Have you ever heard the term financial self-care?
Similar to personal self-care, financial self-care is taking the time and energy to ensure that you are practicing positive and effective financial habits.
Many of us have unintentionally adopted poor financial habits that negatively affect our short-term and long-term financial success.
Today, you can change that by implementing these 6 ways to practice financial self-care.
1. Practice Self-Care
Before you can practice financial self-care, you must practice ACTUAL self-care.
It is vital that we take care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Our self-care practices impact how we operate with our money.
Historically, my bad money decisions have most often occurred when I wasn’t diligent with the practice of self-care.
One time, I bought a WHOLE house when I was worn down to the bone.
BAD decision!
I was overworked, overwhelmed, tired, stressed, frustrated, angry, upset…you get the gist.
Inevitably, these emotions impacted how I utilized my money.
Related Post: 11 Bad Money Habits to Avoid
2. Address Your Money Blocks
All of us have blind spots when it comes to our money.
Sometimes, we just don’t see the unhealthy patterns that have developed over time.
One strategy for uncovering your money blocks is to explore your financial upbringing or lack thereof.
What patterns have you seen repeated in your financial life?
To determine this, you can make a financial family tree. You can go back to your grandparents!
How did they treat money? Were they living in abundance or hand to mouth?
Next, your parents. Did they make wise money choices or did they struggle with debt?
Map it out on a piece of paper and see if you can determine financial lessons, both positive and negative, that you may have absorbed unconsciously.
Lastly, honestly reflect on your own financial life and decisions. Did, or do, some of those decisions stem from your upbringing?
If you really want to change your financial tree going forward, it is essential to look at the past and present to see what has impacted your money-making decisions.
You can utilize journaling to take a deep dive and reflect on your behaviors regarding money.
Many of us have money-related anxiety, fear, and lost sleep thinking about how we are going to change our financial situation. If you are struggling with those emotions, it is a great idea to let it all out with a journal.
Sometimes we don’t have someone to talk about these issues with, but that doesn’t mean we should keep it bottled up. Let it all out on paper to not only feel better but to achieve greater clarity of your financial self-care.
3. Schedule Regular Money Check-Ins
This is an area where I see many people fall short. They think that all they have to do is sit down to create a budget, and that’s it…everything will magically fall into place.
Unfortunately, that is NOT how budgeting works. In my experience, incorporating small habits into our regular routine is what makes a difference in the long run when it comes to our money.
I have a tough question for you to answer. Are you ready?
How much time did you dedicate to your finances this week? Better yet, ladies, answer this question!
Did you spend more time on your hair and makeup this week than you did on your finances?
Are you feeling a bit uncomfortable? Don’t worry; I’ve been there too!
I have not always been at a place where my finances were at the top of my mind.
Yet, when I started consistently putting in that time and energy to go over my finances, it became a natural part of my routine.
Right now, pick a day and time of the week to review your finances.
Mark it on the calendar, set a reminder, and make sure that you sit down to do it.
During this time slot, check your budget, track your expenses, review how much debt you owe, envision your financial goals, and measure your progress towards your current money goals.
And before you know it, thinking about your finances will become second nature and a part of your financial self-care routine.
4. Get Organized
It will be challenging to pay off debt if you have no clue about your finances.
To get organized, you need to gather all of your financial documents, statements, and paperwork all in one place. Look at any bills or accounts that are past due, as well as all of your debts and their interest rates.
Next, develop a specific and strategic plan to pay down debt. You may also need to start tracking different financial metrics such as your net worth, credit score, and annual income and expenses.
5. Envision Your Financial Future
It is imperative to take the time and space to envision what your financial future will look like.
Start to go into detail by asking yourself questions such as “What does it look like to be financially free?” and “What does it feel like to hold on to those hard-earned dollars?”
Once you know what you want your financial future to look like, you can start to reverse engineer the process and break it down into actionable steps that you can implement right here and now.
6. Simplify Your Financial Processes
Do you have dozens of accounts all over the place? What about money squirreled away in places that you can’t remember?
Are you using complicated accounting programs that confuse you or don’t work for your situation? Are you writing out checks every single time that you have to pay a bill? There are ways to simplify your financial processes and make your life easier.
For example, you could start by setting up automatic payments online for reoccurring bills.
You could also choose to consolidate some of your bank accounts, so you don’t have to have your money spread out so thin.
Lastly, you could select a financial accounting program that you can understand or have the time to learn to use properly.
OR maybe you just want to switch to plain old pen and paper! If you’re a pen and paper girl I highly recommend my Beyond the Budget Money Planner.
Where to Go from Here?
The way you choose to manage your financial self-care is a personal choice that may be different from mine or your friends’ or your sister’s process. That is okay! The critical factor is just to get started.
I can guarantee that all of us can take a look at our processes and simplify things down to make them easier to manage.
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Absolutely agree with the entire post!!!