Thinking about money and finances can feel overwhelming and stressful for many. When thinking about your budget, retirement, and savings, it can be hard to know where to start. Financial wellness can be defined as the connection between financial knowledge and specific actions that people do in order to gain financial security and prevent stress due to financial struggles. Being financially literate is important to not only help alleviate this stress but also to help you build long-lasting habits that will help you make smarter financial decisions. Remember: don’t work for your money, make your money work for you!
Finding financial wellness is an important part of obtaining overall wellness in your life.
The Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at the George Washington University and FINRA Investor Education Foundation conducted a survey of 19,000 adults in the U.S. to investigate financial anxiety and stress. Of those respondents, 60% expressed anxious feelings when thinking about their personal finances, with the major factors being lack of assets, insufficient income, high debt, and low financial literacy. Many people face different financial stresses that can take a huge toll on their mental health and overall stress level. The same survey found that people were more likely to have high financial anxiety when they had overdue bills for the treatment of a health-related issue. Often, these stressors can cause other health issues which in turn may incur more money to fix, resulting in a vicious cycle that can be hard to break.
Reducing such high levels of stress can help you to avoid the physical symptoms of overwhelming stress such as anxiety, loss of sleep, high blood pressure, and depression. Additionally, high stress can deeply affect your relationships with the people around you – according to a survey of 6,700 people by Everyday Health, more than 25% of people said that they took their stress out on their partner and more than 9% said that they took it out on their children.
The connection between low financial literacy and anxiety and stress can be easily addressed by increasing efforts to make financial knowledge more accessible to people. Follow along with Caravan’s tools to increase your financial literacy to feel less stressed and more confident when it comes to discussing your finances.
References:
Arnold, Kristin. “Survey: Surprisingly Fewer People Losing Sleep over Money Issues.” Bankrate, https://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/losing-sleep-survey/.
“Media Center.” Large Number of Americans Reported Financial Anxiety and Stress Even Before the Pandemic | FINRA.org, 28 Apr. 2021, https://www.finra.org/media-center/newsreleases/2021/large-number-americans-reported-financial-anxiety-and-stress-even.
“Media Center.” Large Number of Americans Reported Financial Anxiety and Stress Even Before the Pandemic | FINRA.org, 28 Apr. 2021, https://www.finra.org/media-center/newsreleases/2021/large-number-americans-reported-financial-anxiety-and-stress-even.
“A Surprising Connection: Financial Wellness and Your Overall Health.” A Surprising Connection: Financial Wellness and Your Overall Health – Healthy Boiler – Purdue University, https://www.purdue.edu/hr/CHL/healthyboiler/news/newsletter/2020-01/finances-health.php.