What is financial wellness & why does it matter?
These days, there is a lot of buzz around all things holistic wellness, mental health and self-care. We talk about things like therapy, meditation, yoga, nutrition, relationship and sleep. And while these topics are all important in their own right, one of the topics that doesn’t come up quite as often is finance.
And yet, despite the fact that it isn’t talked about very openly, financial wellness is actually an incredibly important part of our overall well-being strategy because it can have a huge impact on our mental and physical well-being!
That’s why today’s blog article will cover everything you need to know to de-stress your finances and get yourself in the right money mindset to thrive!
We’ll look at:
What exactly is financial wellness?
What are the benefits of improving your financial wellness?
What are some common money mindsets that are keeping you stuck?
What can you do to start improving your own financial wellness?
What exactly is “financial wellness”?
Financial wellness refers to the act of practicing healthy money habits so that we can improve our relationship with money as well as our overall financial situation. The goal of financial wellness is ultimately to get ourselves from a place of just surviving to a place where we can actually thrive in terms of money.
That doesn’t necessarily just mean having more money available to spend but learning how to make smarter money decisions, manage the money we do have more effectively and create long-term strategies that will support us in the future.
As with anything related to our individual well-being, financial wellness definitely shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all kind of approach. Depending on what stage of life we’re in, the strategies and goals we set to feel “financially well” will look very different from person to person.
To help get a feel for the things we might think about in regards to financial wellness, we could ask ourselves some of the following questions:
What is my relationship with money? Where does this mindset come from?
When I talk or think about money, how do I feel? Do I have any strong emotional reactions?
How much of my daily stress and worry is caused by fears around money?
Do I feel worthy of being well-off financially or is money something that makes me feel guilty?
Do I have any short-term or long-term financial goals that I’m trying to achieve?
Do I have specific strategies and steps in place to achieve those goals?
Do I have a budget that I want to stick to? And if so, do I actually stick to it?
Am I consciously aware of how much I’m spending on the different areas of my life (housing, expenses, lifestyle, etc.?)
Am I financially prepared to deal with an emergency if it happened?
Do I have a retirement plan in place, and if not, would it make sense for me to start thinking about one?
And these are just a few examples of some questions that can help you understand what financial wellness is really all about.
The most important thing to remember is that improving your financial wellness is about getting you to a place where money no longer drags you down and stresses you out all the time. Instead, money should become a tool that lifts you up and allows you to live the life that you’ve always dreamed about!
What are the benefits of “financial wellness”?
As with any well-being strategy, the benefits you’ll see from trying to improve how you manage your finances and your money mindsets will be very unique to your own situation.
BUT - there are a variety of things that can and will generally start to happen once we figure out how to have a better relationship with our money. They will include changes such as:
You’ll reduce your overall stress levels and any anxiety/depression that might be related to worrying about money.
You’ll be better prepared for the future and know that you’ll be able to meet whatever goals you set for yourself.
You’ll be more free to make independent decisions and have the means available to make your wishes a reality.
You’ll be able to support your own health and well-being in other areas of your life (physical, mental, etc.) as well as treat yourself to nice things when you want to.
You can allow yourself to be more creative and open to new opportunities that you might have had to say no to in the past.
You’ll be in a better position to give back and support your immediate family and friends as well as the organizations and charities you care about.
Your future self will be well provided for and any unforeseen emergencies will be less detrimental to your life and well-being.
Our relationship with money can be a tricky thing to tackle, but if we want to take the first step towards seeing some of these benefits, it’s usually a good idea to take a closer look at the money mindsets that are currently operating in our head.
Common money mindsets that might be dragging you down
In most cases, our current money mindsets stem from our childhood and are passed on to us from our parents, caregivers, extended family and community. They represent the core beliefs and attitudes we have when it comes to all things money.
As with so many of the beliefs and values that are ingrained into our core identity from a young age, these money mindsets are usually something that we aren’t even really aware of. They’re the default setting when it comes to our relationship with money and we often don’t even know that this default setting could be harming us in different ways.
Imagine these three childhood scenarios and how they could all lead to completely different money mindsets!
Growing up, your parents didn’t earn a lot of money and wasted the little bit that they were able to save on unnecessary things so money was always tight. You remember hearing grownups talk about how all rich people are greedy and evil and that they would never want to be corrupted like that.
Growing up, money was a complete taboo topic. It wasn’t until really late in your childhood that you actually realized that money needed to be earned so that you could buy things. Nobody ever talked about money and when you tried to bring it up or ask questions, the response you usually got was “We don’t talk about money. It’s not proper!”
Growing up, you had all your material needs met comfortably. Your parents talked about money openly and without judgment or any strong emotions. You were expected to work to learn the value of money but never felt like you were on your own or without their support if you needed it.
It’s probably fairly easy to see how these different scenarios would lead to three completely different relationships with money.
While a money mindset isn’t something that can be summed up in one single sentence, you can take a look at the following list and probably get a pretty good feel for which types of attitudes apply to yourself more than others:
“I can either do the work that I love or I can make money, not both!”
“I’m selfish and greedy for wanting to have money”
“I shouldn’t have money because there are so many people in the world who are suffering without it!”
“Money is the root of all evil!”
“People with lots of money are corrupt and shallow!”
“I’m really bad at not spending all my money so I shouldn’t have any!”
“Money is complicated and I’m not smart enough to manage it!”
“My family isn’t rich and never will be. That’s just who we are!”
“If I want to have a lot of money, you have to work 24/7 and never rest!”
“Money doesn’t make you happy so why would I bother trying to get any!”
“The purpose of money is to spend it so why would I bother saving any?”
“Once I have a lot of money, I’ll finally feel better about myself”
“Once I have a lot of money, I can finally prove to others that I’m not a failure!”
How to start improving your financial wellness?
Start by becoming aware of your own money story
Becoming aware of which of the money mindsets we outlined above might apply to you is a really great first step toward improving your own financial well-being. We can only improve what we are aware of so in the beginning, the focus should simply lie on getting a better overview of your general financial situation.
Aside from determining your limiting beliefs around money, you can start monitoring your bank accounts on a daily or weekly basis to get a better feel for the amounts of money that move in and out. Similarly, if you aren’t already, this would be a great time to start closely tracking your income and all of your different expenses so you can see where you’re actually spending most of your money.
Start by setting some simple financial goals & budgets
Once you’ve learned about your own money story, you’ll be in a much better position to establish some realistic goals and strategies that can help you rewrite that story and improve your overall financial well-being.
It’s important to remember that this process isn’t something that will happen overnight. Start by writing down a list of things you would like to accomplish in terms of money and categorize them according to importance, whether they are short-term or long-term goals or perhaps based on much you’ll need to learn before you can achieve that goal.
Educate yourself or get financial help/coaching
The truth is everything related to money can feel kind of intimidating and overwhelming sometimes. The reason so many people shy away from taking their money management into their own hands is because it can seem really complicated.
The good news is that just like any other skill in life - becoming proficient at managing money is something you can sit down and learn! Especially in today’s media environment, there are so many incredibly resources for you to learn how to improve your relationship with money and finally start thriving!
If you’re wanting to dive deeper into all things money-related, then you can either teach yourself with some of the great resources that are out there or you can have the experts teach you!
For all the bookworms out there, some of the books on the topic of money that we like to recommend are:
And for any of you who like to have a little bit more hands-on support, we can highly recommend the resources we have available in The Self Care Space! To help you finally make financial stress a thing of the past, we’ve launched one of our most exciting educational event series yet: Money Mindset & Financial Literacy!
The series includes sessions with money experts that will help you master topics such as:
Overcoming debt
Healing your money story
Financial planning foundations
Increasing your own value
Saving strategies
Adopting a generational wealth mindset
Additionally, you’ll also have access to the rest of our membership features that include self-guided prompts and programs on self-love, healthy relationships, breaking free from the past and managing a healthy mindset. We also have countless guided meditations, healing visualizations as well as weekly live workshops and coaching sessions.
Sign up to join The Self Care Space now and start your journey today!
xoxo,
The Self Care Space
