Financial stability is my mission for my clients because I know the relief that comes with knowing you will be ok if your paycheck is late that month or you have to take a family member to the emergency room

Lauria Coia

CEO G2 Financial Services

My parents bought a small boat repair business in a rural town of 300 people in Oregon when I was a child.  They couldn’t afford to hire a bookkeeper so the bookkeeper at the storage unit we used (who they are still friends with today) helped my mom get set up to keep the books herself.

After a few weeks she got so annoyed with me standing over her shoulder asking if I could try that she finally let me, thinking I would get bored after a few minutes and leave her alone. She was wrong and I continued doing the bookkeeping until I moved out of state for college years later.

When I was a teenager I discovered “Turbo Tax” and used to spend hours preparing the taxes for fake companies I made up because just doing one tax return a year wasn’t enough to keep me occupied. I went to community college and got an Associates in Accounting thinking I would use that to work part time to pay for medical school. I transferred to Aurora University in Illinois and triple majored in Accounting, Business and Commerce and Pre-med.

At both my community college and at Aurora University I met the most amazing professors who kept my love of accounting alive. I did pursue medicine by working for a pharmacy for my first 8 months after graduating, but I was miserable so I got a temp job in an accounting department at a publicly traded company and I was so happy there that I never looked back. Five years later I came to a point in my career that I decided I needed to get my CPA license so I buckled down and passed all 4 exams in 8 months.

I have enjoyed working in corporate accounting and have had some great mentors, but I am ready to start working with a clientele that I feel I can help more than just being a part of a team for a large corporation.

My daughter was born three days after Iowa was locked down for COVID. She is high needs due to medical issues and I was blessed to be able to work 90% remote at my corporate job.

This experience taught me that you can have meaningful relationships and be productive without the need for commuting and travelling.

This has opened up my flexibility to not only be able to focus better while working, but I am also a happier person when I am not spending an hour a day in the car! Because of this I have made the decision for my Financial Services business to be 100% virtual. I also like the idea that my clientele is not limited to my immediate area and I can serve people in other communities as well.

My biggest challenge right now is being confident in actually making this happen. I know in the long run it will be the best for my family, but it is scary to leave a cushy W-2 job and all the benefits it has to offer.

I am also facing learning new software and not having someone sitting in the cubicle next to me to ask questions.

The biggest thing that has helped me overcome this anxiety is the facebook groups I have joined. It is amazing the amount of support and encouragement you can get in these groups and I have already found some great virtual mentors and accountability partners!

Growing up very poor in a small family business I am intimately familiar with living through financial instability. A lot of people think I’m joking when I say my mom could feed a family of 4 for a week on just a bag of potatoes and some seasoning, but that was our reality sometimes. While there are often things out of your control, it is amazing how much you CAN control about your finances and having a good budget, the right mindset and education, and being intentional can do wonders for financial stability.

Financial stability is my mission for my clients because I know the relief that comes with knowing you will be ok if your paycheck is late that month or you have to take a family member to the emergency room. This is true for both my financial coaching clients as well as my small business bookkeeping clients. 

For small business bookkeeping my goal is to be the person you can ask about anything financial relating to your business. But I will also tell you if you need to ask a specialized CPA or an attorney.  As a CPA, while I do not currently do complex taxes, I understand how to read the tax publications and I have a working knowledge of the “spirit” of GAAP and IRS regulations. This gives my clients the confidence knowing that I am categorizing their transactions correctly because I know the laws. I also have no problem talking to their tax CPA and I have experience working with auditors if they do get subjected to an IRS audit.

For Financial Coaching my goal is to get people to understand that their mindset and behaviors have a huge impact on how where their money goes. Your mindset and attitude regarding money can be the difference between having a 6 month emergency fund and retirement savings or living paycheck to paycheck.

There is so much misinformation regarding finances out there as well as stereotypes and cultural perceptions that I want to give people clear, concise, correct information to help them reach financial stability. I am especially passionate about financial literacy for women as that is often a large piece of what keeps women in bad or abusive relationships.

The person who controls the money has control of the family and women need to have the financial stability to get out of a bad relationship if needed. However, I also like couples to learn about handling their finances together because it makes the family stronger if both partners are on the same page financially. I believe the best way to reach financial stability is a very personal journey and an individualized approach will be the best way to ensure long-term results. The ultimate goal of financial coaching is to get my clients to the point where they are ready to graduate to a Fee Only Fiduciary Financial Planner. 

Read the Millionaire Next Door. So many people are under the impression that you have to “get lucky” to be rich or that you need to be a pro athlete, win the lottery or get a big inheritance, but in reality that is just not true.

The majority of millionaires are first generation wealth and the people who seem to be rich with the fancy cars and clothes tend to actually have a relatively low net worth.

The school teacher who makes $50,000 a year who lives modestly and saves 15% of his income is more likely to be a millionaire and retire comfortably than the attorney who drives an expensive sports car and wears $5,000 suits.

Some people are savers and some are spenders. If you are a spender, that’s ok, but you will need to either change your mindset to reach your goals or use the strategy of “forced scarcity” where you essentially “hide” money from yourself to reach those goals.

I have always been one to have a 5 year plan, though my reality now is MUCH different than what I envisioned 5 years ago! You have to have goals or you won’t have any direction to work towards. It’s ok if those goals change based on things you learn or mental health needs, but it is still important to have them.

Look at the requirements to see what you need to do to get to the goal you have. You also need to make those goals realistic. It’s ok to change your goals once you have all of the information, but don’t make the goal without the research to see if you can be successful.

The best way to reach me is via email or facebook messenger. My Facebook business page is G2 Financial Services (@G2Financials) and my email is Laurie.G2Financial@gmail.com.