Texas “financial coach” gets clients across the country back on track

Debt affects more than just your wallet. It can strain your marriage, damage your health and even make you less productive at work. Craig Dacy knows this because he lived it, and now he pulls people out of debt as a financial coach.

Dacy, CEO of Craig Dacy Financial Coaching, helps clients across America plan, budget and revamp their finances to achieve their goals – even if they’re hard to reach.

“When somebody comes to me, I don’t offer them overnight solutions or get rich quick [schemes] … I’m really about ‘Let’s keep it down to the nitty gritty of personal finance,’” said Dacy, a former classroom teacher who brings a passion for education to personal finance.  “I’m going to show you some options, some ways you can make huge changes in your personal finances going forward.”

Sometimes, those changes must be drastic. Many of Dacy’s clients have never prepared a personal budget. He helps them track down their money and get a sense of their expenses, such as the story he tells about one client who was leaking $1,000 each month and hadn’t realized it.

More than half of Americans – as many as 76 percent, according to some published reports – live paycheck-to-paycheck. Dacy works with clients in that situation to find financial stability. For others, he helps them save for their first home purchase, vacations, education or retirement. He’s not a wealth manager, however, and does not invest on behalf of his clients. Instead, he’s a coach who teaches clients how to stand on their own financially.

Dacy started the company six months ago after training with Dave Ramsey Solutions. Coaching merges his passion for teaching with the lessons he learned himself when living paycheck to paycheck years ago.

“We had student loan debt, a car loan and no financial plans for the future. Even though we weren't on the brink of bankruptcy … We didn't want to give a piece of our monthly income away to debt payments,” Dacy writes..

Dacy works with clients anywhere. About 90 percent of his business is “e-coaching” done via Skype or phone. Dacy noted that meeting in person has its advantages, but e-coaching allows him to reach more people.

“I have clients I work with in California, all over in the country,” Dacy said. “It opens me up to anybody in the world.”

For more information visit: www.craigdacy.com