Adriana Gallegos keeps a team of people organised at her job as an associate director of administrative operations. But in 2024, as Ms Gallegos, 46, was headed into a divorce while working full time and caring for three children, she found herself procrastinating on her personal finances.
“I was going through a really overwhelming time, because getting ready to go through a divorce, it’s like a full-time job,” she said. “It’s not only the mental toll and emotional toll, but also there’s so much paperwork that you have to prepare.”
After a few stressful months, Ms Gallegos decided to seek help.
She posted in a Facebook group for working moms and met Ms Tulsi Vadodaria, 45, founder of Life Admin Navigator. Ms Vadodaria offered a financial organisational service called daily money management.
These professionals may have backgrounds as certified public accountants, financial planners or bookkeepers. Daily money managers most commonly help two groups: seniors, especially those with cognitive impairment or a recently deceased spouse, and wealthy individuals. The service varies depending on client needs, the same way a housekeeper might walk the dog in one home or vacuum cereal from under a high chair in another.
Most commonly, customers receive help to stay on top of bills, prevent theft and scams, and ensure they’re spending at a sustainable level. Increasingly, people who are just too busy, overwhelmed or struggling are also seeking these services.
Ms Gallegos had her first meeting with Ms Vadodaria in a coffee shop, huddled over her laptop so Ms Vadodaria could gain an understanding of her income and expenses.
Ms Vadodaria took the reins of her bills and her home budget, fitting in the new expense of legal fees. She went over the open-enrollment brochures from Ms Gallegos’ employer and explained the changes she would go through as she transitioned from married to single. Overall, Ms Gallegos said, the effect was like having a “fairy godmother” show up at a crucial moment.
“She didn’t quite give me the shiny pink dress,” she said, “but she got me through a difficult situation where I was able to focus on my family and get through.”
Ms Vadodaria charges US$60 (S$76) to US$90 per hour, depending on the complexity of the case. Clients may pay as little as a few hundred dollars a month if they’re already fairly organised. If she has to excavate them from an avalanche of overdue bills, her fee may reach a few thousand dollars.
Like a professional organiser facing a packed closet, Ms Vadodaria will sit with her clients facing a mail stack and help them go through it, creating piles for items to file, shred or take action on. Within the pile that needs action, she’ll help clients decide what to work on first – perhaps bills that are accruing the most interest. She commonly finds checks that have expired and need to be reissued.
“They’ll hire me for six hours to go through their mail,” Ms Vadodaria said. “Once they have a few sessions, we’re no longer putting out fires.”
Ms Vadodaria said people with anxiety or depression often benefited from the service but might struggle with getting help financially. She tells them: “You have other things you do very well that I know I can’t do, 100 per cent. So don’t feel shame. No stigma.”
Ms Gallegos used Ms Vadodaria’s services for two years before she found herself better able to handle her own financial life.
“I still call her here and there when I’m stuck with something, but now I feel much more balanced, and I have my spreadsheet that she created for me,” she said.
Ms Sharon Zissman, 64, president of the American Association of Daily Money Managers, first heard about the profession when she was hired by Everyday Money Management, where she is director of business development and client relations.
The company charges US$160 an hour and has about 300 clients – 80 per cent of them seniors who need help with expense tracking, budgeting, mail management, filing systems and more. Once, someone became a client after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had been taking care of all of the finances for his family, and “he said, ‘I need you to be me when I can no longer do this,’” Ms Zissman explained.
After he died, Ms Zissman spent seven years helping his wife with the financial tasks he had taken care of.
In other families, she said, complicated relationships or dynamics made worse by financial pressures may make it more advisable for a professional to step in.
“That’s also very rewarding for us,” she said, “to go in and be able to say to the adult child: ‘Just enjoy your parents’ company. You don’t have to get into it with them on the finances, because we’re taking care of it.’” NYTIMES
