Financial Wellness: The Ultimate Form of Self-Care for Women

What is Financial Self-Care?

Most of us understand the idea of self-care as a commitment to a lifestyle that enriches both mind and body. At its essence, it is about looking after yourself: whether that means prioritising your mental wellbeing by spending time on activities that fill your cup and nurture your soul, or nourishing your body with a focus on a healthy diet, getting enough sleep or scheduling regular sessions at your favourite yoga studio.

Financial self-care works in much the same way. It means having your financial house in order and managing your money to achieve financial security, stability and the freedom to live your best life. Accordingly, setting time aside regularly to plan for your current and future financial needs is an integral component of overall mental and physical wellbeing.

Yet despite its obvious benefits, it is an aspect of self-care that is all too often overlooked or neglected by women. Read on to discover why financial self-care is so important and how you can incorporate this crucial aspect of wellness into your life.

What are the Benefits of Financial Self-Care?

Devoting time and energy to financial self-care is widely recognised to have important benefits by bringing a sense of calm, confidence and control to your life, and is an essential ingredient to successfully navigate life’s inevitable challenges. It is most effective when it is tailored to a person’s specific needs and is practiced regularly, to help reduce stress and anxiety, improve resilience and improve overall wellbeing and happiness.

Managing money is a common source of stress for many women that can negatively affect the state of our bank balance, but more importantly, our overall health, wellbeing, relationships and quality of life. Forming good routines and habits to manage finances effectively to ensure your hard-earned dollars are working to achieve goals that are truly important can have a powerful and far-reaching impact on our wellbeing. This could mean maximising time available to spend with family and friends, buying your forever home, travelling to broaden your horizons, enjoying enriching experiences, diving into passion projects or working towards a career change to achieve a fulfilling work life.

As such, financial self-care transcends the basic touchstones of income, savings, investing and other typical aspects of managing our money and puts a value on the time and effort you exchange for the money that lands in your bank account. The best part is that all women, regardless of their current financial situation, can take meaningful steps to enhance their financial wellbeing to live their best life.

“Never get so busy making a living you forget to make a life.” dolly PARTON

How Can I Increase My Financial Wellness?

So how can I practice financial self-care, you ask? Read on for a dozen actionable financial self-care ideas you can review and implement as relevant to you, while you pop on your favourite playlist and pour yourself a crisp glass of wine:

1. Incorporate financial planning into your lifestyle design: One of the most important things you can do as part of your financial self-care is to dedicate time to considering how your money goals can support you living your most meaningful and fulfilled life. Take note of your current spending habits and consider whether they are in harmony with your long term goals and what is truly meaningful and important to you. If there is a misalignment, make adjustments as necessary to ensure that your hard earned dollars are utilised to help you reach your lifestyle goals.
2. Review your money values: Reflect on what brings you the greatest joy and commit to making considered purchases accordingly to enhance your financial wellbeing. This might mean checking that your spending is aligned with your values, whether that is supporting local small businesses, opting for ethically sourced clothing or homewares, or choosing sustainable options for transport. Spend money where it makes you truly happy and trim back on any expenses that have crept into your life but don’t spark joy. If you value experiences over material things, make sure your outgoings reflect this: sign up for the day of guided forest bathing and ditch the fancy handbag you feel is needed to fit in with the girls at the office.
3. Create a budget: Having a budget is an essential tool to understand your cashflow and keep track of money that comes in and goes out: so you can ensure that your spending accords with what truly brings you joy. Get smart with your money and reduce financial stress by sitting down regularly to review your income and expenditures to gain an accurate picture of your financial position and stay the course to meet your lifestyle and money goals. Budgeting is a real game-changer, play around with different budgeting tools until you find one that is going to work for you.
4. Check your accounts regularly: Boost your financial wellness by reviewing your savings and other accounts so that you can: keep an eye on where you are spending your money (and trim back any expenditure that does not meaningfully improve your life and support your goals), cancel any subscriptions or other recurring payments for services you no longer use, and quickly pick up and act on any unusual transactions you don’t recognise.
5. Build your Emergency Fund: Being prepared for unexpected expenses and emergencies is an essential financial self-care strategy. Enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing you have a stash of money you can dip into when unplanned life events or surprise bills pop up. Money in your Emergency Fund should ideally cover several months of essential living expenses and be in an easily accessible account.
6. Review your insurance: Similar to having an Emergency Fund, making sure that you have the right insurance in place is a key ingredient to financial wellbeing that will help you sleep soundly at night. Shop around and review your policies regularly to make sure you are getting the best deals.
7. Check-in on your super: Looking after future you is an integral component of financial self-care. Set a calendar reminder to regularly review how your super is tracking and make incremental adjustments as you go to ensure that your retirement savings will serve you well once you leave the workforce.
8. Commit to managing your debt: There is no better way to reduce financial stress and improve your overall health and wellbeing than by focusing your attention on paying down high-interest debt and eliminating your obligation to others. Take stock of all existing debts and the interest you are paying and make a realistic plan of how you will tackle them to take back control of your money.
9. Make automation your friend: Whether paying off bills and credit cards in a timely fashion or setting aside savings on a regular basis, reduce financial stress and the cognitive load of managing your money by automating your finances. Behavioural psychology tells us that our preference for immediate satisfaction over future rewards (known as ‘present bias’) can hinder our ability to stay motivated and focused on achieving long-term goals. By staying clear on your priorities and removing the choice between spending today or saving for tomorrow, automated transactions can help keep you on track for financial decisions that will best serve you in the future.
10. Ask for a pay rise: If you don’t ask, you don’t receive. Grow your savings and financial wellbeing by taking tangible steps to increase your income. Sitting back and waiting for your employer to offer a pay rise just won’t cut it in 2023 – and you can rest assured that your male colleagues are not sitting around passively waiting for the next promotion to fall in their lap. Open up negotiations about your future role and remuneration expectations by scheduling a conversation with your manager. Come prepared to highlight your achievements to date, supported by numbers and data where possible, and the contributions you will bring to the table in the year ahead. If a pay rise is not immediately available, discuss other options that may be feasible in the short term, including additional annual leave, greater flexibility in how you work, or training and development to support your career progression.
11. Improve your financial literacy: One of the biggest financial stressors for women is not having the right education to confidently make money decisions. As such, an integral part of the financial self-care puzzle for savvy women means setting time aside to build her financial knowledge and expertise. Expand your horizons by subscribing to financial newsletters, dipping into the money pages of a reputable newspaper, listening to a finance podcast that inspires you or creating a finance book club with like-minded friends.
    
12. Invest in yourself: Practising financial self-care can have a positive impact on all areas of your life including your physical and emotional wellbeing. Being smart with your money to meet current and future financial needs can free up time and resources to invest in yourself, whether through courses, memberships or subscriptions, so that you can focus on your true passions and purpose.

This information is intended to be of a general nature only and should not be treated as specific investment advice on any particular matter. You should seek professional advice that takes into account your own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.