Lorraine McFall is a financial wellbeing coach and founder of Money Matters Financial Coaching who uses her coaching, legal and financial experience to help clients achieve financial wellbeing. Lorraine hosts the IFW’s monthly Forum, soon to be renamed Tools & Tactics.
In her work, Lorraine equips clients with the skills they need to develop better money habits, identify their financial goals and develop a plan to achieve them while exploring self-beliefs or behaviours that impact their relationship with money and the results they achieve.
How would you summarise your passions, both in and out of work?
In work, I’m passionate about helping people do something different and feel they have control over the hand life has given them.
Out of work, I love properties and interior design. Rightmove is my guilty pleasure, and my Mastermind specialist subject could be Farrow and Ball paint colours! My husband and I have renovated a couple of old Victorian houses and built a new house. Each project has had its challenges especially when renovating a derelict hotel, which is now a holiday rental, from 500 miles away over lockdown. (www.theholliesargyll.co.uk in case anyone fancies a trip or check out my design skills!).
What’s your happiest memory?
I’m very lucky, and I have a lovely husband and two amazing kids. We have been on some fantastic holidays, and I have lots of happy memories of the four of us just having a laugh, even if it just around our kitchen table.
If I ever have to have an injection or go to the dentist and think of a happy place, it’s definitely on the beach in Barbados – possibly my favourite place.
What do you wish you’d been told about finance when you were 15?
Where to start? Having divorced parents’ meant money was quite a toxic subject but I always saw it as my way out to a better life. I’ve always been interested in personal finance topics and more knowledge or mentoring would have been good but without doubt some awareness of money mindset and the use of language around money would have had a huge impact.
What made you want to become a financial wellbeing coach?
Growing up in Glasgow there was a lot of stress and anxiety about money, and it was easy to assume it was because money was scarce. Moving to leafy, abundant Hampshire nearly 20 years ago I still saw a lot of stress about money and people stuck in jobs or relationships that weren’t making them happy, yet scarcity wasn’t the issue.
I was more curious about what stopped people from taking action and doing something different. It was often wrapped up in feelings about money, but it wasn’t really about the money. My desire to tackle that problem led me to coaching and finally I feel I know what I want to be when I grow up!
What prompted you to join the Institute for Financial Wellbeing?
I joined back in 2020 and quickly took over leading the Coaching stream. Coaches are in the minority in the IFW, and I’ve always strived to make sure that our voices are heard, and we are represented.
At the IFW Forum (soon to be rebranded Tools & Tactics to better reflect the practical insights attendees come away with), which I host every month, we share different coaching tools that planners might want to use to extend their coaching skills. The financial planning profession is developing, and it appears more clients are expecting their planner to also be their life coach. This is quite a different skill and possibly a different strategic direction for some companies. I enjoy working with planners to explore what that means.
What drew you to financial wellbeing in the first place?
Wealth is so much more than what is in your bank account and even the mention of money or wealth provokes an emotional response that might inhibit people from exploring what financial coaching is and how it might help.
Financial wellbeing is a more generic term which encapsulates for me what financial coaching can help you achieve. It is the sense of having peace of mind about money, knowing you are protected and having a plan that is empowering.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learnt about financial wellbeing since joining?
It is that financial wellbeing underpins all other aspects of your general wellbeing. Unless you are living a life that is aligned with your values then attempts at other aspects of wellbeing can be hollow.
Who or what is your favourite wellbeing guru, podcast or book?
I love Jen Sincero’s “You Are a Bad Ass” series of books. They are really easy to pick up and put down and are straight-talking with lots of interesting vignettes and exercises.
As for podcasts, I really enjoying listening to Steve Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO as he has so many interesting guests in the Wellbeing space. I think I listened to the episode with Steve Peters of The Chimp Paradox about three times!
What are you doing to advance your own financial wellbeing?
I’m really focusing on planning and striking the right balance between making sure there is enough for the future but also enjoying what life has to offer just now.
Lorraine McFall hosts the IFW Forum at 9am on Thursday 14th December, when she will be joined by guest co-host Tina Weeks of Serenity Financial Planning. Together they will open the topic: ‘Drawing out meaningful goals.’
Book here: https://theifw.kartra.com/calendar/Forum12_23
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