Financial advisor takes unique approach to helping people achieve goals

(BYRON CENTER, Mich.) With inflation climbing, financial concerns keep many people up at night. 

This is something, Abby Lininger, a financial advisor with Drake Advisor with Drake Financial Group is especially aware of. 

Lininger spends her days helping people take control of their finances both in her office and through social media. 

Lininger runs a "Life and Money with Abby" page on both Instagram and Facebook. 

"A lot of times, a barrier for people when it comes to financial health and financial education is a lack of trust in the industry, which I think is well-deserved," said Lininger. "I think if there's somebody you feel like you know and you can trust about it, then you're more likely to ask the hard questions and to make sure that you get yourself on track."

In an effort to help more people, especially the younger generations, Lininger has turned to personality tests like the Enneagram. 

The Enneagram has nine personality types and Lininger has adapted each one to a "Moneyagram". 

She uses these moneyagrams to help clients understand how their personality impacts their financial decisions. 

“A lot of times I find people who are beating themselves up about budgeting and my mom tells me I should budget and I should be keeping track and it's just too much and I can't do it," said Lininger. "Maybe the reality is, is their personality is just not well suited to that and we can employ other strategies that don't involve keeping an excel spreadsheet.” 

Lininger's financial expertise has also landed her in the top three for the West Michigan Woman Readers Choice Awards.

"I work with a lot of women, single ladies, or couples who have probably had a bad experience with an advisor in the past, and they come to me, and my favorite thing that they say is ‘it's just so easy to talk to you, and I feel better already”.  

For people who are just starting to look at their financial health, Lininger has a few tips. 

She recommends people do, what she calls an autopsy of their bank accounts. 

Lininger's advice is to print out a bank statement and go through every category of spending. 

"Take colored pens or highlighters or crayons to it and color code all of the categories that you spend money on and take a look because a lot of the times that can be really telling you realize Oh I had no idea I had this many subscriptions.” 

Additionally, Lininger recommends setting aside money every month into an emergency savings account that is separate from a checking account. 

For people trying to pay off credit card debt, Lininger's suggestion is to focus on paying the minimums on each credit card and then any additional money can be put towards the card with the lowest balance. 

Lininger's Facebook page can be found here.