New Year’s Resolution

If you made a New Year’s Resolution, was it geared towards your financial wellness?

If it wasn’t, or you didn’t make one at all it’s not too late, in fact it’s never too late.

Thankfully today experts understand there is a powerful correlation between our financial wellbeing and our general wellbeing.

We know that toxic levels of financial stress impacts us in many different ways, it affects our relationships, our self-esteem, our social life, our productivity at work, even our physical health.

That’s why it’s appropriate to set New Year’s Resolutions for our finances — and also our related behaviours.

There’s every chance 2023 will be another tough year as the cost of living, and interest rates rising to uncomfortable levels.

One well accepted method is to introduced measurable positive goals for the year ahead.

Tracking our progress helps return some sense of control, and leaves us better able to deal with what happens as it happens.

Here are some suggestions to help you kick off 2023 in a positive way.

BECOME SELF-AWARE OF YOUR FINANCIAL POSITION

A great way to break through the murkiness of money problems is to answer some simple no-nonsense questions.

Even if it’s a little scary, you should be clearer afterwards and probably more motivated too.

So wherever you keep track of important inventories in your life – be it a journal, diary, planner or an app, answer each of these questions:

    • Are your savings going up or down? What direction are your finances are headed in?
    • Have you had trouble paying basic bills and/or making normal repayments?
    • What are your financial goals and do you fully understand your finances?
    • Are you ok with being in the same position financially a year from now and five years from now?
    • Do you ever feel distracted because of your finances, including during work hours?
    • How often do you impulse spend on things you don’t need and/or aren’t healthy for you? When did I last do this? How many times in the past month has this happened?
    • Are you financially healthy but feel stressed and/or down about it anyway and why is that?
    • Do you ever experience conflict or feel anger because of your finances?
    • What steps are you taking to address your financial issues? If none, what is holding you back?

Spend at least thirty minutes on this and try to share the answers with someone you trust.

Write down at least one key action point after each answer. Give yourself a date to try and get that done.

TRACK YOUR SPENDING

“Spend less, save more” is on just about everyone’s list of New Year’s Resolutions, every year.

It’s a great goal, but a more specific objective that will help you work towards that goal is to carefully track all your spending – on a daily basis.

Use an app, a spreadsheet or write it down on paper. Whichever method suits you best, just make sure it’s a full record of spending.

Do it for a week, perfecting it, then keep doing it for a month.

Clear patterns will emerge which will help you to keep a realistic budget.

Keep doing it – this is one of the best habits anyone who feels financial stress can build.

REDUCE THE ‘NOISE’

There are just too many distractions in the world today.

To have any hope of living more mindfully, and sustaining financial resilience and overall wellbeing, we need to reduce the white noise in life.

Here are some suggestions:

    • Reduce your social media use. Cut back and make the time you spend on social media more meaningful. For example, congratulate friends on life events and achievements instead of getting dragged into debates. Post pictures and stories of something you are proud of. If you really struggle with social media, turn off notifications and set digital wellbeing timers;
    • Be wary of online news.There’s an old saying that still holds true in the news business: if it bleeds, it leads. News organisations have a vested interest in bad news and scandals and that cannot be good for anyone’s state of mind. Be aware of that before you click: news sites count on a natural human curiosity to witness dramatic events;
    • Plan your distractions. It’s ok to switch off and escape mentally for a while, in fact it’s essential with the pressures in life. Plan ahead for how to ‘escape’ and make an agreement with yourself to eliminate or minimise unhealthy behaviours and stick to your limits. For example, watching a movie or two episodes of your favourite Netflix show is very different from bingeing until 2am. Try one glass of wine on a Friday instead of two each night. Listen to a podcast on a walk instead of snacking;
    • Monitor and reduce screen use. Are you seeing more human faces on screens than in person, can you replace with real contact? Does your screen use feel compulsive? Do you wish you could turn something off but can’t seem to? Do you have blurred vision, neck pain, headaches, irritability and trouble sleeping? These are all signs of excessive screen time;
    • Don’t reply to everyone. It was true of email ten years ago and it’s true of all forms of digital communication today. We are not saying ignore people in need, but answer what you have to. You can’t always please everyone;
    • Aim for five minutes of complete silence each day. No screens, no music, no audio at all, no talking. Yes, it’s an old-fashioned idea but just try: it’s powerful. In that five minutes notice how your body feels.

Proving the business case for financial wellness programs

Financial wellness has been a buzzphrase in the workplace for many years, with good reason.

More and more data are showing employee financial stress decreases productivity.

In Australia, AMP’s 2020 Financial Wellness Report showed 1.8 million Australian workers suffering prolonged financial stress, costing $31 billion in lost productivity.

The 2022 PwC Employee Financial Wellness Survey covered 3,000 full-time employed American adults. They found two out of five full-time employees said their top financial pressure is that everything costs more these days, and financial stress can run deep.

Addressing those concerns and improving the work environment for your employees often requires a better understanding of three critical areas that significantly impact an organization’s culture and, ultimately, business success.

Retention: Financially stressed employees are twice as likely to seek a new job. Employees looking for a new job deal with critical cash and debt issues and are less confident that their current employer cares.

Mental health: Financially stressed employees are three times as likely to feel a big negative impact from money worries. Employees are six times more likely to say that financial stress has severely/majorly impacted their productivity at work and twice as likely to be looking for a new job.

Productivity: Financial stress has multiple ripple effects. Among employees who say that their financial worries have had a severe or major negative impact on their productivity at work, 67% are struggling to meet their household expenses on time each month, 71% have personal debt, and 64% are using credit cards to pay for necessities they couldn’t otherwise afford.

The United States is, of course, a different market, but the underlying principles apply to Australia: financial stress affects employees’ health, productivity and retention.

The cost of living in Australia has escalated at a record-breaking rate as inflation bites. Interest rates are increasing, and mortgage stress is increasing.

In the Employee Financial Wellness Survey report, PwC outlined four steps it believes employers should take to strengthen workforce financial wellness.

They were:

    • Make the business case for supporting employee financial health;
    • Recognize what’s happening for employees at home;
    • Leverage momentum to promote good financial habits, and
    • Implement a technology solution paired with human interaction and guidance.
    • The second point – what’s happening at home – is a difficult balancing act. It is clearly private but also incredibly insightful information.

Insights can be gained without breaching privacy by gaining employee permission and buy-in to anonymized data collection. But the need to tread carefully and ethically on this point cannot be overstated.

Leveraging positive momentum – such as employees who have improved their financial position – is important because it reinforces good behaviour and builds trust. Constructive, positive reinforcement feeds on itself, producing positive results – as good leaders know well.

In identifying that 87 per cent of employees want help with their finances, PwC confirms the principles underpinning the financial wellness movement.

This is a case-by-case, site-by-site problem – but people generally want tools, and online delivery is almost always seen as advantageous today, especially with work-from-home so widespread.

The first item in PwC’s list of four steps – Make the business case for supporting employee financial health – is what we’ll concentrate on here because it sets the groundwork for everything else that follows.

PwC makes an important point at the outset: understand what changes in financial stress might be doing to your workforce.

To do that, you have to choose key metrics.

The three PwC suggests are ‘productivity, retention, and physical health’.

Others might include absence rate, job satisfaction, engagement, turnover, career path ratios and the impact of training.

You may find other metrics more useful or relevant to your business.

The Financial Stress Index (FSI) provides a tool to track changes in key metrics over time to give some insight into what is happening for employees to develop effective solutions.

Most significantly, the FSI tracked self-reported changes across a sliding scale of financial stress categories.

Specific and measurable key metrics included in the FSI include:

    • Productivity;
    • Absence; and
    • Physical health.

The FSI provides behavioural insights into financial stress that could contribute to changes in other metrics, such as:

    • Job satisfaction;
    • Career path ratios;
    • Engagement; and
    • the impacts of training.

They also contained a rich data set that included insight into what was happening at home for employees and indications of changes in employee mental health.

In March 2021, comparative FSI insights as they applied to Australian survey respondents across three six-month periods were released.

Comparative data was collected on:

    • Effectiveness at work;
    • Time off work;
    • Days lost due to low productivity; and
    • Changes in physical illness symptoms.

All the above data was collected within the context of levels of financial stress.

Using mindfulness to support goal-setting

Living mindfully means living in the present moment, that’s an accepted and true definition.

It’s a great way to live, but we can misuse the concept of living in the present moment to our detriment.

If we live with no forward-thinking, with poorly defined goals – and no structured plan on how to achieve them – we can become disorganised, aimless, and chaotic.

Long and medium-term challenges – like paying the mortgage, achieving a sales or savings target, or growing a business – might be conveniently put off because they don’t feel like a priority in the present moment.

Of course, the bank isn’t interested that your long-term goal didn’t fit your armchair definition of mindfulness.

Financial stress becomes an inevitable outcome of chaos in life.

Taking an approach that literally nothing in the future matters because looking after this moment is the answer to all life challenges is a strategy doomed to fail.

This is a wilful misreading of the broader meaning of mindfulness, which when practiced properly is a holistic process that improves our lives.

Mindfulness is all about awareness, curiosity, and action of our reality. That includes paying attention to obvious risks and challenges now, tomorrow, and next year.

Mindfulness can be used to support our financial goals in powerful ways if properly applied.

Why mindfulness is useful with personal finances

At its most level, mindfulness is: “The ability to pay attention to what you are doing,” says Andrew Fleming, Founder of Financial Mindfulness.

“Paying attention to your finances allows you to avoid mistakes and make better decisions when you are making choices when it comes to; spending, saving, investing, and managing your finances,” Mr. Fleming says.

Mindfulness practice can help with obvious but hard-to-control problems like overspending in two ways. The first is to help you stop re-living the kind of fantasy in which it’s somehow okay to continue living beyond your means. You become more aware of the situation not as you want it to be, but as it really is,’ says Mr. Fleming.

“The second thing it does is to create calmness, less emotional reactivity, and a balanced mind, so you can deal with the ups and downs of life.

“Then you are better equipped to deal with whatever situations you face, with calm focus and clarity.”

The state of being financially mindful “means being aware and paying attention to your finances,” adds author and neuropsychologist Dr. Nicola Gates, who has worked closely with Financial Mindfulness.

But mindfulness is not only a holistic mindset.

It can also underpin a daily practice of mindfulness skills that can be used for specific purposes like avoiding compulsive shopping and supporting goal setting.

But first, let’s take a quick refresher on the fundamentals of effective goal-setting.

The basics of goal setting

There’s a lot of theory on goal setting, but a very simple summary might conclude that the clearer our goals are and the smaller and more specific they are, the better our chances of achieving them.

Achieving easily achievable goals supports our ability to tackle and achieve ambitious larger goals, we gain confidence and a belief we can do this.

In the simplest terms, goal setting is:

    • Setting a specific intention, target, or objective;
    • Underpinning it with the measurable results we want;
    • Detailing the tasks and steps needed to get there ;
    • Applying those steps to a timeline;
    • Building in reviews; and
    • Reassessing, revising where necessary.
    • Recommitting to regular (i.e. daily, weekly) actions

To be clear, a goal needs to be realistic and clearly articulated.

A SWOT and/or SMART analysis on our goals will always help.

SWOT means asking:

    • What are the strengths of our plan?
    • What are the weaknesses?
    • What are the opportunities; and
    • What places it under threat?

A SMART analysis involved asking if a goal is:

    • Specific;
    • Measurable;
    • Achievable;
    • Relevant; and
    • Time-bound.

Using mindfulness to visualise a goal

This is where mindfulness really adds value to traditional goal-setting methods and tools.

Visualising success in achieving goals might sound a little left-field to some, but it’s compelling and ultimately it supports positive thinking.

A good starting point is to ‘see yourself’ engaged in the regular tasks and steps needed to complete your goal – and enjoying them, feeling positive emotions as you do these tasks.

Literally, this is about seeing yourself, in your mind’s eye incorporating these tasks effortlessly in your routine and achieving a state of ‘flow’ – which is essentially being ‘in the zone: being fully energised and immersed in a task.

Visualising yourself experiencing positive impacts from sticking to your tasks is important.

Make sure you are not visualising someone else or an idealised version of yourself.

It’s you and you are enjoying it.

Literally allow yourself time to visualise yourself doing the tasks, enjoying them, and benefitting from them.

Breathe slowly and close your eyes as you do this.

You can also visualise yourself arriving at the achievement of your goal and the positive emotions associated with this.

Two minutes a day doing this will actively support your goals and can be a powerful part of your goal-setting toolkit.

Be careful not to stay in a place of predicting the outcome especially not for some kind of quick gratification – for example obsessively thinking about how to spend the money you save from achieving a savings goal.

If this works for you, you may also want to do another visualisation: imagining yourself reflecting in later life on how achieving the goal helped you at an important time in your life.

So, to summarise, the three visualisations that can support your goal setting include:

    • Enjoying doing the tasks;
    • Achieving your goal; and
    • Looking back on how important it was that you achieved the goal.

A reminder: for these visualisations to work you need to be trying to attach positive feelings and emotions to the goal.

If you start bombarding yourself with negative thinking, don’t stress out about it – this can happen. It’s a good idea to stop and do a simple breath meditation or try again later.

Goal-setting is important but not easy.

Mindfulness as a mindset is powerful and can help us to stay aware and focused on our financial goals.

But it can do more than that, mindfulness can actually be used to reinforce the idea of success with creative visualisations which are relaxing and strongly support positive thinking.

It makes sense to employ mindfulness as a tool to help you set goals and stick to them.

So, what have you got to lose?

Taking stock of 2021 to plan for 2022

As our employers, and our own small businesses, start to focus on the coming year, it’s normal to think about what we want personally out of life in 2022.

Invariably that includes thinking about our personal finances.

As we do this it’s common to leap into big promises to ourselves to not repeat any of the mistakes we made with money in 2021.

For instance, we might say to ourselves, ‘I promise myself I will avoid financial stress in 2022’, or just ‘I will be better with money this year.’

These kinds of pledges to self are understandable, but can be ineffective as they are often based on willpower and guilt – perhaps because of the effect of financial stress on relationships. They are seldom based on detail.

They usually lack the substance of a well-thought out plan.

‘As the saying goes, a goal without a plan is just a wish,’ says Lea Clothier, behavioural money coach and member of the Financial Mindfulness team.

Maintaining manageable personal finances and, if possible, building towards a sustainable level of wealth is not something that happens by wishing.

We’re going to go into goal-setting in Financial Mindfulness blogs a little more detail in the coming weeks:

    • How to assess year just gone;
    • How to use mindfulness and visualisation to help set goals; and
    • How to monitor progress on goals and re-set them based on early attempts.

In order to create achievable financial goals for 2022 we need to pause and do a thorough self-appraisal of 2021.

As Ms Clothier says: ‘What can we learn and adapt from last year to have a better year with our personal finances?’

Review your wins as well as your losses

This is exactly what it sounds like: thoroughly take stock of the good and the bad from 2021 as it relates to your personal finances.

If you run a small business where your personal finances are closely linked to the business, include this too.

We start with the wins, because it’s essential they are not overlooked. They are just as important as the losses.

‘Reviewing our wins can show us our strengths and highlight things that have worked for us,’ Ms Clothier says.

‘Whether it’s a method, approach or strategy, we can learn to use this information to help us build other positive money habits and reach other financial goals.’

What behaviours, decision, choices and circumstances clearly led to ‘wins’ around money?

Did you opt for sensible caution over a decision in 2021 and then see evidence later that the riskier path could have proved a disaster?

Did you diversify your investments and end up pleased with the outcome?

Did you notice a period last year where you saved well and kept your spending down while you were following a budget?

What did you do to contribute to wins that felt accidental?

Write it all down in as much detail as you can:

    • Dates, amounts;
    • The nature of key transaction/s;
    • Other parties involved;
    • The research you did and the support you got;
    • Where you didn’t do research or get support/advice; and
    • How the outcome was aligned with your goals, or where it was out of step.

Take exactly the same approach with your losses, no matter how uncomfortable it is to do so and how much you wish you could just avoid this bit.

‘Our losses can show us important information in order to avoid repeat losses or mistakes,’ Ms Clothier says.

‘There is no more important lesson in the world than having a failure.’

How to make sure you’re doing a useful self-assessment?

In a word, honesty.

Try to look at what happened for you with money in 2021 objectively. If you become unsure you are being objective, seek other people’s feedback or support.

If you get stuck you might want to seek a professional’s advice, such as a money coach or financial planner, or if your focus is on debt, a free (government-funded) financial counsellor is probably a good option.

A few points on how to approach appraise your wins and losses:

    • It’s crucial to be honest – don’t skim over a loss, or minimise a win;
    • In deciding what’s a win and a loss, balance what your feelings tell you vs; what your account balances say. Both facts and emotions are useful in this exercise. Context is important; and
    • Ask a trusted advisor if you can share your list of wins and losses. Ask them if they think you’ve missed something out.

Ask yourself: Was there anything missing or lacking in my/our decision-making process?

Did you do enough research? Did you have the right strategy and approach?

Did you have the support needed?

Assessing past goals

As mentioned earlier, before we dive into setting new goals, it’s important to take stock, and part of that process is examining the goals we had.

What about those goals worked and what didn’t?

Most of us set goals and objectives with the best of intentions and if we can achieve something positive from our goals, we could probably call that a win.

What if our goals didn’t work out as we’d hoped, or completely failed?

In that case, it might be prudent to gauge honestly whether your goals were realistic?

If they weren’t, then re-set your expectations.

‘Small steps of continual progress towards goals can often be more motivating and achievable than big leaps,’ Ms Clothier says.

A failure is not all bad – in fact in almost every case it can sow the seeds of successes to come.

‘Usually, the problem we face hides the solution in it,’ Ms Clothier says.

‘For example, if we didn’t hit our saving mark because we didn’t have a budget in place, then it might be a good time to set up a spending plan for the year ahead.’

‘Or if unexpected expenses chewed into our savings buffer, can you plan ahead for this year.’

The issue of having appropriate support has been touched on, but in relation to your goals, did you have accountability with them?

Other points to consider when assessing the success of your goals might include:

    • Did you stay motivated to stick to them? If not, why not?
    • Did you have the tools, including the technology, to support your goals?
    • Did you stay mindful of your long-term goals? (Do you have long term goals?)
    • Did you stay mindful of your values during all financial decisions? If not, why not?

What is your underlying mindset?

One of the most persistent and pernicious reasons our financial goals fall away, we lose motivation, or we never seem to get ahead is our mindset.

‘We always have more options than we often realise but if we have a negative mindset, or scarcity mindset, we’re not likely to recognise or see the opportunities that might be right in front of us,’ Ms Clothier says.

Our core beliefs about money can be very deep-seated. Uncovering them and developing a more positive outlook on money may take extra support, for example from a financial therapist.

‘Ask for support, get a coach, read a book, do things differently. We can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different result,’ she says.

Make sure to journal about what you find and highlight any key insights.

These will be invaluable in setting, assessing and re-assessing goals in the days and weeks to come.

New Year’s Resolutions – part 2

In part 1 of our New year’s resolution articles, we looked at the importance of becoming self-aware or your financial position, tracking your spending and tips to reduce the amount of noise/distractions life can have and how to improve this.

Part 2 we explore; what you can control, not being too serious, habits and goal setting.

UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU CANNOT CHANGE

Resisting or trying to control things that are not in our direct control is the cause of a lot of human misery. What does this have to do with financial resilience? A lot of people spend money to change the way they – or someone else – feels.

Understanding what you can’t change takes practice.

Give this a try: can you actually change the fact that COVID-19 is still in play and affecting your suburb and your company? Of course not.

Here are some other things you also cannot directly change:

    • Other people’s opinions and decisions (especially if you think they’re “wrong”);
    • Other people’s behaviours, including their flaws, habits and problems;
    • Final decisions and rulings made by companies, and governments;
    • The job market;
    • The housing or rental market;
    • The cost of buying anything;
    • Money that has already been spent; and
    • Debts that have been fairly accrued.

What do you think you have been trying to change that is actually beyond your direct control?

Here’s a list of things that we can change (even if it is difficult to do so):

    • Our own decisions and opinions;
    • Our own behaviours and how we react (including good and bad habits);
    • How we spend our time;
    • Our loneliness, including any tendency to repeat our mistakes (we can ask for help);
    • What we spend our money on;
    • Our level of savings and the direction of our finances;
    • Our financial literacy;
    • Debts that have been unfairly/illegally accrued

TAKE HAVING FUN MORE SERIOUSLY

True, it seems counter-intuitive to be “serious” about fun and laughter. What we really mean is to make having fun a priority. There is some science that shows how important fun and laughter is:

    • It improves relationships;
    • It relaxes and makes us more confident;
    • It is good for our health – reducing potentially harmful hormones like cortisol and noradrenalin and improving our immune system response;
    • Fun invariably leads to laughter, which also has a host of positive physiological affects including raising mood;
    • It improves satisfaction levels at home and in the workplace.

So how do we have more fun? Try thinking of fun as “play”.

Play isn’t just important for children, though it’s often best with children.

Play with your kids, get down on the ground with them – inside or outside. In their fort, in the dirt. It’s good for everyone involved.

If you don’t have kids, play with your dog.

If you don’t have a dog, sing bad 80s music at the top of your lungs, jump in the ocean regularly, rediscover things you loved doing as a teenager.

Push yourself out of your comfort zone a little, perhaps with dancing, or taking up a craft or hobby that sounds enjoyable to you.

Try to book a laughter yoga class in your local area. At first it may feel uncomfortable and forced, but that’s a normal reaction.

Gentle exercise, especially when shared with others, is often good fun too.

It doesn’t have to be competitive – that’s a personal decision: some people find competition fun, some don’t. Go with your gut.

Whatever you do for fun, make it regular – at least once a week.

MAKE SELF-CARE A DAILY HABIT

Self-care is being written about here, there and everywhere for a reason: it’s not just a cliché or a passing fad.

It’s a very broad term to cover the actions that keep your mind and body healthy.

Here are 12 suggestions for valuable self-care that anyone can do:

    1. Face up to basic responsibilities, like booking doctors and dentist appointments;
    2. Keep your receipts for tax time. Your self-esteem will grow, and you will feel more in control;
    3. Exercise at least 3 times a week, even if you can’t face high-intensity activity. Just go for regular walks;
    4. Don’t eat mindlessly, think about your food. Avoid huge servings, especially late at night. Eat more vegetables than processed foods. Sugary snacks and drinks are not your friends! They are bad for your teeth and lead to weight gain;
    5. Go to bed on time and at the same time each night. 7-8 hours’ sleep is about right, less or more might negatively impact your health;
    6. Do a quick mindfulness exercise each day. Guided meditations are easiest and often freely available on YouTube or apps;
    7. Get out of your own head by helping others. No really, try it – it works.
    8. Always have something to look forward to a holiday, a dinner, a movie, a concert, especially something that ‘makes the heart sing’;
    9. Find a community you identify with – separate from work and family – and connect with them at least once a week.
    10. Reach out to trusted friends when you feel lonely. It’s nevera burden to hear from a friend expressing their vulnerability, it actually builds trust.
    11. Set aside an hour each week for honest self-reflection: look at your progress with your finances and on your goals, assess your self-care and bad habits, estimate your screen time. Are you having enough fun? Or too much? Are you wrestling with things you can’t change? Record these facts, thoughts and feelings in the same place each week.
    12. Don’t forget to be positive, grateful and kind to yourself!

SET GOALS FOR 2022

Just setting a few modest goals can have positive impacts on our mental wellbeing, as well as the more obvious benefits that come from even partially achieving them.

It’s important to not overwhelm your list with a ‘to-do’ list aimed at transforming every area of your life. That is a recipe for beating yourself up.

But you should put some thought and some detail into the few that you do come up with.

The SMART acronym – Specific, Measurable, Achievable (or Action-oriented), Realistic (or Relevant) and Timely – is a popular, effective and useful tool for goal setting.

Here are some steps for goal setting:

    1. Reflect on what you have learnt from 2021;
    2. Reflect on what worked well for you in 2021;
    3. Try to remember what your goals were this time last year – are they still relevant?
    4. Think about what story you’d love to tell about your life at the end of 2022;
    5. Brainstorm 6-10 ideas for goals, some hard, some easy (make a couple of these related to your finances);
    6. Trim that list back to 3-4 that feel right and/or really important (don’t pick the 3-4 most difficult!);
    7. Apply the SMART acronym to each;
    8. For long-term goals, make sure you break them down into smaller goals, e.g. “To save $20,000 and invest” can’t be achieved quickly for someone on an average income. For most people it would only be possible with a series of smaller goals, such as:
    9. Calculate how much you need to save each week to reach your savings goal;
    10. Make a realistic budget of all your expenses;
    11. Work out how much income you need each week to reach the savings goal;
    12. Adjust the savings target if necessary;
    13. Evaluate your progress after 1 week, 3 and 6 weeks. Make necessary adjustments; and
    14. Seek help and advice on investment options.

Some general tips on goal-setting:

    • Goals work best when they are clear and specific;
    • Having several highly ambitious goals is probably not realistic;
    • Having at least one challenging goal has positives and negatives, but produce better overall results than having only modest goals;
    • Goals need to be reviewed regularly and adjusted accordingly; and
    • When you evaluate your progress and find you are on track, give yourself a modest reward, but not one that undermines your efforts so far.

 

New Year’s Resolutions – part 1

If you made a New Year’s Resolution already, was it geared towards your financial wellness?

If it wasn’t, or you didn’t make one at all, it’s not too late.

Thankfully today experts understand there is a powerful correlation between our financial wellbeing and our general wellbeing.

We know that toxic levels of financial stress impacts us in many different ways, it affects our relationships, our self-esteem, our social life, our productivity at work, even our physical health.

That’s why it’s appropriate to set New Year’s Resolutions for our finances — and also our related behaviours.

There’s every chance 2022 will be another tough year with COVID still a global issue placing businesses and supply chains under pressure and affecting employees. Many people have lost work too – losing shifts and even becoming unemployed.

Some of the biggest impacts have been social division, fuelled by the uncertainty and fear which have persisted long beyond what we imagined would be the case.

An anxious environment is the norm for a great many people as we enter 2022. ‘Cases for depressive and anxiety disorders last year are estimated to have increased by more than a quarter—an unusually large surge’, said Scientific American of the global mental health picture.

The challenge becomes how do we bring certainty into our lives in troubling times?

One well accepted method is to introduced measurable positive goals for the year ahead. Tracking our progress helps return some sense of control, and leaves us better able to deal with what happens as it happens.

Here are some suggestions to help you kick off 2022 in a positive way.

BECOME SELF-AWARE OF YOUR FINANCIAL POSITION

A great way to break through the murkiness of money problems is to answer some simple no-nonsense questions.

Even if it’s a little scary, you should be clearer afterwards and probably more motivated too.

So wherever you keep track of important inventories in your life – be it a journal, diary, planner or an app, answer each of these questions:

  1. Are your savings going up or down? What direction are your finances are headed in?
  2. Have you had trouble paying basic bills and/or making normal repayments?
  3. What are your financial goals?
  4. Do you fully understand your finances?
  5. Are you ok with being in the same position financially a year from now? Five years from now?
  6. Do you ever feel distracted because of your finances, including during work hours?
  7. How often do you spend money on things you don’t need and/or aren’t healthy for you? When did I last do this? How many times in the past month has this happened?
  8. Are you financially healthy but feel stressed and/or down about it anyway? Why is that?
  9. Do you ever experience conflict or feel anger because of your finances?
  10. What steps are you taking to address your financial issues? If none, what is holding you back?

Spend at least 30 minutes on this and try to share the answers with someone you trust.

Write down at least one key action point after each answer. Give yourself a date to try and get that done.

TRACK YOUR SPENDING

“Spend less, save more” is on just about everyone’s list of New Year’s Resolutions, every year.

It’s a great goal, but a more specific objective that will help you work towards that goal is to carefully track all your spending – on a daily basis.

Use an app, a spreadsheet or write it down on paper. Whichever method suits you best, just make sure it’s a full record of spending.

Do it for a week, perfecting it, then keep doing it for a month.

Clear patterns will emerge which will help you to keep a realistic budget.

Keep doing it – this is one of the best habits anyone who feels financial stress can build.

REDUCE THE ‘NOISE’

There are just too many distractions in the world today.

To have any hope of living more mindfully, and sustaining financial resilience and overall wellbeing, we need to reduce the white noise in life.

Here are some suggestions:

    • Reduce your social media use.Cut back and make the time you spend on social media more meaningful. For example, congratulate friends on life events and achievements instead of getting dragged into debates. Post pictures and stories of something you are proud of. If you really struggle with social media, turn off notifications and set digital wellbeing timers.
    • Be wary of online news.There’s an old saying that still holds true in the news business: if it bleeds, it leads. News organisations have a vested interest in bad news and scandals and that cannot be good for anyone’s state of mind. Be aware of that before you click: news sites count on a natural human curiosity to witness dramatic events.
    • Plan your distractions. It’s ok to switch off and escape mentally for a while, in fact it’s essential with the pressures in life. Plan ahead for how to ‘escape’ and make an agreement with yourself to eliminate or minimise unhealthy behaviours and stick to your limits. For example, watching a movie or two episodes of your favourite Netflix show is very different from bingeing until 2am. Try one glass of wine on a Friday instead of two each night. Listen to a podcast on a walk instead of snacking.
    • Monitor and reduce screen use. Are you seeing more human faces on screens than in person? Can you replace real contact with Zoom connection? Does your screen use feel compulsive? Do you wish you could turn something off but can’t seem to? Do you have blurred vision, neck pain, headaches, irritability and trouble sleeping? These are all signs of excessive screen time.
    • Don’t reply to everyone. It was true of email 10 years ago and it’s true of all forms of digital communication today. We are not saying ignore people in need, but answer what you have to. You can’t always please everyone.
    • Aim for 5 minutes of complete silence each day. No screens, no music, no audio at all, no talking. Yes, it’s an old-fashioned idea but just try: it’s powerful. In that five minutes notice how your body feels.

Find stability with Financial Mindfulness

With a horrible year in 2020, routines have returned back to normal but 2021 hasn’t started well. David, 51 and Lisa, 46 are parents to Joshua (8), Jake (13) and Bella (11).

Josh misses his dad while Bella is angry at her dad and hasn’t seen him for 4 months. She quit her after-school job at a retail chain because she has exams this year. Jake’s behaviour problems at school have worsened since the break-up.

David works as an executive in a chartered accountancy firm and has strong earning capacity but as a divorce seems likely he may have to give the house to Lisa as it’s simpler for the children to spend the school week with her.

Both David and Lisa have been emotionally and physically affected by the separation and are worried about the future. Although each have big financial worries, they have become less careful with money, sometimes spending to numb emotions like anger, grief, loneliness and sadness.

Both David and Lisa would see improvements to their mood, energy and sense of security if they introduced proven mindfulness practices into their lives, especially around how they use money – in other words, Financial Mindfulness. Mindfulness is not, as some people believe an attitude, but is better described as the regular practice of moment-by-moment awareness.

A ‘financial wellness’ study of PwC employees found 52 per cent stressed about their finances with 45 per cent reporting more financial stress in the last 12 months. More than half of Australians say personal finance issues are the leading cause of stress in their life, according to the Australian Psychological Society.

Reconciliation after 17 years of marriage seems unlikely for David and Lisa. The couple argued loudly at home for six years before they agreed he would move out.

Lisa is angry and feels disrespected and that David has been a poor husband, although she accepts, he has mostly been a good provider and done his best as a father. She accepts some contact with their father is good for the children but struggles with any interaction with David.

“How can I trust anything he does now?” she often hears herself saying to friends and family.

Lisa feels resentful with three children to look after and tries to make herself feel better by socialising with friends over dinner, at concerts and art galleries, pampering herself (at health retreats when David has the kids). She has taken a few short holidays and one extended one to Britain where her sister and her husband live and then through Europe. She also re-joined the gym because she is drinking and eating more and has started smoking again. She is still working in human resources as a consultant but has a rising credit card debt.

David now lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment 30 minutes from the family but still does maintenance on the house he owns with Lisa, though he isn’t welcome to let himself in. He also maintains their investment property. Since the separation (7 months ago), David drifted into depression and is finding seeing the children for only 3 days each fortnight difficult. He is working longer hours, going out for late dinners, is drinking more and goes on fishing and golfing trips with old friends.

He has also increased his spending on his two collecting hobbies: wine and sports memorabilia but is also gambling too often. He recently lost his driver’s licence for drink-driving.

“I sometimes wonder what the point is to any of this,” David often thinks. “Without the kids there wouldn’t be much to life for me.”

Both David and Lisa are doing individual therapy and meet for family counselling once a month. But growing financial pressure and stress is not helping their coping skills and both find themselves unhappy and snapping at their children sometimes.

In the coming months, separated couples like David and Lisa find it very challenging to manage their finances, can find some respite by empowering themselves with an app that reduces and measures financial stress by Financial Mindfulness.

Financial Mindfulness will bring a completely new element to the world of personal financial behaviour by giving people medically and scientifically-proven tools to make spending decisions that they will be proud of later (instead of regretting).

“Everybody has a need to manage their financial affairs in a complex world. We understand people would like to improve their financial wellness.”

“We can actually help, for the first time people can choose a comprehensive, medically tested personal pathway of actions, to take responsibility in dealing with their financial stresses. A personal program as an app, also transferrable to your computer.”

“Financial Mindfulness creates a pathway for users from the experience and impact of ‘financial stress’ to one of financial health, wellness and fulfilment.” says Financial Mindfulness Founder & CEO, Andrew Fleming.

“As a result, people like David and Lisa will become more self-aware and take responsibility of their unhealthy financial habits and use the tools of our program to form new healthier behaviours over time. This improves their self-esteem, their productivity at work and by extension, improve the lives of their children.”

The 10 biggest barriers to peace of mind in 2021

Call it what you will, peace of mind, inner peace, sanity, contentment, serenity – that feeling of freedom from when your brain just won’t shut up and in bad moments you feel only marginally less negative about the world and others than you do about yourself.

In a world full of fear about the pandemic, your job, financial stress, the planet, walking home late at night, whether your kids are safe, the next interest rate rise or maybe that secret we pray never sees the light of day, most of would rather spend time with a sustained, quiet satisfaction than on a speedboat with champagne and celebrities.

It’s a different feeling from ‘happiness’ – though most of want that too.

Happiness is great but in truth it is usually a passing state, although certainly one to be grateful for. Nobody is happy all the time and if they claim to be, well, good luck to them. Contentment or peace of mind is true freedom. So how do we break the chains that hold us back from freedom of the mind in 2021? Here are some ideas.

Worrying excessively about Covid

By this we don’t mean to say it’s not a real thing, actually, quite the opposite. When we accept the evidence of reliable and dour scientists and public health experts and just do what they suggest, the surprising effect is we have less to worry about. That’s because we are not fighting it anymore – and fighting is very often based in worry and fear. We suggest keeping yourself, your family and your workplaces as Covid-safe as reasonably possible, doing what is asked by authorities – and outside of that, concentrate on living your life. Make your time count for and with those that matter.

Too much screen time

If scrolling through Facebook a few times each day, or news websites, makes you feel connected, or if you have Netflix and just wanna chill, good for you, do it. But if you do it again, and again (and again), sorry to break it to you, but you are not living a healthy life. Period. And as for social media being sociable? Give me a break, Facebook is about as ‘social’ as a phone plan “cap” that somehow makes you spend more. When used for a specific task, with time limits, social media can be fun and creative but used unconsciously and habitually it is empty, pretend connection. Hit the X on that tab and go get some real face-time with friends, or write someone a letter. If they are across oceans, ring them up to talk and if you can, start saving to go see them.

Putting up with financial stress

No, we are not about to suggest some wealth maximisation (aka get-rich quick) scheme. We are suggesting that continuing to live with worries about money is going to make you sick and/or keep you that way. Financial stress is the biggest stressor for people in the United States and Australia, and as yet, employers aren’t doing much about that – although that is sure to change as corporate wellbeing programs catch up. In the meantime, do something about your low financial literacy, learn how to keep and stick to a budget, learn how to be mindful with money. Do something about your fears over money. Be grateful for what you already have rather than always wanting more. Try to stop spending money you don’t actually have yet with too-easy tools like Afterpay or ‘pay-on-demand’. If you really need more money, then take some action: study, look for a different job and if you have the time maybe do some more work in the evenings or at weekends.

Comparing yourself to others

When did this very human trait ever work out really well? Everybody has a bad day and sometimes everyone just looks fitter, richer, like they have more friends or are just more ‘together’. They might be, but they may have very serious problems you cannot see on the surface. You might see someone worse off and feel grateful, but deep down you may also feel a bit empty from witnessing someone else’s suffering. And why were you comparing in the first place? Perhaps from a lingering sense ‘is this all there is’? Stop distracting yourself from your own life and try practicing gratitude every day. It’s not hard it just takes commitment. Write a gratitude list. World famous monk David Steindl-Rast suggests we can only be happy when we are grateful and we can do this by reflecting on the valuable things in life that we have been given – not things we paid for or earned. Watch his wonderful TED Talk on gratitude here.

Caring too much about others

Kindness is a really nice quality at face value, we need more of it in the world. But if you secretly wish you didn’t have to do so much for others, or expect something in return for your good deeds you may be just be avoiding the difficult reality of your life and even co-dependent. Co-dependence is a word similar to the phrase ‘Global Warming’, in that it sounds much friendlier than what it actually is. Global warming is really dangerous climate instability, which is a bit more than feeling cosy in winter. Co-dependence is adjusting your behaviours to please others, no matter the cost to your wellbeing. People who think co-dependence is healthy are usually thinking of interdependence. “The healthiest way we can interact with those close to us,” according to Barton Goldsmith of Psychology Today, “is by being truly interdependent. This is where two people, both strong individuals, are involved with each other but without sacrificing themselves or compromising their values.”

Being busy, staying busy

If you need something done, as the saying goes, ask a busy person. While you’re at it, give them a gold star but whatever you do, just don’t ask them how their mental health is. If you are busy all the time, what is all that white noise doing inside your head? Do you feel calm, at peace? Never forget you are a human being not a human doing. Busy-ness can feed anxiety, that nagging chatter in your brain that undermines your self-esteem. You need to stop, at least once a day, take stock, and rest with your own thoughts. Try mindfulness meditation as a way of learning to still the mind and accept your thoughts without judgement. From that you may learn it’s ok to be still and that you are still valuable – perhaps even more valuable – if you don’t do quite so much. You’ll probably be easier to be around too.

Staying in a job where you don’t want to excel

Maybe it’s because you aren’t respected, the boss just cut staff numbers, or froze wages again but parks his new sports car in the basement. Maybe you are doing law or medicine or IT because you think it makes your parents happy. Whatever the reason, you feel resentful at work but you stay anyway, usually because you think financially you are trapped, or that a career change would disrupt your life too much. But getting stuck in a job you hate is a slow death of the soul, one that invariably impacts on your mood and can lead to acting out with (or internalising) anger or with impulse spending or even addiction. Plus you just may be holding yourself back from a bright new chapter in your life. How will you ever know if you don’t try? At least allow yourself to dream or brainstorm what might make you a happier person.

Treat your grudge like a tiny kitten

Who isn’t angry deep down about someone who harmed them in some way? Not everyone, sure, but a lot of people. If you get into a pattern of almost protecting that grudge every day, even nurturing it, guess what – it’s going to grow. After a while you’ve held it so close that you begin showing it off, like an 8 year old with new roller skates. A resentment is not a pet, it’s a poison. Ever heard the saying ‘holding a resentment is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to get sick?’ It kinda is. Take action to deal with your resentment, work out your part in it, talk to them with a will to build bridges. And remember honesty without compassion is cruelty, or at least an invitation to an argument.

Doing nothing if you know you have a problem

You know what I’m talking about. That anger you hold, your unprocessed grief, your money problems (whether spending too much, ‘under-earning’ or just ignoring finances), your pattern of bad relationships, your secret addiction or unhealthy behaviour. In recent years , Prince Harry has come out about the effect hiding his sadness about the effect of Princess Diana. “I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,” London’s Telegraph reported Harry as saying. Nobody is perfect or strong enough to deal with life’s train wrecks on their own. Pretending to be fine is going to stop working at some point, perhaps disastrously. But then what? Don’t waste any more time, start right away. There are different price points for counselling and support groups for all kinds of life issues from eating disorders to post-traumatic stress. No matter what you think of yourself deep down, you deserve help. Imagine someone saying you didn’t deserve help – how would you react? So step outside your own head and go help that person – you.

Accepting reality

We touched on it above a few times: ignoring and resisting problems actually causes more grief and suffering than facing them. That’s easy to say when it’s not us having that excruciating conversation, such as asking your lender for a hardship variation on your mortgage, or laying out the facts to the boss who doesn’t like you why you really do deserve a raise, or admitting to your partner that you haven’t been entirely honest. Yes, uncomfortable conversations are difficult and painful. Especially when they are with ourselves. That might include actually following through to construct a budget and seeing the source of your financial problems. But after the conversation is over, you have the beginnings of new, much healthier behaviours and habits. Yes, you have to follow through and things might get harder before they get easier, but you no longer be need to be burdened the solvable problems. You just need to get moving and do something, beginning with the smallest of steps. The most important of those is to get real. Pretending that truly unsustainable situations – whether emotionally, financially, mentally or physically are fine and don’t need to change will just cause you unnecessary pain and drama. Being real can sometimes hurt a bit, but as a way of thinking and understanding the world it’s both a relief and an effective change to make.

If you are experiencing distress in your life and live in Australia call: Lifeline 131114, Mensline 1300789978 or Beyond Blue 1300224636; regarding debt problems, the National Debt Helpline may be of use on 180 0007 007 , or go here for a list of hotline numbers relating to different crises.

Financial mindfulness

The term mindfulness is used a lot in relation to meditation and psychological therapies to describe being aware and paying attention. But what is financial mindfulness?

Financial mindfulness is simply described as having awareness and paying attention to your finances and financial behaviours. It means more than being money smart or financially savvy, as it includes the capacity to regulate emotional responses that can lead to unhelpful financial behaviour and financial stress.

It not necessarily about having a good financial position or good financial health, but an active process of being aware of and paying attention to your thoughts, feelings and financial behaviours in a way that is helpful.

Financial mindfulness is related to the term financial wellbeing, which is broadly defined as “satisfaction with your financial situation”. Financial mindfulness does include financial wellbeing, but also includes financial stress, their symptoms and behaviours.

Financial mindfulness is a practice that can lead you to financial wellness.  Wellness refers to the mindset formed from the way a person evaluates their finances and how it makes them feel. Mindfulness is the process of paying attention to your finances and taking appropriate positive action so that you can achieve financial wellness.

To summarise, Financial mindfulness, is an active process of paying attention to your finances, financial behaviours, attitudes and beliefs around finances. It is keeping awareness of your thoughts, feelings, actions and financial environment in mind so that you can make better financial choices.

Financial mindfulness helps you to focus on what you need to do, empowers you to make sound decisions, and ultimately invest in your financial wellbeing. Click on the link below today and download our free app to learn more about financial mindfulness and how it can assist you in increasing your financial wellbeing.