When most people think about wellness, they automatically think about exercising and eating healthy.
But did you know that there are actually Eight Degrees of Wellness?
The Eight Degrees include:
- Physical Wellness
- Financial Wellness
- Intellectual Wellness
- Occupational Wellness
- Environmental Wellness
- Social Wellness
- Spiritual Wellness
- Emotional Wellness
To learn more about all eight, you can check out my blog entitled the Eight Degrees of Wellness.
Today, I would like to focus specifically on Financial Wellness or in other words, your satisfaction with current and future financial situations. This pretty much comes down to being responsible with finances through proper budgeting, saving and investing of funds.
When some people hear the word budget, they think of it as a negative but in reality it gives you more power! It allows you to tell your money what to do versus carelessly spending funds and then wondering…where did all of my money go???
This year one of our family goals is to become more financially responsible and start to really tackle some big financial goals. Key word being family goal; you see if it was just me it would be a little difficult but since we are attacking this as a unit and moving in the same direction, I have no doubt we will conquer our financial goals that much faster!
So, you may be wondering what has inspired this?
To be honest, I have always been a financially conscious person thanks to my dad who has always made it a point to educate me on financial literacy.
Financial literacy: the possession of the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources.
My dad has always advised me to live within my means, avoid credit card debt, save for emergencies and invest for retirement early in life. Not saying that I have perfectly followed his guidance, I mean what kid listens to everything their parent tells them. But I am very thankful that I did have my father giving me this advice, as it has helped me to not make huge financial mistakes throughout my life.
I remember him telling me, “It’s not how much money you make but how you spend the money you do make.”
It wasn’t until I got older that I truly understood what this meant.
According to research, about 78% of American families live check to check. This statistic does not just apply to low income families, there are families who bring in six figures or more, but they are still living check to check!
What does this mean?
- It means that people are spending more money than they are bringing in and not saving on top of that!
- It means that for most families, missing one paycheck could create a huge financial burden.
- It means that as a society we are giving into our wants more than we should.
But I choose to be financially literate!
To be free to do what I want to do in life and not limited to what I can do because of my finances. I also choose to be responsible so I can be an example to my children just like my father was to me. I choose to create generational wealth and not generational struggle. As parents, we must first educate ourselves and then make sure we pass this to our children and so on.
In order to achieve this our goals are to:
- Maintain an emergency fund with 3 to 6 months of finances readily available.
- Pay off all consumer debt including our mortgage by the age of 45.
- Continue to invest for retirement so we can CHOOSE when we want to retire.
- CASH FLOW everything!! Entertainment, travel, birthdays, etc!
I have been saving for retirement since my twenties and I cannot tell you how many people I have spoke with that are in their 40’s and 50’s that haven’t thought about retirement.
Retirement should be your best years when you are free to do what you please, but you must be well enough financially and physically to do so.
Does this mean that you cannot enjoy life now? No absolutely not, but it does mean that sometimes you may have to say no. One thing I refuse to do is be “fake rich” to impress others because those same people you are trying to impress could not care less about you in reality.
If people only care about you because what you have then they really do not care about you at all. Your worth is not determined by the things you have and if you think it is then it is time for some soul searching.
It’s time for us to be more responsible with our finances so we can live and give like no one else!
I believe that we are blessed with money not to just buy things but to give back and help others who are need.
Find Health in Every Day!
Dr. Lindsay