Money Coaching with Capital One is Pretty Awesome

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Hanging with Megan Lathrop, my new money coach.

If you remember last week I told you all about the new money coaching that’s going on at the Capital One Cafés. The point of these sessions is to “connect your values to your money, get your money under control, plan a path for your future financial goals, and the confidence to make it happen.” This is something I totally need and I’m sure many of you do too.

So I went down to Fisherman’s Wharf over the weekend to check out the Banking Reimagined Tour, which is a hands-on digital experience to spark new ideas about money and help find strategies for the financial road ahead. They had this whole set up with all these fancy doo-dads and gadgets that asked you important questions about your financial priorities and helped encourage you to focus on them. At the end I got to record a 15 second video to myself  that will be sent to me in 6 months to see if I’ve followed through. I think I might’ve just said, “Make more money asshole” in the video. Fingers crossed in six months I’ll be doing so.

Some of the awesome doo-dads and gadgets

Afterwards I was introduced to Megan Lathrop who helped put together the new Money Coaching program that will soon be in Capital One Cafés in 13 different markets. Megan is a certified financial planner and has a degree in psychology, so this new discipline that’s being rolled out helps people look at their relationship to money in a more holistic way.

Funnily, when I first met Megan she told me that she had bought my zine Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco back in the day. This was rather incredible considering that thing is 12 or 13 years old. Apparently back then she used it as a way to show young people creative ways to go about saving money. Now things were going full circle; she was helping coach me with mine.

Money Coaching was not what I expected. It felt more like therapy than financial planning. Megan asked me to write out the ways various things made me feel and then what my goals were for the future. Then we discussed how I’d get there. I don’t know if we even talked about actual numbers and currency during the session. It was more about my personal relationship to money.

A little breakdown on how money coaching works.

This was just my first session of Money Coaching. The cool thing about the Capital One Cafés is that whether you’re a client of Capital One or not anyone can set up money coaching sessions. For most people a series of three sessions with a Money Coach can help getthem on their desired path.

So my next move is to set up my second session. That way I can finally find the best ways to set money aside to donate more. After you go through your sessions, what are some things you want to set money aside for? Tell us in the comments.

Good luck out there broke-asses. Hopefully some Money Coaching can help you get to where you’re trying to go.