Devon and Money Coach Barbara Knoblach
Devon is a successful photographer and event planner who understands the balance between tracking daily details while not losing sight of the larger project. So when he lost his personal financial footing he recognized the benefit of turning to a professional and contacted Money Coach Barbara Knoblach.
“Before I started working with Barbara,” he says, “I felt stuck, incurable and financially hopeless. Now I am in control of my money. Hiring Barbara was the best decision of my life.”
While it isn’t typical for Barbara to be contacted by someone as young as Devon, who is just 23 years-old, it’s less unusual in the oil rich areas of Western Canada, where young educated professionals or entrepreneurs are making a higher income than most young people. But while the age of these young clients may be unique, their money stress is not. Helping successful Canadians use their wealth as a tool to support their life and goals, is a cornerstone of money coaching.
When Barbara met Devon he was earning $50,000 a year. As a single person with no children, it was easy for him to believe that he could afford to eat on the run at coffee shops and fast food restaurants. But his casual attitude toward spending, along with the peer pressure he jokingly refers to as “keeping up with the cool kids,” left him with $10,000 in consumer debt and a dent in his fledgling financial confidence.
“I was stuck in a rut,” says Devon, “set back by every unexpected expense like having to change the tires on my car.”
Together Barbara and Devon created a spending and savings plan that encompassed his current needs, debt repayment and his financial goals. When he saw what his dining out was costing him, he started preparing his own meals and soon had an extra $500 a month to apply to his debt. Barbara helped him restructure his debt, moving it from a credit card at 20% interest to a personal line of credit at 7%.
As he began using his money more intentionally, Devon was able to let go of spending that didn’t support his goals. When he was gifted some money from his grandfather, he decided that adding it to his debt repayment was his wisest choice.
Today Devon is completely debt-free, has money aside for emergencies, and much to his surprise and delight, he will be buying his first condo in the fall.
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