The Money Story Method
A 12-week programme for people who've tried everything else.
1:1 behavioural coaching that goes deeper than budgets. For anyone who knows what they should be doing with money — and keeps hitting the same wall before they can.
It's not the plan.
It's the wall you hit before the plan.
You've downloaded the budget template. You've tried Monzo, YNAB, maybe even a spreadsheet someone built for you. You've asked ChatGPT to make you a plan more than once.
None of it sticks. Not because the plans are bad. Because every plan assumes you'll sit down calmly and look at your money — and the moment you try, something in your nervous system closes the app.
That's not a discipline problem. It's a pattern one — and it's more common than the finance world admits. This programme is built for that exact gap.
You might recognise yourself here.
If several of these land, this programme is probably right for you. None of them make you broken — they make you human, and they're the exact patterns the programme works with.
- You've tried budgets and apps and none of them have stuck for more than a few weeks
- You feel dread, shame, or panic when you open your banking app — or you avoid it entirely
- You've had the impulse-spend-then-guilt cycle more times than you want to count
- Your income is irregular or you're self-employed, and the uncertainty is exhausting
- You grew up watching money cause stress or conflict — and you've never quite shaken that feeling
- You want to feel safe with money, not just technically good at managing it
Being honest — this isn't for everyone.
If your main challenge is "I need to earn more", this isn't that programme. Behavioural coaching won't fix an income problem.
If you want a get-rich-quick framework, hustle strategies, or "manifest abundance" language, I'm not the right coach. I'll never use that language and it won't be in the work.
If you're looking for pure financial advice — regulated product recommendations, pension specifics — that's a different service. This programme sits upstream: the behaviour that makes advice actually land.
Four phases.
Twelve weeks.
One coherent story.
The programme moves in a deliberate order — safety before opportunity, understanding before action. Nothing is rushed. Each phase builds on what came before.
Discover
The money story you inherited, before anyone asked you if you wanted it.
- Map the origin of your relationship with money — family patterns, early memories, inherited scripts
- Surface the beliefs currently running underneath your financial behaviour (most are invisible until named)
- Identify your dominant money script — Avoidance, Worship, Status, or Vigilance — using validated frameworks
- Write your Financial Literacy Self-Assessment so Phases 3 and 4 are tailored to you specifically
Understand
The patterns underneath the behaviour. The knowing-doing gap, named and explained.
- The Behavioural Pattern Report — a personalised document mapping which cognitive biases most influence your decisions
- Loss aversion, status quo bias, mental accounting, default effect — applied directly to your life
- Why willpower has failed you, and what actually works with how your brain is wired
- A spending autopilot map — the triggers and contexts that quietly run your financial day
Rewrite
Challenge the beliefs that no longer serve you. Write new ones you actually chose.
- Structured belief challenge — the limiting narratives identified in Phase 1, tested and replaced
- Your Rewrite Document — your new money story, in your own words
- Behavioural guardrails — specific anchors for the moments that usually derail you
- Permission work — the language you'll need to say yes and no to money decisions without the old shame
Build
The practical system — built around how your brain actually works, not how you wish it did.
- Your Behavioural Financial Plan — budget, savings, debt strategy, investing approach, tailored to your psychology
- Financial literacy teaching dialled in to your specific gaps (high confidence areas get quick mention, weak areas get full coverage)
- Three-Paths Framework for major decisions — never white-knuckle another money choice
- Graduation Story — a complete record of the work, yours to keep forever
The programme, plus the private portal.
Every client gets access to a bespoke portal I built for this method. Everything in one place — sessions, worksheets, deliverables, direct messaging.
Twelve weekly 1:1 sessions
60-minute Zoom calls, same day each week where possible. Recorded if you want them to be.
Personalised deliverables
Your Money Story Profile, Behavioural Pattern Report, Rewrite Document, and Behavioural Financial Plan — all documents written specifically for you.
The interactive worksheets
Eleven structured exercises built into the portal. Not PDFs you print and lose — real interactive forms with your responses saved forever.
Direct messaging between sessions
Something comes up on Tuesday? Message me. No waiting until Thursday for a 5-minute thing. No inbox chaos either.
Financial Literacy Library
Eight modules covering income, spending, saving, debt, investing, protection, retirement, and decision-making. Yours forever after graduation.
Mobile app experience
Install the portal to your home screen on iPhone or Android. Push notifications for sessions, reminders, and new deliverables.
A real product,
not a folder of PDFs.
I built the portal specifically for this method. Every worksheet is interactive, every deliverable is markdown-styled, every session summary is searchable. Once you're in, everything lives in one place.
Three things I lead with,
in this order.
Safety before opportunity
Nothing works long term on top of panic. Before we talk about growth or investing, we make sure the ground feels steady.
Empathy before advice
You don't need another person telling you what you're doing wrong. We start by understanding how you got here.
Science before opinion
Every tool and framework is grounded in behavioural research — not hot takes, hustle culture, or whatever's trending.
A quick note on why me.
I'm Joel. I built The Money Story Method because most of the financial advice I came across assumes you're already calm, organised, and confident with numbers — and most of the people I've sat across from in my career aren't. They're smart, capable humans who got stuck in a loop somewhere along the way.
I have a master's in behavioral economics and I'm a qualified financial planner in the UK. That combination matters here: one half is the science of why we do what we do with money, the other half is the practical, regulated craft of actually helping people sort it out.
I won't promise to make you rich. I won't promise a transformation in thirty days. What I can promise is 12 weeks of deep, honest, structured work — grounded in research, paced at the speed your nervous system can actually handle.
Founding cohort pricing.
First 10 paying clients.
This is the founding price. It rises to £847 for the next 10 clients, then £997 after that. Lock in £597 now and it's yours for this programme and any future version you join.
That's £49.75 per 60-minute session
One payment, done — no ongoing anything
- Best value — same effective total
- Stripe secure checkout
- Immediate programme access
£598 total · £49.83 per session
Two monthly payments · effectively no premium
- Same effective total as pay in full
- First payment starts access
- Second payment auto-charges in 30 days
£657 total · £54.75 per session
Three monthly payments · £60 plan fee
- Lowest monthly commitment
- Three equal instalments
- Best for uneven monthly cash flow
What you actually get for £597
Sit with me for three sessions.
If it's not changing how you see money, I refund everything.
Most coaches give you a 48-hour cooling-off window and call it a guarantee. That's not a guarantee — that's a returns policy. I want you to actually do the work before you decide.
Here's the deal. Show up to Sessions 1, 2, and 3. Do the worksheets. Engage with me honestly. If by the end of Session 3 you can put your hand on your heart and say "this isn't shifting anything" — I refund 100% of what you've paid. No form. No interrogation. You just email me and it's done within five working days.
Why I can offer this: in my experience, by the end of Session 3 you'll have mapped your money origin, identified your dominant money script, and already started seeing patterns you never named before. I'm willing to bet three sessions on that.
All payments via Stripe · Secured by 256-bit SSL · No subscriptions · No hidden fees · Cancel the 2-month or 3-month plan any time within the Three-Session Promise window and get fully refunded.
The honest answers to
the things people actually ask.
Is this therapy?
No. I'm a behavioural coach with a financial planning background — not a therapist. We work with money behaviour, beliefs, and practical financial skills. If something comes up in session that belongs in therapy, I'll say so clearly and we'll figure out the right support.
Do I need to be in the UK?
No. I'm UK-based but I work with clients anywhere over Zoom. The financial literacy content is largely universal — the behavioural work is entirely universal. If you're outside the UK, we'll adapt any country-specific references as we go.
What if I need to pause?
Life happens. You can pause the programme for up to four weeks during the 12-week run. Anything longer and we'd re-start from where we left off when you're ready. No extra charge.
How do I know it's working?
Week-by-week, you'll notice specific shifts: the dread around checking your bank balance softening, impulse spending feeling less automatic, conversations about money getting clearer. By Week 12, you'll have a complete Behavioural Financial Plan that you've written with me — not received from me. The proof is that plan and your ability to work it.
What's the time commitment outside sessions?
Roughly 30–60 minutes a week on homework. Usually one interactive worksheet between sessions — structured, short, and designed to go deeper than a spreadsheet. Some weeks are reflection-heavy, others are practical. Nothing you can't do in a quiet hour with a cup of tea.
Can I just pay per session?
Not currently. The method is designed as a 12-week arc — the later phases only work because of what's been built in the earlier ones. Pulling sessions out of sequence would dilute the work for both of us. The three payment plans give flexibility on how you pay, not on what you get.
What happens after Week 12?
You graduate. You keep every document, every worksheet, the full financial literacy library, and lifetime access to the portal. If you'd like monthly or quarterly check-ins after that, we can set those up separately — but most graduates don't need them.
What if I'm not sure I'm ready?
Apply anyway. The application is short and the discovery call is genuinely a two-way conversation — we'll both work out if this is the right moment for you. If it's not, I'll say so, and I'll point you toward what is.
How does the Three-Session Promise actually work?
Show up to Sessions 1, 2, and 3. Engage with the work — do the worksheets, be honest in session. If by the end of Session 3 you genuinely feel this isn't shifting anything for you, email me before Session 4 begins and I'll refund 100% of what you've paid within five working days. No forms, no justifying yourself, no clawback.
The only thing I ask: you actually did the work. If you skipped sessions or didn't engage with the homework, that's not the method failing — that's a different conversation, and the refund doesn't apply.
What happens if I want to stop after Session 4?
Honest answer: the programme is non-refundable after Session 4. Phases 2, 3, and 4 only work because of what was built in Phase 1 — the work compounds. If something changes in your life that means you need to pause, see the "What if I need to pause?" question above. Refunds after Session 4 are limited to genuinely exceptional circumstances (medical, bereavement), handled case-by-case.
Short form,
then book the call.
Two short steps. Tell me where you are first, then pick a time for a 20-minute discovery call — same page, no email tag. I'll have your application in front of me when we speak.