About Beyond Money
Financial help that’s practical, compassionate, and built for real life.
Beyond Money exists because the financial industry can be alienating at best — and cruel at worst.
Too many people seek help and walk away feeling small, ashamed, or overwhelmed. We built Beyond Money as an antidote: clear guidance, emotional steadiness, and a shame-free space to get your money back under control.
We don’t believe you’re broken. We believe you need a coach who understands, a system that works — and support to stick with it.
Financial coaching & therapy
The service we provide is not clinical therapy, nor is it financial planning. It’s something in between — thoughtful, personal financial therapy that gets to the root of your money problems, financial coaching that gets you out of them, or an intersection of the two.
Long-term support
Real transformation takes time, and we’re here for all of it. Finding fast progress can be easy, but as we often see in financial yo-yoing, it’s sticking to sustainable, long-term change that’s hard to come by. From initial breakthroughs to inevitable setbacks, from visioning next chapters to adjusting as life changes, our practitioners are there with you. This isn’t a quick fix. This is a financial partnership rooted in presence, growth, and trust.
Flexible timeline
Clients typically see Beyond Money practitioners for 50-minute sessions on a weekly or biweekly basis, for between four months to two years. Some people need long-term support, whereas others are confident to move forward in their financial journey on their own once their work with a practitioner feels complete.
All of our practitioners work virtually with clients around the country.
Beyond Money is the opposite of the shame-based, product-pushing, out-of-touch financial advice you’ve seen before.
We’re not here to lecture you. We’re here to help you create practical change — with structure, compassion, and follow-through.
Because if spreadsheets and financial podcasts were enough…you would’ve solved this already.
You deserve a safe, supportive space.
These are the values that we uphold to make that possible…
YOU BELONG.
We support and celebrate your identity, including ethnicity, race, gender, LQBTQ+, age, nationality, religion, and abilities.
THE SYSTEM IS SETTING YOU UP FOR FAILURE.
The economic system is designed to keep you in debt and spending money. You haven’t done anything wrong by getting here and none of this is your fault. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t create anew and build a new future.
ADVICE NEEDS TO BE RELEVANT & PERSONAL.
Generic financial advice often fails, as you may have already experienced. You are your own person, with your own history and dreams. You will always be treated as an individual, and never given one-size fits all solutions.
IT’S ALL ABOUT BALANCE.
You don’t have to sacrifice enjoyment of life in order to achieve financial health. We can make room in your budget for whatever’s most important to you — shopping, vacations, and all.
YOUR PROBLEMS ARE REAL.
The financial stress you’re feeling is real — even if you feel like you shouldn't have these problems at your income.
INTEGRITY MATTERS.
The financial industry is full of bad-actors and financial scams. Everything we do together is designed for your long-term flourishing, not short-term fixes or transactional gain. To be clear: we never take commissions or referral bonuses.
Meet the Founder
Beyond Money was founded in 2018 by Kate Grayson, a Chicago-based financial therapist.
She made a career pivot into personal finance after feeling alienated from the financial services industry, and wondering: isn’t there a kinder, more compassionate way to do this, that actually gets to the heart of one’s financial issues? Kate had seen how many smart, capable people struggled with money — not because they were irresponsible, but because they were never given emotional attunement or systems that worked with real life. She watched friends and loved ones quietly carry debt, overspend, and live paycheck to paycheck despite strong incomes, often feeling embarrassed or ashamed to admit it. Beyond Money was built as a practical, shame-free place to get support.
Kate has been coaching since 2018 and has worked with more than 100 clients. She is a Certified Financial Therapist (CFT), Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI), and is certified in the Trauma of Money Method.
Today, Beyond Money has grown into a group practice to further the same mission: the belief that everybody deserves a safe, compassionate space to work through their financial challenges. Kate serves as the Clinical Director of Beyond Money, overseeing our many talented coaches and ensuring that all clients receive expert-level care.
Coaching FAQs
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A financial advisor will help you grow and protect wealth through investment, insurance, estate planning. Ideally, they will do comprehensive financial planning for you, to ensure you are on track to meet your long term goals in the coming decades. A CFP is the gold standard for financial advising and investment management.
A financial coach will help you build the tools to manage your day-to-day finances and set and hit medium term financial goals. A good coach should be helping you with both the tactical and emotional components of money, as well as providing accountability and resources.
To put it simply: if you’re looking to grow your assets, see a CFP. If you’re looking to better manage your cash flow so that you can have assets to grow, see a financial coach.
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After you submit your coaching application, we’ll be in touch within a couple of business days. If you’re a good fit, we’ll share next steps including a link to schedule a complementary intro call with one of our coaches. If it’s not a fit at this time, we’ll always try and share relevant resources and point you in the right direction.
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I never take any login details to your financial accounts. You will share self-reported information on spending, account balances, etc. with me, primarily through our documents on google drive. Since I never have access to your accounts, your financial information is kept private and in your own control.
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Yes! Depending on how the couple manages their finances and what your individual or collective financial struggles look like, I will sometimes meet with you both together, and I will sometimes primarily meet with one of you. Both ways are fine, and I do it differently based on each couple’s needs. We can discuss it more in our introductory meeting.
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Honestly, it depends!! Everybody I work with is struggling financially in some capacity. You need to decide where you’re at on this spectrum from “I genuinely don’t have extra money” to “I know I earn well, but I’m just not managing it responsibly.”
If you are struggling to make ends meet, I don’t want you to sign up for financial coaching. Until you can reliably pay for your housing, fixed bills, and basic necessities, your focus should first and foremost be on increasing your income. In order for budgeting to work, there needs to be available money to play around with, you know?
However, if you feel like you earn enough money where a different reality could be possible for you – even if you’re currently overspending your income and actively accumulating debt – then yes, you can choose to pay for coaching even if you are stressed financially. Note that this will sometimes mean putting the cost of coaching on a credit card. While that can feel like a contradiction, it’s normal and okay – as long as you earn an income high enough to recuperate the cost.
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The cost of the initial four month program is $3500. This can be broken down into a penalty-free payment plan of $875/mo. I’m happy with whatever payment method will be most convenient and comfortable for you!
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I will send you an invoice through Square, which can be paid by credit card or ACH debit. If you split the payments over four months, you’ll get an invoice on the same day each month. You can choose to save your payment information so that it’s automatically charged or re-enter it each time, whatever you prefer.
I can also send you instructions for a wire transfer or zelle payment, if that’s preferable for you.
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You can reach out to your coach as much or as little as you want in between meetings! Email is the best option.
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Not much!! We can start with wherever you’re at right now.
Before our first meeting, I’ll share a spreadsheet with you which will have space for you to enter your income, savings/investment balances, debt balances, and estimates of your spending.
Many people complete this before our first meeting, but if that feels a little too overwhelming don’t worry, we can gather the information together during our first meeting. We will only move as quickly as is comfortable for you!
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Money is about much more than the dollars and cents on a spreadsheet. If that’s all it took, most of us would have figured it out ages ago, right? In my work, I take a dual emphasis on the practical as well as the psychological and emotional components of money.
However, within that, I believe that our felt emotional experience of money is much more at the root cause of our behavior than our analytically understood psychological experience. For anybody familiar, think of it as the difference between talk therapy or somatic/body-based therapy.
Our work is heavily informed by training with The Trauma of Money Institute and the Financial Therapy Association.
Have other questions?
Feel free to email us at hello@beyondmoney.co