Do You Have a Good Relationship with Money?

Delfina Hernandez, Founder of Currency Wellness, and leading financial wellness coach, she knows all too well, how finances affect our overall health. Currency Wellness focuses on three pillars to financial wellness, and those three pillars include mind, body and finances. When we begin to look closer at the psychology of money, have a better understanding about our relationship with money and peel back the layers, we can set ourselves on a path to financial wellness.

What are Delfina’s tips for improving our financial wellness?

• Start with a budget. This can seem daunting if you barely look at your income and spending. If this is a difficult task, at least try looking at your bank statement. Start the awareness of how much money you have in the bank, and what you’ve spent yesterday, or last week or this past month. Whatever amount you have in the bank, try to see it as a positive. Not, “I only have x,” but, “Nice, I have x”.
• Track your income and your expenses. You can utilize a simple excel sheet or google sheets to track, but there are also other tools out there that are easy to use where your activity can be seen at a glance. Quickbooks is software program that a lot of people use. It allows you to input your credit cards, your bank accounts, and you can easily derive reports from it. To visually understand what comes in and goes out from your bank account provides information for us to work with when it comes to being mindful about our spending.
• Use your credit wisely. Credit is something we all need. The reality is, if you want to buy a home, we need a good credit score. So, we should have credit cards, but keep in mind we want to have a good credit to debt ratio. The more credit you have, but that you are not using, helps. It would be good to get set up with an annual credit report. For instance, Experian has an app for free that keeps you up to date on your credit score. She suggests spending only up to 30% of your credit line, as this is a good credit to debt ratio that will help you with your credit score in the long run.
• Understand how value is different than pricing. This goes back to psychology. Just because something is expensive, doesn’t mean it’s valuable. Identify what is valuable to you. Maybe you love travel and experiences, but you don’t care as much about material objects. Maybe you’d like to own a home some day, but don’t care about having an expensive car. You can focus travel, and while you may not have a home you own now, you can choose a place that more afforab. Once you know what you find valuable, you start working from your heart space, and not keeping up with the Joneses.
• We’re living in times where inflation seems out of control, which means when we spend, we’re spending more and more than we used to spend on things. We could all benefit from saving, because while we have fixed costs each month, we have variable costs that can easily change. There are areas we can all make changes to in order to better save. One area is eating out. Eating at home is not only cheaper, it’s healthier. We control the foods we eat, how it’s prepared, and the portions we eat as well. Eating out isn’t just the cost of the meal, it also the gas to and from the restaurant, the valet to park, possibly the cost of a babysitter. Saving doesn’t mean taking away the things you love to do, it’s being more mindful, so that maybe you only go out to eat 1 day a week versus 3 days a week. Or, you make your coffee at home most days as opposed to going to your favorite coffee house. It also means buying what you need from the grocery store, and being mindful to not let food go bad in the refrigerator. Those micro habits add up. Also, whatever you do have in the bank, choose to put some money in a bank with a high interest savings rate. It adds up.
• Be mindful of what you eat and choose a healthier diet. Choose foods, like lean protein, vegetables and fruits, healthy fats, while drinking plenty of water. A healthier diet means we feel better physically and puts us in a better mindset to make better choices each day.
• Be mindful to exercise as well. When you exercise and have that regular activity you release endorphins which improves your mood, reduces stress, and helps to improve your mental state. When you work with your body to have strength, flexibility, and endurance, you are in a position to make better choices.
• Be mindful of how you feel mentally and do things to bring peace of mind. Is there a particular activity you do that calms you or allows you to be in the present? Make sure to include that in your weekly routine. You can also try things like meditation, journaling, drinking tea, going out in nature, or reading a book. When you have a heatlhy mindset, you again can make better choices.

We could all benefit from having a good relationship with our money. Try working on the above tips, and if doing them all at once is a challenge, take them on, one by one. If you’re looking for financial help, Delfina can guide you in the right direction. Improve your financial wellness, improve your overall health.