Here's a sample of articles. Scroll down below for a full list...
Red, June 2024
Saga, May 2023
5 ways to save money - without really noticing
Stylist, April 2022
I live in constant fear of debt”: how our parents influence our attitude to money
Moneywise, January 2020
Get your finances in shape with a Money Coach
New Model Adviser, 18 December 2019
The need for financial wellbeing
Grazia, 10 December 2018
Why can't we come clean (about our relationship with money)
Woman & Home, December 2018
How to be (a lot) less stressed at Christmas
Financial Times, 13 September 2018
Rising debt: what to do when money is your drug of choice
Woman & Home, June 2018
Are you a victim of financial FOFO? How to take action…
Telegraph, 12 August 2017
Goodbye piggy bank, hello cashpoint: How to teach children how to manage their money
FeMail, 10 July 2017
Could a THERAPIST solve your money problems?
Elle, June 2017
Meet the money doctor who will change your life
The Times, 25 March 2017
The reasons you fight about money
The Guardian, 06 January 2016
Do you need financial therapy?
Psychologies, April 2015
Ever thought deeply about your relationship with money?
Red, January 2012
Are you a split-personality SPENDER?
Woman & Home, May 2009
Sue Arkle cleared her debts after a period of financial coaching sessions
The Times, 12 January 2009
Being in the black is the new black
Which? Magazine, September 2008
What is Financial Coaching?
Saturday Telegraph Magzine, January 2008
Catherine Hardy's experience of financial coaching with Simonne
Woman's Own, 6 October 2003
Help me get a life!
Investment Week, 7 April 2003
Why financial coaching makes good sense
Mail on Sunday, 23 October 2002
How you can pile on the pounds with your own money coach
See a full list of press articles below....
TV interviews
Bankruptcy: From riches to rags
After Actress McCutcheon was declared bankrupt in February 2013, the BBC's personal finance reporter Brian Milligan asks Simonne how some people spend more than they earn.
Sheconomics media coverage
Media coverage of Simonne Gnessen and Karen Pine, co-authors of Sheconomics.
Newspapers/magazine/online articles
This article highlights the importance of setting aside money to gain financial independence and the freedom to make life-changing decisions with confidence. A Freedom Fund, Flight Fund, or even a F*** Off Fund – whatever you call it, the concept is all about empowerment and taking control of your financial future. It's about having the resources to navigate life's ups and downs and seize opportunities without hesitation. Check out the article to learn how you can start building your own freedom fund and take control of your financial destiny.
When it comes to investing – buying shares and funds – the gender divide is readily apparent: according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 2023 Financial Lives survey, almost half (46%) of men are likely to invest compared to under a third (29%) of women. This article looks at why this discrepancy, why women should consider investing and make better investors than men and lots more.
5 ways to save money - without really noticing
If you’re struggling to fund a financial dream, there are clever tricks you can employ to help get you there.
Is a wealth-gap ruining your friendships?
When your mates earn significantly more than you, it can start to negatively affect your relationship. Here’s an expert guide on how to navigate that sensitive subject
Why we all need a freedom fund
Financial independence is key to being able to choose what you want to do in life. Here's how to achieve it...
How not to envy your rich friends
How do you manage those feelings of inadequacy when you're surrounded by friends who earn a lot more than you? leanor Peake interviewed me for this piece.
“I live in constant fear of debt”: how our parents influence our attitude to money
A long line of studies have found a direct relationship between our parents’ attitudes toward debt and how we think about borrowing money in the future. Stylist investigates how our childhood finances go on to shape our future.
It takes a plan to resist temptation: four tips for making good habits stick
As lockdown eases, we risk falling back into our bad old ways, not least when it comes to spending and takeaway coffees. But we could hang on to the good bits from the past year, if we knew how..
We asked an expert why we spend too much
Saving money can be a tricky task, especially when we hear the likes of “Life is short!” and “Treat yourself!” all day long. But are our spending habits completely of our own free will, or is there some science behind how we choose to splash out or save?
To find out, we asked Simonne Gnessen, founder of Wise Monkey Financial Coaching, to talk us through how our minds really work when it comes to money. Can you relate?
Bad With Money? How To Transform Your Money Mindset
If you consider yourself bad with money, read on to discover how you can transform your money mindset.
When someone we are close to has money problems, the warning signs are often easy to spot. They may seem stressed, have unopened bills or repeatedly ask for loans. If they are spending erratically, they may turn up in clothes or in a new car you know they couldn’t possibly afford. But far harder is knowing how to help. Raising the subject can be a minefield given that money remains a taboo, even among friends and family.
The wealth gap: how changing fortunes tear close friends apart
It’s not uncommon for friendships to end because of finances – whether a sudden salary rise or fall. But with care and forethought it is often possible to prevent the rupture.
Get your finances in shape with a Money Coach
Do you want to improve your relationship with money? This article features Simonne Gnessen, one of the Money Coaches trained by her and one of Simonne's clients and looks at whether a money coach could help.
The need for Financial Wellbeing
In this episode of Planning People New Model Adviser® editor Will Robins sat down with three people (Chris Budd, Simonne Gnessen and Tom Morris) behind the Initiative for Financial Wellbeing, an exciting new, planner-led project that looks set to shake up the financial planning profession.
Generation Broke: how to help your children out of debt, without raiding the Bank of Mum and Dad
How to help your children get out of debt, helping them to take responsibility and become independent.
How to make a financial life plan – small steps that could deliver big gains
When it comes to managing our money, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by temporary setbacks, but having a long-term financial plan can help maintain perspective and peace of mind
How to start talking about money - break the taboo!
Finances are a sensitive subject for many of us. But if you can learn to be open, it will have a positive impact on your life.
"‘Money is a difficult subject for many people to broach because there’s so much shame and secrecy and deep-rooted beliefs that people hold around it. We don’t tend to challenge these and society doesn’t help us to either."
Article about friendship ‘gaps’ and the problems that can arise between friends (female friends specifically) when one earns significantly more than the other - with some advice on how to resolve such issues.
Teach teens about money to prepare them for student life
Do you give pocket money to teach budgeting skills? How do you teach them how to make responsible spending choices? I contributed to an interesting article on this topic.
What to do if you can’t bear to say the dreaded M-word
As attitudes to sex become more open with every passing year, is talking about money becoming Britain’s last taboo? A recent YouGov poll commissioned by The Times and Lloyds Bank found that half of us feel uncomfortable talking about the subject and a quarter avoid it altogether.
Our dysfunctional relationship with money - and the shame we feel around debt - is stopping us from taking control of our finances, says consumer journalist Lauara Whateley. We all have emotional blocks about mney, but we reraely share them. Read the article to discover why money is still a taboo subject and how you can change the way you manage money.
How to be (a lot) less stressed at Christmas
With the pressure on to put up the most Insta-worthy decs snd rustle up a Michelin-standard lunch, it's not surprising that most of us feel more frantic than festive right now. Follow these tips to have yourself a very merry (and stress-free) Christmas...
Half Of Twenty-Somethings Have No Savings – Some Good Habits To Get You Started
We all know putting some money away for a rainy day, holiday or home of your own is a sensible thing to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to achieve. Here are some tips.
Rising debt: what to do when money is your drug of choice
Personal debt can be an important cause of poor mental health. Experts say it is hard to determine whether the poor mental health or the money difficulties came first. So, what can you do?
Simonne speaks to International Adviser about her story
Financial coach Simonne Gnessen helps clients around the world with their attitudes to money, looking for those formative moments and connecting them to what might be holding people back. She has discovered that even if an adult becomes wealthy it does not necessarily give them perspective and insight into their own financial behaviour.
Do you have Financial FOFO (Fear of Missing Out)?
Financial FOFO can seriously damage your wealth. Ignoring money issues will only make matters worse. But by facing our fears, we can take control, shed stress and be able to sleep at night. “Taking control of your spending isn’t about sacrifice and deprivation, it’s about creating freedom and options for your future."
Can you beat the urge to splurge?
Simple steps you can take to make managing your finances easier.
The latest must-have guru: a financial life coach to help you discover your 'money story'
First came personal trainers, then life coaches. But the new must-have guru is a financial or money coach. These new experts – who, unlike traditional financial advisers, remain unregulated and do not sit exams – seek to overcome the taboos around money that cause many Britons to hide their debt problems or financial fears from friends and family.
Simonne Gnessen set up Wise Monkey Financial Coaching in 2002 after a career as a financial adviser. She went on to train as a professional coach, a master neuro-linguistic programming practitioner and a financial life planner.
She claimed that, as well as helping people who had built up debt, she had helped clients get on the next rung of the career ladder, save more money, work out what settlement they needed in a divorce or understand their finances after they were widowed.
Have you committed (financial) infidelity?
A new study has found that more and more people have an account or credit card hidden from their partner. Money secrets can be just as harmful to a relationship as cheating. Interesting article by Anna Maxted about financial infidelity in yesterday's Times, with commentary from Simonne Gnessen.
Start every day with a shot of turmeric - and other tiny lifestyle tweaks
Tiny lifestyle tweaks to make now to see a big difference by Christmas, including a contribution by Wise Monkey to help improve the way you handle money.
Goodbye piggy bank, hello cashpoint: How to teach children how to manage their money
It's never too early to teach your kids good money habits. This article features some ideas about how to help them keep track of their finances and understand the value of money.
You can make your wages last longer by asking these three simple questions
If you find that your wages are spent no sooner as they've arrived in your bank account, you're not alone. Simonne's suggestion is to split your spending into three types: 'fixed', 'occasional' and 'variable'.
Why we impulse spend - and how to stop
Thanks to online shopping, you never have to wait for a store to open to start shopping. The ability to make purchases 24/7 means impulse buying - and charging up or maxing out your cards - has become even simpler. Here's how to spot problem impulse spending and get back in financial control.
Could a THERAPIST solve your money problems?
Flic Everett, 46, is in debt, has no pension and does not own her own property, so she put her trust in part financial adviser, part therapist, Simonne Gnessen to help her get a grip on her finances. And it works.
It’s time to drastically rethink our interpretation of financial knowledge
It’s a skill all of us need, but not everyone obtains. Jan Cavelle charts the evolution of financial knowledge and suggests some changes.
Meet the money doctor who will change your life
Maybe it's time you saw a financial therapist? Alex Holder meets the money doctor helping women to confront their spending habits and change their lives.
Your real life guide to getting out of debt
Money can be a difficult topic to talk about at the best of times – and if you’ve racked up thousands in debt, even harder. There is a way out, though, says Louise Donovan.
How keeping physically fit can help you stay financially healthy too
When it comes to staying fit, there are some obvious links between your body and your bank balance. Keeping a regular exercise routine delivers long-term health benefits, just like sticking to good money habits builds future financial security.
What documents do you need to keep, and what can you chuck?
Sometimes it feels as though our lives are overwhelmed with paperwork - bills, bank letters, credit card statements and tax demands. You want to de-clutter, but you're afraid to throw out anything important. How long do you need to keep these documents, and which ones can you throw away?
The reasons you fight about money
New research shows that money is the greatest causes of tension in couples. Anna Maxted reports, with quotes from Simonne.
A pension for your child? Surely that’s mad...
Some people believe a pension could be a better way to provide longterm savings for your offspring.
It sounds odd. Why would you start a pension for a child? When your baby is born it’s hard to imagine them as a greying pensioner. And anyway, Junior ISAs seem the more obvious vehicle for investing for your child’s future. This article looks at pensions v ISAs for your child.
How to set goals properly and fulfill your New Year's resolutions
How are your resolutions going? Here are the research-backed ways you can get on with those resolutions in each area of your life, including comments from Simonne about goals set to be better with money in 2016.
Do you need financial therapy?
Stuck in debt, constantly overspending or not saving? A financial therapist could help you identify and tackle your psychological ‘blocks’ about money. Nione Meakin talks to Simonne Gnessen at Wise Monkey Financial Coaching to find out.
Mind over money: how to not keep up with the Joneses
Many of us spend money to impress others. There are a number of steps you can take to break this cycle.
What does money mean to you? Your relationship with money directly affects how you deal with it, whether you’re a saver or spender. And we all tend to worry about it. Anita Chaudhuri speaks to the experts about how to unlock our fears about money, so we can get to grips with our finances
Ever thought deeply about your relationship with money?
Claire Jagge hadn’t, until she realised that her attitude towards her finances might be affecting her bank balance…
From 6 April 2015, significant changes are taking place which mean that pension savers will have far more control that ever before about how to manage and spend their retirement savings.
In this article, Simonne answers some of the readers questions about how these changes will affect them.
Five key tips to help you on your journey to retirement
The start of a new year often gets you thinking about the impact the next 12 months will have on your bank balance.
January is the perfect time to prepare for any financial roller-coasters coming up in 2015 and consider how you might manage them. When we embark on new, exciting and sometimes scary experiences, emotions run high – so planning ahead can help you make better choices. Here are Simonne's five tips for planning for retirement.
Clearing the clutter from your home makes you feel better, but it's even more satisfisfying to make a clean sweep of our finances. Make short work of a money detox with these six simple steps...
For many of us, our finances are private. So what happens when we enter a relationship and have to negotiate money and bills with someone else? Financial jounralist, Samantha Downes, asks the expert our most honest and pressing questions about the money issues we have with our partners.
How being emotional is making women poor
Too insecure to ask for a pay rise, too afraid of seeming rude when you’re being short-changed?
Four steps for fighting debt denial
If you have ever avoided opening a bill, or you try not to think about the money you owe on your credit card, you are not alone.
Tips from the pros: Sorting your financial clutter
Many of us have good intentions when it comes to sorting out our finances. Yet, when paperwork -- and debt balances -- begin to mount, financial clutter can become so overwhelming that it feels easier to ignore it.
Are you a split-personality SPENDER?
Scrimp on your weekly shop to splurge on daily extravagancies? There's a 21 st century credit/debit syndrome that more of us are buying into.
Change the way you feel about money
Our finances can be a highly emotional issue, no matter whether we consider ourselves to be rich or poor. The good news is there are simple strategies we can adopt to change the way we feel about money, and improve our lives in the long-term.
What they want is what they get, even if it plunges them further into debt.
Open your spiritual ca$h converter
Whether you're a splurger who always ends up skint, or you fret about finances to the point where you don't spend a penny on yourself, most of us can't help but worry about money. And with a constant stream of doom-mongering stories in the news about the world's economy, it's hardly surprising we're all stressed about our financial futures.
Yes, you can afford a baby (it's easier than you think!)
Babies are beautiful and life changing, but they can be expensive. Don't lef money worries get you down - with some smart planning, you can budget for all those newborn essentials.
Redundancy and unemployment are the harsh realities ofrecession and, according to Cosmo's survey, nearly a third of readers have experienced one or the other in the past year. Between 2009 and 2010, unemployment for 18 to 24-year-olds soared by more than 40% to its highest level in 16 years. The majority of readers confess that landing the job they want is proving almost impossible. So, what can you do?
Alternatives to investing in pensions
In search of an alternative to pensions, May Frost, meets four smart shoppers who discovered inspiring ways to save in the form of paintings, property and pinot.
Arguing or Worried about Money
How we feel about money is crucial to how we talk about it, spend it and why it causes so many arguments between couples. Money and relationship issues are inextricably linked and research shows that its money arguments that are often the hardest to manage. In these tough times how to manage money better is high on most people's worry list. So this month on thecoupleconnection.net we have teamed up with Financial Coach and author Simonne Gnessen to bring you some helpful insights and tips.
The gurus' guide to a better financial life
Kim Jones asks eight of the UK's leading self-help experts to give their top tips on eyerything from how to find love to the secret of a happy retirement.
Clearing debt after getting a financial coach
Read about how Sue Arkle cleared her debts after a period of financial coaching sessions.
Could a money makeover really change my life?
LUCY BENYON calls in the experts to help her banish her fiscal demons...
Her cheating heart (and the shopping cart)
FINANCIAL ADULTERY is a common fact of life - but we are pretty good at hiding it.
British money writer Simonne Gnessen, co-author of Sheconomics which arrived in bookshops this month, says her experience as a financial coach has convinced her that many couples engage in a deceptive dance around their finances.
Depressed by being back at work? Find out how to turn things around. The good news is it takes less effort than you think to lift your mood. Here are the top six reasons you're feeling the January blues – and what you can do about them.
How to take control of your finances
Take it one step at a time, says Hannah Borno, and you can turn into someone who budgets. A lot of women avoid getting to grips with their finances because they don't want to see themselves as 'that sort of person'. But, contrary to what you might believe, not planning your finances does not stop you worrying about money.
A new way of taking control of your money... Financial coaching, also known as money coaching, encourages you to identify what you want from life and explores how to use your money effectively to put your plans into action. It is different from traditional financial advice. Financial coaches won’t sell you any financial products, but will help you to think differently about your finances and to make informed decisions. This might include breaking wasteful patterns of spending and borrowing, deciding which kinds of products you really need and keeping on top of your finances so they continue to work for you.
10 Financial Questions Every Couple Should Ask
Seventy-five per cent of couples find it tough to talk about money. Here's how to avoid a cash crisis...
Dealing with the future aftermath of divorce and planning for the future
Separation and divorce can have a huge impact on your finances. We look at what you need to know at the start and how to plan for the future
If you separate or divorce, your money will have to stretch much further than when you were married. It’s likely you’ll undergo a period of financial upheaval and adjustment. Here, we focus on how to deal with the financial aspects of divorce. This applies to civil partners as well as married couples. This report is only a starting point.
How to improve your spending power
How many life coaches does it take to change a woman?
Discussions about money don't always have to be embarrassing.
Catherine Hardy's experience of financial coaching with Simonne.
You'll be rewarded but the banks will get the bounty
Commenting on schemes that allow you to earn up to £125 for introducing a new customer.
If your partner isn't good with money
Angelina Jolie famously told a friend that Brad should 'just look pretty' and let her look after their money.
What's your cash point character?
Your withdrawal pattern can reveal a few home truths. Whether you take out a tenner or a stash from the cashpoint, your ATM habits give away clues about the real you.
Consumers' Association calls for new advice network
A NATIONAL network of impartial financial centres where quality, face-to-face advice can be given by a new type of adviser is being called for by the Consumers Association.
Among those who have started to offer help is Simonne Gnessen, who describes herself as a "financial coach". Younger people in the early stages of their career are one of her targets. Her firm, Wise Monkey for Coaching, charges 45-60 per hour with the opportunity to spread payments. A former IFA, her focus is on financial education, rather than specific products.
Why financial coaching makes good sense
Ever passed up a case because it looked like a whole lot of work for very little return? You know the type ' the client who doesn't know their Isa from their elbow and isn't sure they need an IFA anyway. You don't want to show them the door, but charity work won't pay the bills. What if there were a solution that kept them happy? Even better, it cost you nothing and even made them 10% more profitable? 'Financial coaching' might just be the answer.
Woman's own reader Dawn Hardy's is need for some expert advice..
How you can pile on the pounds with your own money coach
Meet Simonne Gnessen, money coach - a new breed of financial adviser. Her mission is to make people financially fitter by showing them the way to eradicate money headaches and turn financial decisions into life-improving achievements.