Let’s focus on Financial Wellness for a minute!
Are you one of the almost three in four Americans surveyed recently by the American Psychological Association who said they are experiencing financial stress? Financial stress can affect people physically, emotionally, and psychologically and result in unhealthy coping behaviors.
Financial wellbeing includes being fully aware of your financial state and budget and managing your money to achieve realistic goals. When you analyze, plan well, and take control of your spending, you can make significant changes in how you save, and ultimately how you feel resulting in living a more hopeful life.
Ohio State University Extension designed an Accounting for Your Money Hope Chest to “help people help themselves” as we work to achieve financial wellness during this time of rapid social and economic change. Managing and controlling our spending and saving is needed to build hope and manage emergent financial stress.
The purpose of the Hope Chest is for individuals and families to –
- Prioritize spending by separating needs from wants
- Identify realistic/SMART goals
- Gather current financial spending and saving information
- Locate emergency resources
- Analyze their current budget
- Develop a “new” Accounting for Your Money calendar
- Take control of spending resulting in more saving for family goals
Work through the steps of the Accounting for Your Money Hope Chest with your family members and/or co-spenders as you and your family adjust to changing basic needs and wants. Determine how to best spend your money during this period of rapid social and economic change. Your family will be empowered to meet the new challenges brought about by the change, reducing financial emergencies and easing future financial stress.
Written by Margaret Jenkins, Assistant Professor, Family and Consumer Sciences, OSU Extension Clermont County
Reviewed by Nannette L. Neal, Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources, OSU Extension Clermont County
Sources:
- Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (2022) Knowledge HUB at kx.osu.edu
- Ohio State University Extension (2020) Counting Your Money Calendar at extensionpubs.osu.edu/content/sample/917.pdf
- American Psychological Association (2015). Retrieved from apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/02/money-stress.aspx
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, (2022) Your Money Your Goals. at consumerfinance.gov/practitioner-resources/your-money-your-goals
set a budget, cut back on expenses, and monitor purchases, but somehow it doesn’t work. We try and yet we tend to fail.
Dining Out kept them from saving each month. 
using us to set uncontrolled budgets. We think about income growth but don’t think about rising expenses, so we end up thinking we can afford the more expensive house or car when we can’t. We know expenses will go up, but we ignore those expenses when making the decision.
Live Healthy Live Well 