Hi my name is Tony Elam and I am the owner of Finding Forward Financial Coaching. No matter where you are in your financial journey my goal is to provide the information and/or services to make sure you get the help you need.
Free Financial Resources
I will be posting blogs, tutorials, forms, podcasts, and videos to help you gain financial peace and control. All of this will be of no charge to you.
Affordable Group Events
From time to time we will be offering group coaching, webinars, and products that will be affordable for almost anyone no matter what their budget.
Highly Customized One on One Coaching
We also offer one on one coaching. One on one coaching is a highly customizable process, where we work with you to customize a plan that will take you from where you are to where you want to go. Dollar for Dollar this is the best plan, because it saves you money from our first meeting. Usually it will pay itself back many times over in the first year! Due to the level of attention we provide for this product, it has a higher upfront cost. To find out more about this we provide a free 30 minute consultation at no charge to go over what we offer, and the cost of the six month program. If you are interested in one on one coaching, you can take a minute to fill out the form here, and I will contact you within 24 hours to schedule our consultation.
If you want to be updated on the free services offered above as they come out, fill out the box below. We never sell your email, and you can unsubscribe at any time. I hope to meet you soon, so we can begin Finding Forward.
Why I became a coach
A popular motivational speaker “Zig Ziglar” once said “If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.” That’s certainly how I would describe how I lived the first 8-10 years of my adult life. I was living aimlessly day to day. Although I said all the right things, and had enough knowledge to take me anywhere I wanted to go, life continued to hand me setbacks. I struggled with work, money, and the meaning of it all, for nearly a decade.
After divorce, bankruptcy, and nearly in position to file bankruptcy for a second time, I began to question if I would ever have the things in life that were most important to me. It seemed that I was doomed to the meaningless paper cut life I had been living for some time now. It wasn’t until I had a real heart to heart with God, that I began to have a real passion for living my own life with intention and effort. I began my journey learning how to serve God, before cleaning my own messes up.
Although I began to serve God, and had learned to be content with my life, I still had lots of questions. Questions like, “How am I going to clean this financial mess up?”, or “How am I going to pay for a car, a home, or anything else?” continually bombarded me. I still had desires of having a family and a vocation that was meaningful. I wasn’t sure if any of this was possible at this point.
Well, God is good, and He began to show me the meaning of money, it’s purpose, and how having integrity and patience can correct a decade of mistakes. I began to payback debts that had been delinquent for nearly two years. Through the journey I met my wife Keri. I had already paid a lot of debt off at this point, but marrying my wife gave me the privilege of also paying off her debt too! We were slowly paying off debt. After about two years I began growing impatient with our situation. I was worried about our future. It seemed like it was going to be ten more years before we were going to get that debt paid off. It was going to take ten more years that I didn’t want to spend dealing with that mess.
That’s about the time that Dave Ramsey, and his book “The Total Money Makeover”, entered our lives. I took the lessons to heart and shared it with Keri. She agreed, and we went nuts getting extra jobs and creating a plan to get out of the old debt in 24 months. Well, we didn’t do it in 24 months; we paid off $26,500 in 15 months. Whooooooo hooooooo, we’re debt freeeeeeeeeee! That not only sparked excitement in us, but in others as well. People started saying things like, “Wow I wish my family could be debt free,” or “How can I be financially responsible like you (that one cracks me up!)?”
Some families would ask my wife and I for our help, and we would go over to their house and help them figure out how to create a plan specifically for them to get control of their finances. By helping them, I discovered a passion that I had never experienced before. We began to facilitate Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University” class in our church, which inevitably lead to me becoming a Dave Ramsey Certified Financial Coach.
Now I run a small company called “Finding Forward Financial Coaching”, where I help people renovate their financial lives. Other than that, I am a father, a great husband, and an all around goofy guy with an extremely dry sense of humor. I don’t get my excitement out of doing spreadsheets, or creating budgets. I get my excitement out of seeing changed lives. Thanks for taking the time to read my story. I hope to hear your story soon and have the privilege to help you find forward in your life!
Tony Elam
