Cultivating Financial Wellness
By Michael Brown, Financial Planner and Advisor for the Davis Financial Group
2024 can be the year that you feel better about your finances! The start of a new year can be a great time to make or renew commitments to your overall well-being, and January is Financial Wellness Month.
Financial wellness is a measure of not just how well a person manages their money, but also how a person feels about their financial life. Improving financial wellness can be achieved through practicing better money habits, including setting goals and taking the necessary steps to realize them.
The process also requires building financial literacy, an important piece of feeling more empowered in your relationship with money. Above all, it measures the ability to meet both your current financial obligations as well as achieve your goals and dreams for the future.
Your Financial State Impacts Your Overall Wellness
But it’s not just about dollars and cents. One’s finances intersect with many aspects of overall quality of life, and improving both the state of your finances as well as your understanding of them can have a dramatic positive impact on overall wellness. Financial health can help support or detract from physical and emotional well-being, as well. In fact, almost two-thirds of Americans indicate that money concerns are a significant source of stress in their lives (American Psychological Association, 2022. Stress in America: Money, Inflation, War Pile on to Nation Stuck in COVID-19 Survival Mode; available at apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2022/march-2022-survival-mode.)
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Taking control of your finances by setting and balancing priorities and increasing your understanding of your finances can help decrease this stress and improve comprehensive health, dramatically improving – and potentially extending - your life.
In the journey toward financial health and confidence, it can be important to have a partner such as a qualified financial advisor to help navigate the interconnected and interdependent complexities of one’s finances, become educated about opportunities, options and risks, and to create a roadmap to the life you want to live. Financial health is created one step a time, and a financial planner can help clarify both the destination and the paths to get there. Well-being is not just about the accumulation of wealth but involves striking a balance between security and freedom, spending now versus saving for later, in order to create the life and experiences you want for you (and your family). And there’s no “right” way to get there (wherever there is), but there IS a right way for YOU. It just takes understanding the likely outcomes of decisions before you make them, so you have confidence in the decisions you are making.
The Goal of Comprehensive Financial Planning
What if you could have a crystal ball that would show you where you’d be financially in 20, 30 or 50 years from now? One that would help you understand the implications (intended or otherwise) of the decisions you’ve already made about your money and guide you to decisions that would better position you in the future, improve outcomes and give you the confidence you need to sleep well at night knowing you’re making the “right” decisions… Well, that’s the goal of comprehensive financial planning.
Recently, a new client shared that one of the things holding her back from living her best financial life was a sense of anxiety about the unknown. “I just don’t know what’s there, let alone what to do with it!” she said. I was grateful for this vulnerability and explained that uncovering, exploring, and understanding was going to be a big part of our work together. I couldn’t promise that once we looked into the “black box” of her financial life that it was all going to be perfect, but I could confidently say that we would work together to shine a light on her finances and help her to understand where she was headed and ways to improve her position. This kind of empowered understanding directly contributes to feeling better.
Are You Ready to Feel Better About Your Financial Life?
This is exactly the work of a comprehensive, holistic financial planner, one who will work with you to create financial goals, review and optimize your investment portfolio, and help ensure that you are adequately protected from manageable risks. Even more importantly, though, they will help you learn about and understand your financial life to create a feeling of calm and ease in the midst of
unpredictability and inevitable change.
So, as we look ahead in this New Year, are you ready to feel better about your financial life? If so, consider engaging the help of a comprehensive financial planner. They’ll help you get there, wherever “there” may be for you.
CRN202701-5805320
If you’re ready to take that next step in your financial planning, consider booking a complimentary consultation with us to see how we can help you to create an intentional plan and partner with you on your financial journey.
Stay warm during these winter months!
Allen for the team at the Davis Financial Group
Our Contact Information:
- Allen Davis
Direct Line (413) 570-8311 email ajdavis@davisfinancialgroup.com - Lou Davis
Direct Line (413) 570-8316 email ldavis@davisfinancialgroup.com - Ellen Carey
Direct Line (413) 570-8315 email ecarey@davisfinancialgroup.com