How are our health and finances related? Can financial fitness or wellness fall under the core dynamics of healthy living? Read on to find out!
One of the things I love about Arese Ugwu’s best-selling novel and now Netflix blockbuster, Smart Money Woman is the strong bond of friendship shared among the star character, Zuri and her girlfriends, and how every relationship is pivotal to teaching sound financial lessons.
Particularly a scene that stands out is where Lara schools Zuri and Tami about their finances. Zuri then remarks that if they often had such conversations, she wouldn’t have been in such a financial mess. Lara finally concludes that the ladies need to shift conversations from food, fashion and shopping to real money conversations that would assist them to reach their goals.
This here is a solid example of making financial fitness fashionable.
Financial fitness means having enough money to meet one’s financial needs and wants when required. It involves making sound financial decisions and actions to meet one’s financial goals. Decisions like creating a budget and staying disciplined with it, like saving and investing regularly in proportion to your income, constantly tracking your expenses, your net worth, and reviewing your financial goals. In a nutshell, financial fitness is the daily practice of fiscal responsibility.
When it comes to being financially responsible, it’s quite easy to fall off the wagon because we live in a world surrounded by weapons of mass distractions, designed to take our money silently and that’s where accountability comes to the rescue.
To stay financially fit, we need to go beyond the necessary savings and investing or having a budget, to normalizing conversations around money.
I know that it sometimes feels uncomfortable having money talks with friends and family, especially when you don’t want to convey the wrong message about your intentions — Most people might assume that when you mention money in a discussion, it might lead to you unloading your family problems to them, so we totally avoid it altogether.
Nevertheless, it’s in sharing our stories that we learn about opportunities and best practices, that we avoid financial pitfalls, that we draw strength from one another on our financial journey.
Similar to our physical fitness, the same rules apply to financial fitness as well. If you will need to lose weight, you would have to skip the fats and focus on the proteins. You will also have to map out an effective plan that details how much weight you want to lose and a specific time frame to achieve this.
Implementing this will involve healthy eating, regular workouts and monitoring to track your progress thoroughly. If you aren’t losing weight as much as you like to, then maybe it’s time to switch things up by incorporating new workouts like cardio into your regimen or reviewing your time frame altogether.
For example, you shouldn’t begin your weight loss journey with a strict diet that’s a struggle to maintain. Similarly, you shouldn’t go on a strict budget that denies you a good time with your money. Good financial habits take time to develop and the more we practice them, the more we get used to them.
Making honest decisions in your best interests, employing tools that match your personal lifestyle regimen, and holding yourself accountable with trusted friends are all important steps in staying motivated on your financial fitness journey.
It’s fine to seek assistance when we need it the most. Let’s normalize it. Let’s make financial fitness fashionable by being less judgemental when friends confide in us about their money struggles and also being proactive with a healthy lifestyle (budgeting, saving, investing, tracking your net worth, setting financial goals), that won’t hurt us in the long run.
May you become financially free, fierce, fundable and fun.
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Dara from HerVest.
