You can add details about the info here. You can Save your work at any time and go back to it. You will see below what it looks like.
This information is about the specific health area mentioned above. It comprises a combination of textual and video information, on our site and on external sites. We will be adding new specific health areas and further information continually.
The idea is for you to understand more about the health area you are addressing before you get too far building your action plan.
According to the CFPB (the US based Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), financial wellness is defined as: “A state of being wherein you have control over day-to-day, month-to-month finances; have the capacity to absorb a financial shock; are on track to meet your financial goals; and have the financial freedom to make the choices that allow you to enjoy life.”
Financial wellness is critical for all people because it can help lower your stress levels. Stress related to money can affect every aspect of your life. Your personal and professional productivity could potentially suffer due to financial worry. It’s the result of successful expense management.
What are stages of financial wellness?
We like the 7 stages outlined by Money Coaches Canada, which is a framework people can use to identify their feelings and behaviors towards money, assess their current situation, and focus on the right things to improve their financial well-being, giving a clear and measurable way forward. The stages are shown in the diagram below and there is a link to the site for a fuller explanation.
How do you get financial wellness?
If you’ve been looking for 7 easy steps you can take to achieve financial wellness, here they are!
Dimensions of Wellness believe that Financial wellness is an intricate balance of the mental, spiritual and physical aspects of money. This unique combination is an ideal to strive towards in our dealings with money.
Financial wellness is having an understanding of your financial situation and taking care of it in such a way that you are prepared for financial changes. Maintaining that balance consists of being comfortable with where your money comes from and where it is going.
There is information available which will help you formulate your action plan – both on our site and on external sites.
You generally cannot create financial wellness if you don’t have any cash. All businesses need some form of start up cash. Debt or borrowing isn’t the smartest way to start.
SavingsDrive shows you how to save money and then develop a plan for wellness.
So do we really need to save money? Attitudes have changed. We hear about old people living in run down large houses, wearing clothes from a charity shop and yet when they die you find out they have left millions in a will.
Insurance !!! a horrid word, or is it?
Well Insurance sounds horrid in the original context of selling or buying insurance and the way it is done. But we all need it. Its sensible to protect what we have.
We insure our cars because we know its costs a lot of money if we crash. We insure our homes because we know how much it costs to rebuild or repair.
Statistically we always under insure ourselves.
If you found a golden goose which laid golden eggs would you insure it against theft of illness to ensure it continued laying golden eggs, of course you would. Most people in life build financial wellness through working in some form. if you are unable to work your wealth would stop.
If you’re NOT financially well and perhaps you’re in debt, then you’re probably feeling the pinch.
This is the mantra of the Financial Wellness Group, a UK based company which helps people get out of debt. They will deal with all aspects of your debt.
Breeze have a 5 minute blog article on financial wellness explaining financial wellness – there is an extract from it below, To go to the full article, hit the link.
You probably have never had anyone ask you directly, “How is your financial wellness doing?” It’s an odd question, but one that would be very helpful if someone did ask you.
A possible reaction you may have to that question would be, “What exactly do you mean by financial wellness?” Let’s address that question in this article, as well as some steps you can take to ensure your financial well-being.
Put simply, financial wellness is your overall financial health. It encompasses all of the areas of your life financially, including:
Self-evaluation and education are two of the tools you will need to use to help determine your level of financial wellness.
Honestly evaluating your financial situation can be both liberating and painful. It can bruise your ego if you don’t like what you see. Perhaps you feel that you should be further down the road financially than you are for your age. Or maybe you are just getting started creating a financial game plan and are feeling discouraged because of the size of the mountain you have to climb. When it comes to our finances, fear and trepidation are not unusual feelings.
Education plays a significant role in your financial well-being. There are many free resources online to help you better understand what the areas are you need to concentrate on, as well as in-person workshops you can attend, which are often sponsored by banks and investment firms. You’ll quite likely have to put up with a sales pitch, but the information presented can be invaluable.
Sometimes the owner of a video will not allow the video to be played on external sites. If you see the video is unavailable on the left just click the ‘WATCH NOW’ link on the right and the video will play in a new window.
This very short US video says it all.
Financial wellness does not mean pots of money. it means been able to live your life stress free and secure. be able to pay your bills and live your life as you want to. Strange thing is many people can have total financial wellness if not for their inability to break their habits. Breaking personal habits and creating your goals and make them happen can make all the difference.
In order for you to assess what you know about this health area, we suggest using a questionnaire. This might help you understand your situation in this area, or taking it might improve your understanding of the area.
You may be able to take this questionnaire online – either here on our site or on an external site – or download it and complete it on paper – it depends on copyright (and whether we’ve managed to build it on our site!).
The ways you can take a questionnaire:
You can take a questionnaire on our site. This will score the questions automatically and give you a summary showing what your score means.
You will see our questionnaire first, possibly followed by a tab which may contain a second questionnaire (see above). If you scroll down you will see links to external questionnaire(s) or downloads if there are any. Scroll down until you get to the right place for you!
Our questionnaire is taken from the Dimensions of Wellness – only 10 multiple choice questions.
You can take this questionnaire on at least one external site.
Fidelity do an online personal financial wellness score. If you fill in the blanks you see how you are performing across four major financial wellness domains; budget, debt, savings, and protection, and get personalised tips for how you can improve your overall financial wellness.
There is a US based financial questionnaire from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which gives 10 generic questions (drawn from a databank) which then tells you how you’ve scored compared the the US average – it provides different averages based on types of people.
Times of change can be a challenge, no doubt! Whether it’s a relationship breakup, job loss, or being diagnosed with a serious health issue. Or you may WANT things to be different, but it feels a little scary or overwhelming. The butterfly reminds us change can be beautiful, even necessary, in order to realize our full potential and live our best life.
