Resources and Tools for Use in Financial Counseling

Abstract

Financial counseling can help individuals and families successfully navigate a financial crisis, overcome debt, meet both short- and long-term goals, build a successful spending plan and provide a strong educational foundation to create life-long effective money management behaviors. However, counseling is more than sitting with a client for an hour of listening, offering support, and making recommendations. Clients and counselors need valuable resources and appropriate tools to draw on. These resources will offer strategies and action plans to help the client achieve success and improve the counseling experience. This chapter describes practical and proven resources for those who work with individuals seeking personal financial help and guidance. There are tools that can help with practically every financial task, from tracking where and what one is spending their money on to notification of a bill coming due. The right tools can make life easier. Notably, these tools and resources can help assess where the client is with their progress. Assessment is a crucial element for a counselor in monitoring client outcomes.