If you’ve been following the blog, you know we’re big believers in making sure your finances are on the right track. Even if you’re not exactly in the perfect spot (most of us aren’t), working towards getting yourself there is extremely important. Why? Because money impacts virtually every life decision you make. Simply put, money really does matter.

Now, overall health and wellness is quite the trendy topic. We all know that having a healthy well-being is the key to a more productive, prosperous, and happy life. On the flip side, being unwell makes everything else harder to handle. Your finances are no different.

Here’s a look at financial unwellness and the very real toll it can take on you and the people you love:

Health and unhappiness:

More and more studies show that everyone’s overall stress levels are on the upswing in our country. At the same time, people are suffering from increased rates of anxiety, depression, sleeping problems, obesity, high blood pressure…the list goes on and on. Researchers are finding that stress is making these health issues become only more prevalent in our society. Even life expectancy is connected to whether a person has lived a high stress life or not.

What does all this have to do with personal finances? Well, a lot! Financial unwellness is one of the main causes of increased stress and unhappiness in America. Constantly being unsure about your day to day cashflows can literally send you and your body into a tailspin.

Personal relationships:

It should come as no surprise that keeping your finances on the up and up keeps you and those around you in an overall better place. The alternative? Unfortunately, it’s not a pretty picture. Having relationships built on financial unwellness makes those relationships…unwell too. Let’s take marriage for example. Financial trouble is one of the top reasons for marital dissatisfaction and divorce. If couples aren’t on the same page with their money from the start, it can be a problem that keeps festering through the years. Overspending, underbudgeting, and increasing debt loads are all a setup for marital woes.

It’s certainly not always intentional. A lot of times, couples just don’t know how to get on the same page. They may be set in their premarital ways, and not know how to work things out together. Maybe there’s an embarrassment about past money troubles. Perhaps those problems are still an issue, which becomes a secret kept out of the relationship conversations all together. Difficulties with your money cause difficulties with the people that rely on you too.

What you can do to change things:

The key to whether financial stress impacts your life and those you love is quite simple: Can you successfully manage your monthly cash flows, household budget, and savings? If not, don’t be down on yourself. Our goal is to make more people financially educated, informed, and knowledgeable, so that small steps can be made to improve overall financial unwellness. When it comes to money, nobody’s perfect!

Take a step back from time to time and look at your overall financial situation. If it’s not as well put together as you’d like, make some small improvements and see what happens. If you don’t know how to get started, we’d be happy to offer some guidance along the way. In the wise words of Confucius, “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.”