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See the Coach before you buy
Three operator questions, three Coach answers. Lightly edited for length, names removed. This is what a Compass-tier session looks like — operator-direct, math first, no filler.
Operator
I have $42k sitting in savings. Two small businesses, mid-30s, no kids. How should I organise my cash this quarter?
Coach
A simple way to organise it is three buckets: 1. Operating reserve: 3 months of personal + business spending. Work out that number first — it is the one that keeps a bad month from becoming a crisis. 2. Tax set-aside: money you already owe but have not paid yet. How much depends on your situation, so ask a CPA or Enrolled Agent for your number and keep it somewhere separate so it does not get spent. 3. Everything past those two: this is your decision money. Retirement accounts and investing are real options here, but which ones fit you is a question for a fee-only fiduciary planner, not for me. What I can do: if you share your monthly spending, I will help you calculate bucket 1 today.
Operator
Cash flow's gotten tight after we hired a contractor. Where should I cut spending this month without killing momentum?
Coach
Cut in this order, top to bottom — stop when you hit the number you need: 1. SaaS subscriptions you've used <2x in the last 30 days. Most operators are leaking $200–600/mo here. Pull the credit card statement, sort by recurring, kill anything that doesn't directly produce revenue. 2. Paid ads with CAC > 60-day LTV. If you can't compute that yet, pause them — you can always turn them back on with one click. 3. Hiring decisions you haven't made yet. Don't backfill anything that the contractor is currently absorbing. Re-evaluate in 30 days. What I would NOT cut: the contractor (you just bought velocity, don't reverse it), founder salary if it's already lean, anything customer-facing. If you want, paste your top 10 recurring charges and I'll mark each one keep/cut/decide.
Operator
I have about $15k I could put toward a 7.4% personal loan. How do I think about paying it down early?
Coach
Here is how the math works on the debt side: • Every dollar of principal you pay early stops costing 7.4% a year in interest. • Paying it off also frees up the monthly payment, which helps with the cash squeeze you mentioned. • Check your loan terms for a prepayment penalty before you send anything. Two things to settle first: keep your 3-month reserve intact, so a surprise does not land back on a card. And if you are weighing this against investing, that comparison is a question for a fee-only fiduciary planner — I will not tell you what to invest in. Want me to work out how much interest you would save paying it off now versus on schedule?
Anonymized. Numbers and details edited where they could identify the operator. Educational example — not personal financial advice.
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