It’s not always easy to talk about your finances, especially if you’re having difficulty keeping track. But by talking about money and your personal situation, you can learn to manage it better and hopefully become less worried and stressed.
Here at Fair for You, we want to empower our customers to better understand their finances as a whole, and to give them access to the items they need. So in today’s post, we’re discussing the meaning behind financial wellbeing – what it is, what impacts it – and how you can take control of yours, regardless of your current financial situation.
Financial Wellbeing: An Overview
First of all, it’s important to know that financial wellbeing isn’t a term just for those who have a lot of money. Instead, financial wellbeing applies to everyone – no matter their financial capability.
In its simplest form, financial wellbeing is about having the ability to confidently manage your personal finances.
What Can Impact Your Financial Wellbeing?
In essence, there are a number of aspects that can impact how we view financial wellbeing and money as a whole.
For example, the types of financial habits that we’re exposed to at a young age can seep through into our adult lives. While people don’t always fall into the same habits as their parents or guardians, it’s human nature to follow how we’ve been taught. Additionally, The Money & Pensions Service reports that “nearly half of us in the UK feel like we missed out on a meaningful financial education at school, home, or in other settings” – which isn’t a great start to developing a healthy financial future and knowing if we’re doing things right!
We believe it’s never too late to focus on putting your financial wellbeing first, and to work on getting to a place where you feel confident about handling your own money. To help you get to that place, and to understand some of the other aspects of financial wellbeing, we’ve broken them down into four main areas below.
Personal Spending
Do you know how many outgoings you have per year, or even per month? Personal spending relates to all the money that leaves your bank account, such as rent, utility bills, food shopping and mobile phone contracts. Some people may also have credit cards or other debt repayments that come out of their account too.
It’s very easy for your personal finances to get out of control, especially if you don’t regularly check your bank balance or if you’re unaware of when certain payments are due to leave your account. Instead, having control of your financial wellbeing means you know what money is due to leave your account, how much is in your account, and that your bank balance remains healthy.
Personal Borrowing
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to take out overdrafts, credit cards or payday loans in the UK. Sadly, a lot of people fall into the trap of high-interest rates and payment schedules that they simply cannot afford – all of which lead to more spending and mounting debt that can be incredibly stressful to deal with.
Sometimes however, borrowing money might be your only option. Especially if you find yourself at a dead end, and in need of something for your home. So it’s important to do a little research before making any decisions. Take some time to look around and see what’s available, so you can confidently ensure that what you borrow is affordable and right for you and your financial situation.
A Healthy Financial Future
Future financial plans can include everything from saving up for a house deposit, paying for your retirement, or making sure you’re tide over for the school holidays.
It’s easy to only focus on today, but in reality, we’re going to encounter lots of different expenses in the future – some quite expensive! Therefore, having a hold of your financial wellbeing involves planning for later in life too – with savings, pensions or investments. Which leads us to…
Personal Saving
- A third of Brits have less than £600 in savings
- 41% of people do not have enough savings to live for a month without income
Source: Finder.com
Many people live paycheck to paycheck, which means they receive their work or benefits payment and immediately spend it – with no money left to tide them over. This can cause many problems, one of which is that it doesn’t leave any wiggle room should you be faced with unexpected costs. It also means you can’t put any money away to save for bigger purchases or your future, as mentioned above.
Even affording the basics can be a struggle unless you’re making an active effort to save – remember, even just a little will make a big difference! Financial resilience is all about building an emergency fund that can support you in tough circumstances.
We understand it isn’t always easy to hold onto money, but unless you have some backup funds in your account, it can make unexpected costs (such as a broken-down washing machine or school holiday food shopping) very difficult to afford. And that’s where we can help.
Fair For You – Get The Everyday Essentials You Need For Less
When you need items for your home such as furniture or electrical appliances and money is tight, we know how difficult it can be. That’s why we’ve partnered with some of the UK’s leading retailers to bring you essential household furniture and electrical items – at a cost you can afford!
With no deposits and no hidden fees, our flexible payment schedules are designed to give you control and peace of mind. You can choose how you pay and when you pay. Plus, we’re proud to have an ‘Excellent’ rating on Trustpilot, with numerous awards for our affordable credit service aimed at helping those on lower incomes.
Check out our online shop to see what products are available – including washers, cookers, beds, children’s beds, sofas and much more.
If you want to find out more about Fair for You, what we do and how we can help, sign up to our newsletter today.
Looking To Improve Your Financial Wellbeing?
The first step, as basic as it sounds, is to confront your financial health. That’s because regardless of where you are with your finances, unless you fully understand your personal situation, it’s impossible to work out what your next steps will be.
We’ve pulled together some further hints and tips on improving your financial wellbeing and how Fair for You can help, here.
Please note we’ve used links to external websites. Although we make every effort to ensure these links are accurate, up to date and relevant, Fair For You Enterprise CIC cannot take responsibility for pages maintained by external providers. Views expressed on external sites we link to are not necessarily those of Fair For You Enterprise CIC.
If you come across any external links that don’t work, we would be grateful if you could report them to the web content team.