What is Financial Well Being?

Did you know it is financial well being month?  Most people will start to look at their finances in this month to make some choices about how to pay for the credit card bills and people make resolutions to get their finances in order.

Just like any wellness program, financial wellness is achieved with dedication and work.  But the key to having financial well being is not the work you put in but the mindset you have.  And to have that mindset, you have to first have an understanding of what financial well-being is.

What is Financial Well Being?

Many people have a financial well being definition including a very detailed file from the gov’t.  Each of them describes a different aspect of what I feel is the root of the financial well-being meaning.

Some of their financial well being definitions include:

• Understanding of your financial situation and taking care of it in a way that you are prepared for financial changes.
• Comfortable where your money is coming from and where it is going. Also called having a written budget
• Making sacrifices and changing spending habits like using coupons or shopping sales
• Having financial goals and a plan to reach them
• Disciplined in financial planning
• Living within your means
• Planning for retirement
• Having hopes, dreams, and goals that seem attainable
• Having enough cash flow to live the desired lifestyle for the rest of your life without anxiety

Each of these is a part to the whole.  To have true financial well being, you don’t have worry about your finances, even if you are paying off debt.  You need to be in control of you money and have a good understanding of what it takes to spend money and when it is needed.  Those who have control of their money but have a hard time spending it *cough, cough* ME!!!!! *cough, cough* have not achieved true financial well being.

This is something I have come to understand, that my anxiety about money is keeping me from true well-being.  I am working on it, and I hope to fix.  This isn’t to say that we just forget where our money is going and just spend without worry.  It is spending smart!

True financial well-being is a balance between mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of money.  That means how we think and feel and believe about money.

Do you feel you have reached financial well being?  What does it mean to you?

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