For many of us, financial planning is a source of stress, confusion, even avoidance. But for Jon Furest of First Financial Coaching, money is about mindset, structure, and long-term transformation.
The youngest of a four-generation family of financial advisors, Jon is modernizing the field with two groundbreaking financial tech tools—Pocketnest and Currence—while also offering the belief-changing American Dream Experience, a personal growth seminar that gives families an opportunity to discover what academic investing science is, how it works, and how it can help fulfill your life’s purpose.
Jon didn’t grow up dreaming of a career in finance. “I never had that ‘this is what I want to do’ feeling growing up,” he admits. Instead, at 24, while working at a sandwich shop, Jon began to feel the pull toward something bigger. “I knew I wanted to make a difference. I was good with people, I liked talking to them, but I couldn’t make a difference behind the counter the way I could by helping people with their money and their dreams,” he recalls.He decided to join the family business in 2014—not to continue a legacy, but to help reinvent the way people interact with their finances. Over the past decade, he’s done just that. For example, Jon recognized that traditional financial planning often feels like an avalanche of spreadsheets and fine print. So he added Pocketnest, an app that simplifies financial planning, to his clients’ financial toolkit.
“Pocketnest covers ten areas of financial planning,” Jon notes, “but instead of overwhelming people, it gives you bite-sized, actionable steps based on your goals.” Users answer a few key questions, link their accounts, and receive customized financial to-dos, from checking insurance rates to planning for retirement.
Conventional financial advising caters to the top three percent of clients ready to invest immediately, Pocketnest is different: it’s designed for the 97 percent who need guidance but aren’t ready to take action yet. “It helps us coach clients on their timeline, instead of pushing them into decisions they’re not ready for,” Jon says.
Featured in Forbes and Fast Company, Pocketnest leverages psychological insights to drive financial wellness. It's designed to resonate with digital-age communities like Millennials and Gen X-ers. Roughly 85 percent of financial advisors ignore both demographics, even though together, they represent $46 trillion in assets.
And the disengagement works both ways: for example, 98 percent of Millennials will fire their parents' financial advisor upon inheritance—and two-thirds of them get their financial advice from Facebook and Twitter.
Pocketnest's AI-enabled personalized financial journeys are tailored for touchscreen-friendly lives.
Jon also helps clients with the Currence app (livecurrence.com). Where Pocketnest helps with financial planning, Currence is a game-changer for cash flow management. It tackles a major financial hurdle: the traditional paycheck-to-checking-account cycle that facilitates what Jon calls “lifestyle creep.” Currence flips the system on its head—by making savings the default position of all new inflows.
“Most people, when they make more, they spend more. Saving is an afterthought—if it happens at all,” Jon explains. Currence ends lifestyle creep by introducing a ‘Reservoir’ account: a high-interest checking account where users deposit their income first. Then Currence helps users create structured spending for necessities, fun expenses, and building wealth.
“You don’t even notice when you get an extra paycheck or bonus,” Jon says. “That extra money just stays in your reservoir. So saving no longer takes willpower—it just becomes a built-in habit.” Over time, the Currence structure can help people save significantly more, without putting in effort or focus on a budget.
The impact has been remarkable. “Instead of worrying about saving and spending, you now have a structure for it, and a professional to help you make good choices with the excess,” Jon shares.
I looked on the site (livecurrence.com), and the average Currence user saves 23 percent of their income—six times the national average. The change of direction in cash flow drives savings accumulation—with savings rates that are six times higher than the national average. By putting savings first, and focusing on net cash flow, Currence helps build financial confidence, and implements the protection and growth strategies necessary to achieve financial freedom faster. The app currently has a 4.9 rating on the App Store.
First Financial Coaching believes there's a transformative power in having clarity and purpose in your financial journey. That's why Jon believes in harnessing the power of fintech to make investing more effective. “Whether you’re building wealth or enjoying retirement, I think everyone can benefit from being purposeful with their money,” Jon observes.
While these tech tools help, true financial transformation requires a mindset shift. First Financial Coaching helps families fundamentally alter their relationship with money. It starts with their powerful and belief-changing “The American Dream Experience” (first.adxleader.com).
“It’s not just about investing,” Furest says. “It’s about uncovering the beliefs you inherited about money—things like ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’ or ‘we don’t talk about finances.’”
The seminar, which First Financial leads both in-person and virtually, is based on the book “Experiencing the American Dream” by award-winning entrepreneur and author Mark Matson. Matson’s book is endorsed by such luminaries as Rob Lowe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Forbes, and Stanford neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman.
“The American Dream Experience” focuses on breaking generational cycles around financial stress. “Many people grow up with a ‘no-talk’ rule around money,” Jon notes. “We help them realize they can break that cycle and create an empowered relationship with money.”
Though “The American Dream Experience” usually costs $1,000 per couple, First Financial Coaching offers the seminar complimentary. “We offer it at no cost because we believe everyone deserves access to financial empowerment,” Jon emphasizes, “It starts with understanding ourselves and discovering how investing actually works, without the need to pick the best stocks, time the market, or other speculative strategies. Money is simply a tool for the fulfillment of your purpose in life."
One participant’s story stands out to Jon. “She always thought she’d be just scraping by for the rest of her life,” Jon tells me. But after going through the program, “she stayed up until 4:00 a.m. researching colleges and career paths. Now, she’s finished community college and made the dean’s list—when in high school, she wasn’t recognized for academics at all. She’s created a whole new future for herself.”
First Financial Coaching utilizes Nobel Prize-winning, empirically tested investing principles that have been applied to help investors improve their long-term investment results. With Pocketnest guiding financial planning education, Currence transforming cash flow, and “The American Dream Experience” reshaping mindsets, Jon and First Financial Coaching are pioneering a new way of financial planning that aims to move their clients toward real financial freedom.
“We want them to have agency over their money,” he says. “We’re not here to make people dependent on a financial advisor. We’re here to give them the tools, structure, and coaching to build the life they want—on their terms.”
To sign up for the American Dream Experience, or to work with Jon and First Financial Coaching, visitfirstfinancialcoach.com or call 586.463.1880
For three decades, Jon and First Financial Coaching have helped clarify investing and money misconceptions for thousands of families. They want a world where all generations have the experience of the American Dream.
"Financial empowerment…starts with understanding ourselves and discovering how investing actually works, without the need to pick the best stocks, time the market, or other speculative strategies.”
“We want [people] to have agency over their money…not here to make people dependent on a financial advisor. We give them tools and coaching to build the life they want.”