I want to debunk two cash flow planning myths. Both of these create limiting beliefs within financial professionals, causing them to miss out on major opportunities. 


First, let’s clarify who cash flow planning is for. 

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Cash flow planning is for any client who meets your definition of a good client, and who has cash flow. 

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Clients who cannot benefit from a cash flow plan are the exception, not the rule. Applying our cash flow planning process will create opportunities for you to help clients and grow your practice most of the time. And when you follow our process, you will find out if a client is not a fit before you put in more than 10-15 minutes of effort.


Now, let’s bust these two myths.

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Myth #1: Cash flow planning only frees up significant cash flow when the client refinances.

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This is a common misconception. Unless you’re doing a lot of cash flow plans using this standardized process, you won’t have a great sense of how much money it could free up. So it’s easy to see how many might assume there must be something major happening to find money, like refinancing. While refinancing a client's debt might be the best thing for them, there are many cash flow plans where the client has no debt, or they won’t benefit from any changes to their debt structure. 

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Only about 60% of cash flow plans show that a change in debt structure is possible or could be helpful. Only some of those will actually explore refining. Yet the average money found per client household by the advisors we work with is about $2,000/mo. So a lot of money is freed up without touching debt.


We do recommend that you always review debt change options if the client is carrying any consumer debt like credit cards, secured or unsecured lines of credit, or any other high interest debt. It’s quick and easy once you have the client’s financial profile to test the impact of financing changes. Right now, there are more scenarios where refinancing may not make sense at all. But, as with all advice, you should not guide clients based on default assumptions. Instead, you should confirm the impact of various options and then form recommendations for clients. 

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There are also several words in this area of finance that cause confusion, concern and avoidance. Consolidation is one of those words. Many people are motivated to get a smaller monthly payment, and sometimes a lower rate. Unfortunately, the smaller payment isn’t only caused by a lower rate, but also by stretching out the amortization. Taking a debt and paying it back over a longer time frame might reduce the monthly cost, but it will increase the total cost of debt repayment and the odds of carrying debt into retirement. The other issue is that the term debt consolidation is associated with specialized debt services or credit counseling for people who might be in significant trouble, or on the brink of bankruptcy. That’s not the same as changing someone's debt structure to maximize their cash flow, but that's not clear if we’re using that term.

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Words matter. We prefer the term debt unification. 

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Debt unification: To combine debts into as few accounts as possible and concentrate repayment efforts to both simplify debt repayment, and reduce the total cost of debt over time.

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Download our Case Study - Couple with no debt.

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Myth #2: Cash flow planning will attract the wrong type of client.

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You won’t attract the wrong client with cash flow planning if you use the resources provided and position it for your ideal client, and no one else. If you market your cash flow planning to anyone other than your ideal client, you’ll attract the wrong client. 

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Here are some things that will get you the wrong type of client.

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• Using words like consolidation or budgeting (that’s another one that will communicate the wrong idea)

• Asking questions in a way that puts people off 

• Delaying building cash flow planning into your process  

• Implying in your marketing or client conversations that cash flow plans are mostly for younger clients just starting out

• Testing the cash flow planning process on non-ideal clients so you don’t risk good clients

• Not adding cash flow planning to your website or other marketing

• Only offering a cash flow plan after you’ve tried to place other business but the client says they can’t afford those recommendations

• Lecturing people about what they spend their money on

• Putting in too much time before having the client or prospect complete their financial profile

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It’s also easy to unconsciously shoot yourself in the foot when marketing cash flow planning, or when asking clients questions about their cash flow or debt. You need to really watch your language here. We’ve got an easy way for you to craft questions that make clients feel comfortable and help you drive more business per household. You can learn our proven conversation structure for beginning the cash flow and debt management conversation in less than five minutes (for free). It works for other financial topics too. You can even download the exercise sheet and create your own proactive questions. 

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Check out the Proactive Formula Exercise, and get comfortable asking the challenging questions that ultimately build trust and help you and your clients get on track faster! Watch here (less than 5 min) 👉 https://cacheflo.easywebinar.live/registration-pfe.

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There are two types of clients I struggled to work with when I was developing the process the CCS is based on. First, low-income households that also couldn't afford to save or insure themselves no matter how much spending controls they applied. You cannot save people from the brink of bankruptcy, and cash flow planning cannot make up for extremely low incomes. Chances are most of your clients wouldn’t be in either of those groups. 

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Second is the ultra-wealthy client. Let me define what I mean by ultra-wealthy before you start telling yourself, “Those are my clients.” I mean clients with multi-million-dollar annual incomes after tax and $10 million + in investable assets. It’s not that this type of client cannot benefit from a cash flow plan. In fact, I’ve worked with some like this and the cash flow plan worked very well for them. But, this type of client may not think they need to pay attention to their cash flow and debts. Now, plenty of highly paid professionals wish they hadn't thought that way. It doesn’t take more than a quick Google search to find countless rich and famous actors, athletes, and business owners who’ve gone broke despite their success. While this second type of client can use a cash flow plan, you may get frustrated trying to market this service to them. However, if that is your ideal client, then weave cash flow planning into your process for them.


Great clients for cash flow plans are often already your ideal clients. They have assets and a healthy income, but they may or may not be reaching all of their goals. They tend to need the services and products you already provide. Your advice would only be enhanced by adding cash flow planning, and your clients would benefit from simplifying their finances and getting more life from their money. For most of you, you’re already sitting in front of countless ideal cash flow planning clients – you just don’t know it. Look closer!

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About CacheFlo

CacheFlo is a financial education company that builds eLearning and tools to help financial professionals and individuals make behaviour-based changes, which allow them to get more life from their money. We want to make it easier for people to predict the impact of their financial choices before they make them.

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About the Certified Cash Flow Specialist (CCS) program

CCS professionals go through enhanced cash flow-based training to develop the skill set to deliver behaviour-based cash flow advice. They start the financial planning process with a cash flow plan to genuinely help their clients get more life from their money.

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About the Cash Flow Planning Implementation Program

The Cash Flow Planning Implementation Program is a 90-day program designed to help financial professionals overcome obstacles and seamlessly integrate cash flow planning into their practice. In the program, you’ll get access to the essential skills, support and tools needed to start seeing revenue from cash flow planning and how it benefits your clients. Learn more about the Cash Flow Planning Implementation Program.