Live Healthy Live Well

Take steps to explore your financial well-being

The OSU Extension Accounting for Your Money Hope Chest was released July 7, 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic and updated April 1, 2022 to address emergent global economic upheaval.  What is a Hope Chest? Historically, the term hope chest symbolized hope in a marriage or union…key words include vessel and a symbol of hope. The update contains current research to “help people help themselves” by aligning spending and saving within our control.

The past 26 months have taxed individuals and family’s financial wellness. It makes sense to explore the status of our financial well-being.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau developed a tool to gauge individuals financial well-being.  The research was led by a team from the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED).  The research team suggests financial well-being is defined as a state of being where you:

§ Have control over day-to-day, month-to-month finances
§ Have the capacity to absorb a financial shock
§ Are on track to meet your financial goals
§ Have the financial freedom to make the choices that allow you to enjoy life

Because individuals and family’s value different things, traditional economic measures such as income or net worth do not capture the emergent aspects of financial well-being today. We must dive deeper, as the quality of our lives is largely determined by the choices we make.  By becoming aware of how to make choices that are best for you and others, you can become what is known as a self-forming person.

Self-forming people are those who take responsibility for their own lives.  They craft their futures by the actions they take and the choices they make.  Self-formation is a lifelong process of maturing and developing thinking skills. It develops as you interact with others, deciding what is most important to you, and taking action that is best for yourself and others.

Now click on the Financial Well-Being questionnaire tool, answer the 10 questions, and tally your score. Then use the information you learned about yourself to assist you when you take the first steps to prioritize your spending separating your needs from your wants. Click here to begin.

Below is the link for the Accounting for Your Money Hope Chest tool to help you develop and move forward with your state of self-formation and financial wellness. 

Written by Margaret Jenkins, Assistant Professor, Family and Consumer Sciences, OSU Extension Clermont County

Reviewed by Mackenzie Mahon, Extension Educator, 4-H/FCS, OSU Extension Clermont County

Sources: 

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2015 Financial Well-Being: The Goal of Financial Education at https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201501_cfpb_report_financial-well-being.pdf
  
• Ohio State University Extension (2020) Counting Your Money Calendar at extensionpubs.osu.edu/content/sample/917.pdf

• A Sorgente, M Lanz – International Journal of Behavioral …, 2019 – journals.sagepub.com.  The multidimensional subjective financial well-being scale for emerging adults: Development and validation studies
  
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, (2022) Your Money Your Goals. at consumerfinance.gov/practitioner-resources/your-money-your-goals
  
• J.F Laster – Journal of the Japan Association of Home Economics …, 2008 – jstage.jst.go.jp… Journal of the Japan Association of Hemc Economics Educution50(4) (2008.t Nurturing critical literacy through practical problem solving