recurring, long term relationships with clients.

The annual financial coaching subscription is for people who want a light touch and a lower cost alternative to a wealth manager (quarterly check ins, no % fees, no product sales).

The annual subscription gets you as 4 x 1 hour coaching sessions per year, a quarterly investment newsletter plus access to all of the articles, spreadsheets and charts on The Escape Manual.

The 4 x1 hours is only a rough guide (I don’t keep timesheets and I have never said no to long-standing clients who needed a bit more time or input from me). So ongoing subscribers get the Zoom time that they need. Plus unlimited Whatsapp / email access.

I do most sessions over Zoom / Teams / Gmeet but I’m happy to meet for the first session face to face in Central London. Or you are always welcome to come meet me in Farnham, Surrey.

Your subscription will renew automatically each year (at the same price) until you cancel / email me asking to turn off the auto-renew. So if you only want one year, please let me know by email on barney.whiter@gmail.com when you join.

You can pay securely by Paypal here:

…or you can pay securely by debit or credit card (processed via Stripe) using the button below:

Annual subscription : coaching + content = £460

Family / spouses / significant others

I am very happy to see couples together or in separate sessions. So if you are the financially aware one in your relationship, I am happy to talk both to you and / or your significant other. This is all covered by one subscription, there’s no need for both of you to pay.

I don’t mind whether you are fully aligned re financial issues or whether you need help to resolve your differences!

I am also happy to talk to adult (i.e 16+) children of clients…helpful for those that want someone else to try to talk some sense into them!

A holistic approach

One of the great things about doing financial coaching is that no two clients are the same.

Different clients want different things. Some want a sanity check on their Financial Independence spreadsheet, some want to discuss portfolio construction, or risk management. Some want a sounding board for their financial plan, some want to learn about investing, some want help handling a stretch promotion.

If clients want me to stick to personal finance then I do. But some clients want to achieve changes that might overlap with their career, health or relationships.

My financial coaching clients tend to be high-performers and / or people who want to achieve their full potential.

I have a holistic approach to wealth and so – as well as helping you get richer – I am interested in health, happiness, wellness and the science of high performance.

Introductory calls

If you would like to speak before signing up, you can choose a convenient time for a free introductory video call on Gmeet here.

If you would like this free intro call, please first email me with an agenda of what you would like to cover.

Once you have emailed me some questions / an agenda, please choose a calendar slot that works for you here.

If you have any questions, please email me on barney.whiter@gmail.com

Barney Whiter

Important regulatory notice: I don’t give regulated investment, tax or legal advice. I never try to sell you anything. I don’t give product recommendations and I don’t take your money away to invest. You have to make your own decisions. In short, its about teaching people to “fish” rather than selling them fish.

THE ESCAPE ARTIST : COACHING

Financial Coaching