4 Steps To Improve Your Financial Wellness

The Other Form of Self-Care: 4 Steps To Improve Your Financial Wellness

Gabrielle Olya   Wed, November 3, 2021,

A recent Ellevest study found that financial stress is actually making women sick. Nearly half of women (49%) say that money stress has affected their mental and emotional health, and nearly 40% have become physically ill due to money stress. That’s why it’s so important to practice financial self-care. To find out how to actually do this, we spoke with Kerry Keihn, financial advisor and director of operations of Earth Equity Advisors. Here’s what she recommends for improving your financial wellness.

The most important thing to know is that you are not alone in your struggle to understand your finances. It has nothing to do with your intelligence — the financial industry has basically crafted its own language to make things more difficult to understand.

If you like to handle your finances yourself, there are a growing number of resources that help make it easier. Don’t burn yourself out trying to decipher financial jargon when you can go to sources like Investopedia or GOBankingRates. These resources have different articles and calculators to help guide you through anything from what is the best credit card for your needs to whether or not it makes sense to refinance (and what refinancing means). Your local cooperative extension office may also offer free or low-cost financial education courses, which can be very helpful.

If you are working with a financial professional and they are not making things clearer for you, it’s probably time to find a new advisor. Look for someone whose values align with yours and who speaks clearly and transparently, so you don’t leave your conversations with them feeling more confused than when you started.

Another important step is setting yourself up for financial success. This can greatly help alleviate worries. What are some ways to do this?

When it comes to setting yourself up for success, one of the most helpful things is to know what you’re spending versus what you’re earning. While you can make your own budget in a spreadsheet or on a piece of paper, there are a lot of free budgeting tools available, like Mint, which can automatically categorize your spending and draft a budget for you to adjust. For most of us, there are so many expenses, it can be incredibly difficult to mentally track all of them, which can lead to feelings of anxiety and stress.

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