What Is Coach Chat and How Does It Work?

What Is Coach Chat?

Coach Chat, part of the SoFi Coach tool, is an AI-powered financial chat. It’s a step up from your typical AI advice, because it’s powered by the proprietary playbook SoFi’s own Certified Financial Planners use to answer members’ financial questions and provide advice. You can ask SoFi Coach your budgeting questions, such as “am I saving enough for a down payment on a house?” or “am I on track to max out my retirement savings this year?” and get answers specific to your financial details quickly.

Coach Chat is one of the main features of SoFi Coach, a money tracker available in the SoFi app that includes credit monitoring, budgeting and spending tools, property tracking, a debt summary, and even monitoring of your investment portfolio.

Side note for those wondering “what is SoFi?”: SoFi is a full-service bank and investing company, with a robust set of digital tools that let members save, invest, and borrow money for education, home purchases, and other purposes. How does SoFi work? It’s all digital. You don’t have to walk into a branch — you can open an account, get a credit card, and even borrow money entirely online.

Benefits of Coach Chat

One of the primary benefits of Coach Chat is that it’s free and available for SoFi members to use any time, day or night. (A SoFi member is anyone who uses SoFi’s bank, loan, or investment products.)

Another pro? You can ask Coach Chat any money question, no matter how basic, and you’ll never feel silly. SoFi Coach can help you track your budget, but talking with Coach Chat will never feel awkward and you won’t feel like anyone’s judging your money habits.

How Does Coach Chat Work?

You can start using SoFi Coach right from the SoFi app. Coach Chat works like other AI tools you’re likely familiar with by now. But because you are using it through the SoFi app, it will have access to your accounts. You can also give SoFi Coach access to external accounts, including credit cards and investments, so SoFi Coach has a complete picture of your financial life.

Coach Chat Example Use Case

Here are just two of the many ways Coach Chat can be helpful to you.

Get help with saving Failing to stockpile some savings for an emergency is one of the most common budgeting mistakes people make. You can use SoFi Coach and Coach Chat to help you reach this goal. “An integral part of financial wellness is having a cash reserve. Research shows that having cash to cover the unexpected has a big impact on financial stress, anxiety, and satisfaction,” says Brian Walsh, CFP® and Head of Advice & Planning at SoFi.

You can use Coach Chat to get advice on how much to save each month to reach your savings goal in a defined time frame. Coach Chat will factor in the rate of return on your savings account, and you can even ask Coach Chat where you might find the savings in your budget. You can set up a Vault within a SoFi high-yield savings account and route the savings for your emergency fund there, then watch it grow.

Dial back debt Once you’ve connected all your accounts with SoFi Coach, including those at non-SoFi banks and credit card companies, you could ask SoFi Coach Chat more complex questions such as “How can I get out of credit-card debt faster?” Let’s say you decide to put $50 you would normally spend on one dinner out toward paying off credit card debt. Coach Chat could help you decide which credit account to direct the money to and also show you how long it would take to zero out the debt. Want some motivation? Try asking Coach Chat, “how much money would I free up each month if I paid off all my debt?”

Recommended: Types of Budgeting Methods

Ways to Maximize Coach Chat

To make the most of SoFi Coach and Coach Chat, you’ve probably already noticed that you need to link any external accounts you have so SoFi Coach can provide the most thorough advice. You can securely link your checking, savings, credit card, loan, and investment accounts from more than 12,000 financial institutions. Once your external accounts are linked, SoFi Coach can better help you track your finances, plan your budget, save, and invest.

Need help learning how to make a budget? SoFi Coach can analyze spending categories across your accounts and credit cards, for example, and you can use Coach Chat to decide where you might want to cut back or add to a particular budget line.

How to Sign Up for SoFi Coach

Signing up for SoFi Coach is easy. If you’re already using the SoFi app, simply navigate to the Coach icon at the upper right of your home screen. You can also see If you have previously linked external accounts with SoFi Relay, you should see those accounts in the SoFi Coach tool.

Coach Chat Tips

Use your conversations with SoFi Coach to get serious about your financial goals. Only you can identify needs vs. wants, but SoFi Coach can help you understand when you’re spending more than usual on certain budget lines, for example.

While you’re chatting with Coach, don’t forget to also take advantage of the other knowledge within the SoFi Coach tool. There’s Coach Insights, for one, which show up below your account balances on your home screen. Here, SoFi Coach will track your net worth and how you’re tracking in different areas of your budget. If you see something in your Insights that makes you wonder, pose your question to Coach Chat.

Recommended: Free Monthly Budget Template

The Takeaway

What Is Coach Chat and could it be useful to you? This AI financial advisor tool can answer your money questions, help you budget, and more. You can use it any time, day or night, and it’s completely free.

Take control of your finances with SoFi Coach. You can easily view all of your accounts in one convenient dashboard: bank and investment balances, current debts, spending breakdowns, and credit score. Easily set up budgets and spot upcoming bills. And get personalized insights on everyday money questions and take action with Coach chat, the AI guide that’s powered by the playbooks of SoFi Financial Planners, so its guidance comes from expert knowledge.

Coach helps you track, budget, save, and invest with step-by-step, chat-based guidance.
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