No. Moving Mountains seeks to address behaviors related to money and spending. Financial coaches are not permitted to make product recommendations such as suggesting that a client invest in a certain account or select a particular insurance. Moving Mountains cannot offer investment, tax, insurance, or legal advice. We are happy to refer our clients to FINRA® (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) to obtain a list of licensed financial advisors to choose from.

Mock interviews are one of the best ways to go about building confidence and gaining practical experience in preparation for the job search. However, generic question and answer style interviews just won’t cut it. In order to sell yourself as a competitive candidate, you have to understand the skills and attributes that are sought after by employers within your specific industry and specialty. In addition to bringing a broad range of knowledge spanning various professional fields, Moving Mountains conducts extensive research into each of our client’s unique job markets to facilitate realistic mock interviews, customize resumes and cover letters to fit the requirements of the role, find metrics of success in tenured employees, and gauge the competition. Once we’ve established what our clients bring to the table, we train them in negotiation tactics and arm them with the means to defend their worth in any scenario with a prospective employer.

You’ve probably heard interesting yet conflicting information from financial gurus such as Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, and Robert Kiyosaki to name a few. They all offer sound advice within certain contexts, and I would recommend that everyone consume their content for the sake of having a well-rounded financial education. However, one size does not fit all. There’s nuance when it comes to debt. Everyone has different interest rates, debt-to-income ratios, and levels of self-discipline. While we may apply some of the big-name principles, we ultimately take very different approaches to debt elimination depending on an individual’s circumstances. Take the two scenarios below: Person A is 42 years old and earns a salary of $90,000 a year. They have $20,000 in credit card debt and a car payment of $510 per month for the next 5 years. They have approximately $39,000 saved in a 401(k). Person B is 25 and earns a consistent hourly wage of $21.50, or about $44,700 a year. They have $3,000 in credit card debt and $52,000 in student loan debt. They’re living with their parents so they don’t have any rent to pay and they own their car outright. They have no money in savings. These people are living drastically different lifestyles and though growing debt is a mutual concern, the coping mechanisms and tools at their disposal to recover from their debts couldn’t be more different. Hence why our approach is unique to each client we serve. For those that have a history of impulsivity with credit cards even after the hard work is invested to pay them down, any debt is probably too much. Alternatively, there are people that work hard to develop financial self-control and are able to leverage debt to their advantage, in which case a debt-free model would be a disservice to their earning potential.

The ways in which parents expose their children to financial realities will shape their behaviors in adulthood around spending, work, authority, education, and relationships. That’s why it’s crucial to start developing strong habits as early as possible in a child’s most formative years. Moving Mountains partners with parents to include their children in the decision-making process for everyday actions that impact the whole family. For example, we may review the electric bill together and require a child to contribute a portion of their earnings from chores toward the bill. When their electricity usage goes down, so does their share of the expense. This reinforces to children that bills are inevitable, but that acting responsibly is likely to reduce them. For a teen, we may take on a meal prepping challenge where we create a list of foods they like, take a planning trip to the grocery store to document the costs of the ingredients, and subsequently reassess their needs and wants in relation to what they can afford. We’ll discuss priorities (i.e. quick and convenient recipes, delicious recipes, cheap recipes, bulk recipes, etc.), take an actual shopping trip to purchase the goods, and finally get to cooking! These are just two of the many exercises we utilize to teach goal-setting and consequences. We’re of the belief that too many parents are opting out of a financial education for their children in the name of “kids being kids”. Hoping they will have suddenly acquired the real-world knowledge at age eighteen to defend themselves against the predatory practices of many banks and student loan providers is just not realistic. If the offers of 0% APR credit cards are enticing enough, they may very well find themselves swimming in a pool of debt they’ll be obligated to for much of their lives. Do your kids a favor – set them up for success before they have the chance to make financial decisions in early adulthood that they’ll regret forever.

The term “budget” comes with tremendous baggage such as crippling anxiety or feelings of social inadequacy. Fortunately for our clients that experience these concerns, Moving Mountains has ditched traditional budgeting methods in favor of personal lifestyle inventories. Restaurants take inventory in order to balance supply with demand. This helps them avoid shortages of vital ingredients, reduce unnecessary spending, prevent food waste, and price their services to achieve strong profit margins. Applying these practices to personal finances reaps the same rewards! Together, we can decide on a realistic and desirable net worth to work toward and create an inventory of personal supply (income/assets) and personal demand (expenses/liabilities) to sustain that goal. We will also identify spending trends, forecast financial needs, and estimate risk exposure. When all is said and done, you’ll be in control and in a positive trajectory with your finances.