What is Financial Well-being and Why Do I Need It?

        When people talk about financial wellbeing, many times they talk about their wealth, their portfolio, or their financial security. However, financial wellbeing is more than that. It has to do with your psychological and spiritual relationship with money and how it impacts your financial decisions.

These aspects of financial well-being can be influenced by your family, but also by your cultural and religious background. To find a sense of confidence in money decisions and comfort in your plans for the future, you must understand and address those elements of your relationship to your finances, wealth, and money.

What is the Key to Financial well-being?

        When you have financial well-being, you are able to meet your current and ongoing financial obligations. You have a practical money management plan in place. You don’t have to worry about being unable to pay your mortgage or an unexpected bill. You feel secure that you can meet your needs.

Because you have both a solid plan and a healthy mindset, you feel your future is bright, and you know money will be there to support your everyday needs and your aspirations. Feeling like you can rely on money, being there when you need it and also in trusting yourself to manage this resource (even as it may ebb and flow as life tends to) is wonderful and freeing. However, it may take some work to reach this state of being.

The Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Financial Wellbeing

        You have to dig deeper to understand financial well-being. We all have money stories from our families. This is where we first develop our thoughts and emotions around money. As adults, we may face anxiety, shame, fear, and avoidance as a result of something we’ve internalized from childhood. The knot in our stomach, or sweaty palms when a bill arrives in the mail means we are not in a state of financial well-being. If you have ever felt this way, you are not alone.

         Many of us experience these feelings at one time or another. Sometimes, it is just because you are going through a difficult time, such as a job loss, and funds are tight. But, if it happens more regularly, even when you are in a position to pay all your bills, we have to look at what causes this ongoing anxious state.

        When working with clients who have not found financial well-being, I often discover two barriers. The first is the theological teaching of original sin - the idea that we are inherently bad and unworthy. (I see this often as many of clients come from strong conservative backgrounds.) This often leads to the second barrier: the psychological state of chronic shame - or the idea that we are not good enough. (All that being said, several can suffer from chronic shame without ties to any Christian or theological belief system.) 

        By repeatedly hearing we are bad, we begin to believe it as Truth and chronic shame then sets in. Shame blocks us from attaining the financial well-being we are looking for.

How Can Therapy Help Me Reach Financial Well-being?

        To have a conscious, healthy, and balanced relationship with money, you have to address the damaging narratives and negative emotions you have around money and finally release the shame standing in your way of financial well-being. By working with a Financial Therapist, you will be guided to explore these areas and work through what needs to be changed. To be able to identify and understand your negative experiences and unhealthy thought patterns, you can go on to create a new philosophy about your money, be able to move forward with integrity, and establish financial well-being.  

What Will I Find When I reach Financial Well-being?

         To reach financial well-being, you must start by addressing the relationship you currently have with your money. Then, work through the negative emotions and shame that may be attached. Once these things are healed, you can begin to create a positive relationship with your money which impacts your finances and the way you see your life generally.

         This is a journey, one that can lead you to a place where you are less worried about “getting by” or attaching your worth and success to the money you make, and instead, has you looking forward with confidence and excitement because you believe in a future filled with happiness, joy, and fulfillment.

         Would you like more 1 on 1 support? Then perhaps Therapy Informed Financial Planning is for the two of you. I invite you to schedule your free 30-minute discovery call today.

Wishing You Healthy Love and Money,

Ed Coambs

MBA, MA, MS, CFP®, CFT-I™, LMFT

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