Who to Turn to When You Need Help With Money Now

by Amber Ramsey

Do You Need Help With Money Right Now?

​You're scared. You don't know how you're going to figure this one out. You need immediate help with your financial situation. We know this can be incredibly difficult. Where and who can you turn to for emergency financial help?

Figure Out Your Budget: For Free

Many families can get in over their heads and need resources to get out of a financial emergency and provide for their immediate needs. Medical bills, medical expenses, utility bills, emergency expenses, child care, a phone bill; basic needs can all add up and feel overwhelming to manage.
 
First things first, face your situation head on and write out your budget.
 
You don't need to pay anyone to do this. Google sheets offers a free spreadsheet to get your budget organized. Mint and Goodbudget are free apps that can help you figure out what your budget is and save money.
 
The best part about this: once you actually write everything down, you are more than likely going to realize that your financial situation is not as bad as you thought.

Get a Library Card and Get Free Financial Advice
 
Your taxes pay for your local library. Have you checked it out lately?
 
Don't turn your nose up at this pillar of the community. A library card is free, and the knowledge you can gain by being a cardholder is priceless.
 
Many libraries offer free financial counseling through nonprofit programs and local governments.
 
Free Educational Resources
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Via the Libby app you can download books on budgeting, personal finances, self sufficiency, financial assistance programs, cash assistance, and consumer credit.
 
Your library card also gives you access to the kanopy app, which has streaming video resources related to personal finance, government programs and resources, financial support, and more.
 
Education is key.
 
Is it Career Advice You Need?
 
Are you struggling in your career and just feel like you need support services to address your job situation?
 
Back to our old friend the library again. Many libraries offer free career counseling.
 
You don’t have to be a woman to know that we only make about $.82 for every dollar that our brothers, husbands, and other male counterparts make.
 
Fortunately, the pay gap between genders is starting to close, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take steps to add extra protections to our finances.
 
Job Training

You can improve your skills and make yourself a more valuable job candidate with free job training.
 
The United States Department of Labor offers many free job training programs. Improve your skills. Learn something new.
 
Learning new skills in high-demand industry sectors, like information technology, business analysis, customer service, project management, and digital literacy can only make you a more skilled job candidate, and overall, a more educated person.
 
Check out your state labor department for free job training programs as well.
 
Career Coach

A career coach can help you put your best foot forward by preparing you for interviews, assisting with resume writing, networking, LinkedIn optimization, and more.

How a Career Coach Can Help You
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Forbes highlights some important ways a career coach can help you along in your journey, including evaluating career options and helping and managing your career.
 
A career coach won’t help you create a financial plan, segment your money, or invest, but they do have their benefits, especially if you’re trying to look ahead at what role you want to play in your career later on.
 
Open access education platform Forage explains that a career coach can help you identify what you want to do and hone your skills so that you can earn more later down the road.
 
Forage also offers tons of free career programs that can give you added skills to make your resume more competitive.
 
Free Business Advice
 
If it is your business you are struggling with, SCORE may be able to help you. SCORE is the nonprofit arm of the Small Business Association. The organization offers free support in the form of a SCORE mentor.
 
These are normally small business owners and retirees who can offer you priceless advice. There is no fee for meeting with a SCORE mentor either in person or virtually.

Do You Need An Attorney?
 
Good legal advice may cost you up front, but doing things right and having all your paperwork done correctly can help you save later by avoiding costly litigation.
 
The American Bar Association offers free legal advice to those who qualify. Military veterans and other particular groups can also qualify for free and low-cost legal advice.
 
Why Talk to an Attorney?
 
Attorneys have an obligation to work in their clients' best interests at all times.
 
If you’re currently married and happy, that’s great. But if you think things are getting a little rocky, now might be a great time to also find a family attorney and put them on retainer.
 
In addition to helping you create your divorce agreement, your attorney can also ensure that you have a fair custody schedule and, importantly, that you receive spousal support and other benefits that your former husband may not so easily agree to.
 
Even if you are married and everything is wonderful, you as a family may want to hire an attorney to make sure your assets are protected and that your finances are structured in the best way possible.
 
Establishing a family trust is not just for the uber wealthy. If you have a net worth of $100,000, a trust may be for you. A trust can help minimize estate taxes and can offer other benefits as part of a well-crafted estate plan. Assets that can be placed in a trust include retirement assets, health savings accounts, vehicles, cash and more. The person creating the trust puts assets in the name of the trust and authorizes a third party to administer those assets for the trust creator and the beneficiaries. A trust allows you to be very specific about how your assets are distributed. A legal document needs to be created to establish a trust and create a trust agreement.

Investment Advisor
 
An investment advisor teaches you how to take the money you have and turn it into more. Investment advisor Brian Wong of Red Tower Advisors explains that a financial advisor is someone to have on your side when you’re having a major life change take place, like getting married (or divorced) changing jobs or buying a home.
 
You may be missing out on investment opportunities, simply because you don't know about them.

Surround Yourself With People Who Help You Thrive
 
The people you bring into your life to help you with your finances can give you the information you need and arm you with the tools to grow your career and income.
 
We aren’t all born with money management skills. That’s okay. There are people that can help. Having the right people on your side makes a huge difference.
 
"You Are the Average of the Five People You Spend the Most Time With"
 
This Jim Rohn quote applies to life, including finances. To manage your finances, put these people in place. Seek answers. Ask questions. Be willing to educate yourself and become self-disciplined so that you don’t wind up struggling throughout your adult years.
 
Regardless of the type of financial guidance or counseling you need, one thing that’s universally true: we all need information. You can read this blog and others to help get you up to speed on the world of finance.
 
It can also help to take a personal finance class or, at the very least, sit down with your financial coach to see where you are and how to get to where you want to be.
 
Do You Have Mentors Around You Already?
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Perhaps you have a family friend who you admire. They seem to have made a successful career for themselves. Ask to take them for coffee.
 
What about a former colleague or boss? It's good networking to keep in touch with these people anyway. Go to coffee, catch up, and pick their brain.
 
“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.” - The Dalai Lama
 
People love to talk about themselves. Let them speak and ask about their career journey. You will always come away having learned a minimum of one new thing.

Is a Certified Personal Finance Counselor For You?
 
A Certified Personal Finance Counselor can be your cheerleader as you play the financial game of life.
 
Finances are emotional. At FundsSavvy.com, we focus on your overall financial health. This includes the beliefs about money you may have formed as a child that are affecting decisions you are making now.
 
A FundsSavvy.com Certified Personal Finance Counselor is like your best friend who helps you work through your relationship with money. You want to have a healthy relationship with money so it no longer causes you stress and anxiety.
 
Having a healthy relationship with money is about a lot more than just possibly cutting out lattes so you save more. You have to get down to the root of your complicated relationship with money to understand why you feel certain ways about it.
 
Do you end up spending when you are happy to celebrate? Do you go on a shopping spree when you are depressed because you just don't care anymore? You end up paying for it later.
 
There are skills you can learn and practices you can put in place that help you manage these urges in a healthy way. Building a tool box can help you feel satisfied while not living recklessly and irresponsibly.
 
It's not either/or. You can budget for those experiences that make you happy and fulfilled. A Certified Personal Finance Counselor may be able to guide you on this journey.

Counseling To Help You With Your Relationship With Money
 
Our relationship with money can be one of the most fulfilling or, one of the most toxic relationships we have. Learn to handle money the way you handle any other complicated yet rewarding relationship. Communicate, set up boundaries and expectations and be honest.
 
You want to feel financially secure and stop having anxiety around money.

Free Personal Finance Counseling
 
You can try certified personal finance counseling risk-free.
 
FundsSavvy.com is offering a free 30 minute consultation to the first ten people who reach out. Send a quick message and let us know briefly how we can help you. We can't wait to hear from you!

Amber Ramsey contributes to LearnItForLife as the resident career guru.