Coaches can help managing budgets and with your money
The Foxton Districts Budgets Service, located at the rear of the Foxton Salvation Army on Avenue Rd in Foxton, is operated by John Girling.
John said: “We recently changed the name to Professional Money Coaches (PMC).
“The reason we did this was, because anybody who knows anything about sport, knows that a coach actually improves the output of a sportsperson, and they get better.
“Our focus, is to help people with their financial management and to get better managing their money. They come here and we help them improve their situation.
“We worked out early that a lot of people were in a hole simply because they got into debt, and it was the interest of their repayments that were killing them financially.
“We are able to arrange interesfree loans for people who are in genuine need and we prepare a budget for them. That enables us to help them get a interest-free loans, up to $6000, interest free from one organisation and up to $3000 from another,” John said.
John spent 15 years in China as a registered foreign expert in agriculture and education where he helped develop projects in ostrich farming, cattle and goat husbandry, as well as exotic flowers.
After retiring 10 years ago, he returned to New Zealand with his wife to settle in Foxton.
He chose Foxton for its climate, its price and because he could see massive potential in the town.
He’s been relentless on his mission to see this potential come to fruition, and he’s not slowing down anytime soon.
John wears many hats in Foxton including, an elected member of the Community Board, chairman of the Foxton Flax Stripper Museum, member of Foxton governance group, an active member of Save Our River Trust (SORT), and a driving force of
ENM’s Manawatu¯ River Source to Sea (S2S).
As the chairman of Personal Money Coaches (PMC), he helps run a community garden, a joint project with the Salvation Army, which provides fresh produce to their food packages.
His role at PMC involves helping community members with budgeting and finance, including E-funding (interest-free payday lending and emergency loans), guidance to advocacy to help get people out of highstress debut situations.
John likes to think of this as a hand up, not a hand out, and has helped a lot of people out of difficult circumstances.
He has also been a driving force behind restoring flow to the Foxton River Loop, a project which has started recently to regain traction.
John was the founding chairman of the Foxton Wildlife trust and was the chairman of the horsedrawn tram for a year, where he increased revenue by up to six times, before it closed its doors.
He uses the many skills and talents developed through his lifetime to drive his initiatives, rally support and source funding. He understands that it all comes back to communication, how you communicate, understanding and being able to provide real solutions and action.
John has always appreciated being in a position where he can get things done, finding you can do so much from grassroots level, especially working with the greatest resource any community has, its people.
PMC budgeting is open at the rear of the Salvation Army on Avenue Rd, Foxton, 10am2pm Monday-Friday.