Financial couseling

[waylap]

This is for a friend, not me, honest!

 

Does anyone have any recomendations for free or low cost financial couseling services? You know, to re-organize, prioritize debt repayment and stuff to be more financially free from worry and stress?

Something like that money nanny lady on t.v. you see that goes into a family's intimate details and tells them what to cut, what to change etc?

[ghaverkamp]

Does "your friend" need significant help emerging from debt? Or just getting things in order? (I'm not familiar with the "money nanny lady" on TV.)

 

I don't have any first-hand experience. Consumer Reports has some advice for finding a provider. The US Trustee has a list of providers approved for pre-bankruptcy filings, by judicial district.

[swfraley]

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.

[JayW]

Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.

 

FPU is excellent, but the advice is more general in nature. Be very wary of any planner that offers "free" advice. Typically they make their money from commissions off the financial products they sell and usually recommend. This is tantamount to asking your local car dealer if this is a good time you to trade up ("It sure is, let me show you what we have...").

 

Often the best advice comes from fee-only financial planners who have no such inherent conflict of interest.

 

Jay

[randy]

+1 on dave ramsey. go to daveramsey.com and look for a local FPU class close to your friends area. As a FYI, most Dave Ramsey courses are run by churches, and his program has a more than a hint of religious bias. Also any of these programs are ineffective, unless both the husband and wife go together. I have attended the dave ramsey course, and I hope to complete his financial advisor course in a few years and become a certified counsler. There are many out there, but one reason I believe Dave Ramsey (FPU) works is overall he makes his money from talk radio, TV and book sales. The class material for FPU runs about 125.00 and most are run by churches so they rarely charge anything above the material costs. As noted above FPU is not free, but it seems to be reasonably priced, effective, and usually run by local counsolers, who are very dedicated to the principles.

 

Dave Ramsey will be the first to tell you, nothing he presents is really new. These principles have been around for many years. Dave has just taken a life experience (he went bankrupt at age 24 - 26) and added a lot of learning to create a sensible and practical financial lifestyle practice.