Student Financial Wellness #FriendlyFinance

Maintaining Your Financial Wellness

Insecurity towards making financial decisions can make you feel isolated, stressed and alone. Feeling concerned about your financial future, or the financial future of others, can lead to sleepless nights and a sense of hopelessness about the future. Learning how to decide what the best financial decisions are for you, can feel daunting. What’s more, this pressure can feel inescapable. In fact, many people have a difficult time sharing their financial issues with people in their lives because they don’t want to worry anyone. However, it’s really important to remember that you don’t have to go through this alone.

Money is a difficult topic for many people to discuss. Being uncertain about where to go or who to speak to for sound financial guidance and support, can contribute to increasing the financial anxiety that many young people experience today. Feeling uneasy or doubtful about your financial situation can also impact how you’re able to connect with others. This can result in relationships becoming strained because of financial challenges. And this can lead to increased sense of loneliness.

Money is connected to so many aspects of our lives and not feeling in-control of it can be a devastating and draining experience to live with. For some, worrying about money can be all consuming. Worse still, it can prevent people from being able to focus on other thoughts or tasks in their day. Creating a realistic budget can be a very informative task that can offer you an honest outline of what your financial situation is, where it can be improved and what areas you may need additional support in. Creating a list of financial goals can be a motivating factor towards staying on track and developing some new financial habits. Starting out with small financial goals can be rewarding and confidence building when you achieve them. One of your goals may be to open any financial documents you’ve been avoiding, or to take a realistic inventory of debts you may have. Another goal could be making the choice to stop spending money on takeaway coffees during the week. Ensuring that whatever goals you decide on feel achievable to you, is the most important factor in deciding on them in the first place. Identifying spending triggers can also help create awareness about how your spending may be connected with emotional experiences that you go through. Understanding how your money and mental health are linked, is a very useful way to reflect on when developing new approaches towards your spending.

While reflecting on how financial stress impacts your life, you may discover that the financial pressure you feel is interwoven within feelings of anxiety or depression you experience. Go easy on yourself. Remember that assessing your financial situation and cultivating new or different financial patterns can be challenging and may take time.

Finally, if you’re worrying about money, you can text 50808 anytime, day or night. 50808 is a safe space to anonymously share how you’re feeling and texting is completely free on all major networks. Being proactive in seeking support to confront any financial struggles you may be facing takes courage. Texting about your worries, concerns or fears about finances may be the first step towards gaining a sense of control. 50808 is here for you when you’re ready to take that step.