When managing your health, people often forget about their financial wellness as well. It’s important to have balance, as with everything in life.
Welcome to the 3rd FLA Guest Blog Post! Today, we explore how to not only manage your health but also your financial wellness. Thank you to Amos from Do Money Well for sharing this helpful comprehensive guide.
From teaching your children how to manage their money to saving for your golden years, Do Money Well covers it all.
We all need money. However, when you don’t have enough to maintain your preferred standard of living, you can get stressed out quickly. This is especially true for middle-class Americans facing the uncertainty of soaring housing prices, skyrocketing childcare, and salaries that have not kept up with inflation. Fresh Life Advice explains that you can take hope knowing that there are things you can do to improve your financial standing, reduce stress, and relax.
To make the most of your money, here are a few approaches to try.
Money and Mental Health
According to UK-based Mind.org, there is a very real connection between your finances and your mental health. Not having enough money can leave you lying awake in bed each night, worrying about how to pay for everything – from your children’s braces to your electric bill.
Further, feeling as though you can’t keep up with others in your social circle can leave you with feelings of shame and guilt when you do splurge on the occasional night out. It doesn’t have to be that way. We often hear this idiom referred to as “Keeping Up With The Joneses.” A few changed habits coupled with self-care and a different perspective can help you reduce stress.
Many financial experts are of the opinion that before you send off your money to do the heavy lifting, you need to have an emergency savings account that will cover at least six months of living expenses.
One of the best places to store your cash is an FDIC-insured, high-yielding savings or checking account as it can generate maximum value.
A typical savings account provides an interest of about 0.01%. To put this into perspective, putting money in a checking account is equivalent to stashing money under the mattress. However, high-yield savings and checking provide interest rates that are more than 1%, which is about 1% more than what you usually get.
Save Money Without Sacrificing Your Health
It’s easy to think that saving money means giving up on everything you love and need to be well. This simply isn’t true. There are many ways that you can continue to put your health first. These include:
- Meal plan. Meal planning is one of the easiest ways to keep your diet and nutrition goals. It’s also an excellent way to save money since you only have to shop once each week, and you won’t have the temptation to run to the drive-through since your food is already ready. There are many apps, such as Paprika and Mealime, that can make meal-planning easy. The Spruce Eats has a great list of different apps that can make mealtime healthier, efficient, and budget-friendly.
- Exercise outdoors. Strong Home Gym estimates that the average gym membership costs more than $50. That’s $600 per year that you don’t have to spend, and tossing your fitness center card in the trash means one less bill to pay each month. Instead, plan to spend more time outdoors, which can help you with everything from weight loss to stress while giving you plenty of open spaces to walk, swim, and hike. Look for parks in your area that allow people to freely exercise. If you have a dog you want to include in your workouts, find a pet-friendly park and bring them along.
- Look for free workouts online. If you can’t get outdoors to exercise, no problem. Thanks to the internet, finding workout routines and tutorials is as easy as logging into your YouTube account. Many personal trainers and exercise aficionados offer a wide range of exercise videos that can help you refine your current workout routine to learn something completely new. You can also download exercise videos to your tablet and take things outside.
- Prioritize self-care. Self-care is something as simple as a warm bath or a good book at the end of a stressful day. Or, you may simply want to crash on the couch with your favorite video game or the television program you’re currently watching. Do what makes you feel your very best; you are doing yourself a disservice if you feel like anything less, and your goal is to feel better, not worse.
- Shop for affordable products. Look for highly-rated kitchen gadgets, workout equipment, and other health-focused products to help you live healthier. You can check out Safe Smart Family for unbiased reviews and information on the latest products to help get you started.
Inflation is when the costs of products or services rise but paychecks don’t keep up. An increasing inflation rate can paralyze a nation’s currency value and buying potential.
In fact, inflation can reduce the wealth that you create. For instance, the present inflation rate in the United States is 2.26%. So, if you invest in a fixed deposit (FD) that offers a 3-4% return, that is not going to work.
This investment will erode your wealth. It will work against you. This is the reason investors invest in market-linked assets, such as mutual funds and stocks. These assets can outpace inflation. Top-quality stocks generate average returns between 9% and 12%. With mutual funds, you can get a return of 6% to 15%.
Buying assets is an effective way to make money and beat inflation. There are apps that provide access to top-quality mutual funds and stocks.
Earn Without Giving Up All of Your Spare Time
When you simply need to make more money, your first inclination may be to take on more hours at work or to get a part-time job. These can absolutely help, but then you continue to be defined by someone else’s time clock. Instead, consider starting your own business on the side such as purchasing a condo and renting it. This gives you flexibility and, depending on what you do, may segue into a passive income down the road.
Keep in mind here that there are a few steps you should take to get your side-gig off to a good start. One is to invest the time into researching how to file an LLC.
This will make it much easier to keep your business finances and personal finances from commingling, which can protect you from financial losses. However, each state has different LLC guidelines and regulations, so it’s important to do some research to ensure you’re following all of the required steps. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, work with an attorney to make sure all of your paperwork is correctly filed with the proper offices. Formation services can also help you with this part of the business formation and are often less expensive than a lawyer.
You also want to consider scouting ahead to hire an assistant, which can handle some essential tasks on your behalf while you work your “day job.” Entrepreneurs’ Organization suggests interviewing wisely and making sure that your assistant is someone you can trust. While you will have to put some time into growing your business, you only have to work when you want, which means you can take time off for self-care. Additionally, you could also hire a virtual assistant to help with things online, such as answering phone calls, responding to emails, and helping you with aspects of your business. Virtual assistants are particularly helpful if you don’t have a physical office and are running things from your home.
Your overall wellness and health is more than the sum of what you eat and the number of hours you exercise each week. To be truly at your best, you have to take care of yourself in all areas. This includes tweaking your finances so that you have one less worry on your plate.
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Disclosure: Fresh Life Advice is an opinion-based website. I am not a financial advisor, and the opinions on this site should not be considered financial advice.
Personal Capital: The Ultimate Tool to track your Net Worth, Budget and more.
How do you focus on your health and financial wellness? Let me know in the comments below.
