8 signs that you’re financially healthy –
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Introduction 👋
There are always lots of headlines in the news about physical and mental wellbeing. 🧠
But what about your financial wellbeing? 💰
Financial health and wellbeing are just as important as your physical or mental health. 👩⚕️
Your financial health can have a huuuge impact on your life. 💸
Money can:
- Pay for your basic needs e.g. shelter, food, safety, healthcare 🏕️
- Reduce stress in difficult situations e.g. your car breaking down, losing a loved one who helps you financially 🌪️
- Pay for experiences that can make you happy (Research has shown that life experiences can bring us lasting happiness. ☀️)
- Give you choices e.g. where you live, taking holidays, leaving a relationship, starting a business ✨
All of these things impact your wellbeing and health. 💖
Today we’re going to show you the top 8 signs that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
Disclaimer: This website provides information for guidance and educational purposes only. The Grown-Up School does not provide regulated financial advice. You can seek independent financial advice from a suitably qualified and regulated professional advisor. Check out our disclaimer policy for more information.
1. You spend less than you earn ⚖️
In our “How to keep control of your money 💸” article we explain that the trick to always having enough money is to:
“Make a good amount of money – spend as little of it as possible.” 💰
If you’re spending less money than you earn, you’ve got the balance right!
You’re earning enough to cover the cost of your lifestyle. ⚖️
On the other hand – if you’re constantly spending more than you earn, you could be heading towards a debt spiral. 🌪️
See our article How to avoid debt problems 🌪️ to understand how debt problems happen, and how to avoid them! 🧘♀️
If you’re someone who always spends less money than you earn –
Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
2. You pay your bills on time (and in full!) ✅
Being a grown-up can be expensive! 💰
There are lots of bills that grown-ups have to pay, and it can be difficult to keep on top of them! 🗻
Knowing what bills you need to pay, making sure they’re paid (and in full!), is important to keep on top of your finances.
What bills should I be paying? 💸
If you don’t keep up with your bills, you could face problems like:
- Losing money 📉
- Falling into a debt spiral 🌪️
- Your bills increasing 📈
- Getting evicted (having to leave your home) 📦
- Your credit rating going down (What is a credit rating?) – (making it more difficult for you to borrow money in the future) 👎
- Getting taken to court to make you repay the money 👩⚖️
- Damaging your relationships with friends/family 💔
- Getting a court fine 📜
- Bailiffs coming to your home and selling your personal possessions to pay off the loan 📺
- Money being taken from your earnings 💼
- Going to prison 🚓
- Being made bankrupt 🏦
- Some of your utilities like gas/electric could get cut off 🔌
If you’re someone who always pays their bills on time (and in full) –
Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
3. You have enough money in savings to cover living costs 💰
Day-to-day life can be really expensive. 💸
Even the prices of daily essentials like shelter, food, and fuel can be really high! 📈
Having savings is important because it can:
- Help cover emergencies 🚒
- Help you to avoid getting into debt 🌪️
- Offer financial freedom 🏖️
- Give peace of mind 🧘
- Offer protection for the future 🦾
- Help you to help others 💞
- Make expensive things a bit less expensive (when you don’t have to borrow money!)🚗
- Give you more security when you make investments 📈
Did you know?
In June 2021, Yorkshire Building Society found that 1 in 5 UK adults have less than £100 in savings.
If you have less than £100 in savings, it’s a great time to start saving! 🐽
8 reasons to start saving money now 🐷
If you’re someone has enough savings to cover your living costs –
Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy!🥦
4. You have enough savings to support you in the long-term 🧓
Not only do you need savings to cover day-to-day costs, but you also need savings to support you for things in the long term! 📆
This could involve having enough money for things like:
- Moving house 🏡
- Retirement 🧓
- Raising a family 🍼
- Getting married 💑
- Funeral costs when someone passes away 🥀
- Buying a home 🔑
- Getting ill 🤒
- Losing your job 💼
If you’re someone who has enough savings to support you in the long-term – Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
5. You have insurance to cover yourself for emergencies 🚑
Getting insurance is where you pay money to “protect yourself” from different emergencies.
If you find yourself in the emergency, you will often be given emergency money to help you.
You can pay for insurance to help you in situations like:
- Your phone breaking (mobile phone insurance) 📱
- Pets getting sick (pet insurance) 🐶
- Your car getting stolen (car insurance) 🚗
- A house fire damaging your building (buildings home insurance) 🔥
- Flooding damaging your belongings at home (contents home insurance) 🚿
- Losing your job/income (income protection) 💼
- You or your partner passing away (life insurance) 🥀
- You getting a critical illness (critical illness cover) 🩺
- Having troubles on holiday like getting burgled (travel insurance) ✈️
If these emergencies happen you can get paid a sum of emergency money when you have insurance cover in place.
If you’re someone who has the right insurance for emergencies –
Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
6. Your debts are under control 🌪️
It’s really common to need to borrow money at some point (even celebrities do it!)- but for many people, debt becomes a problem. ☹️
Struggling with debt can result in some really difficult consequences like fines, bill increases, eviction (having to leave your home), or potentially even going to prison. 🚓
It’s very easy for borrowing money to turn into a difficult debt spiral –
Making sure that your debts are under control are an absolute must when it comes to being financially healthy! 🍎
If you’re someone who has their debts under control –
Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
How to start looking after your money 🌱
Is borrowing money a bad thing? 🤷♀️
7. You have a credit score that would let you borrow comfortably 📈
Financial emergencies are a lot more common than you think. 🔥🚒
One minute your bank account seems full – the next you find yourself needing money for things like:
- Unexpected bills 🧾
- Car repairs 🚗
- Pet veterinary bills 🐶
- Increased shop prices 🏷️
- Phone repairs 📱
- Broken fridges/freezers/washing machines 🔧
- Home repairs 🏡
Not only are these events really stressful –
It makes it so much worse when you have to worry about scraping the money together to cover those costs. 😟💸
Ideally, you’d have emergency savings or insurance to cover these costs – but having a good credit score means that you have the option of borrowing too. 💳
Credit scores are important because:
- It can make borrowing money cheaper if you have a good score, and more expensive if you have a bad one. ⚖️
- Problems on your credit score can last for six years. 📆
- It can impact whether or not you can borrow money to buy a house with a mortgage. 🏡
- It can impact whether lenders will let you borrow money or not. 🏦
If you’re someone with a good credit score –
Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
8. You plan ahead for unexpected costs 🔮
Nobody can predict the future, but the more you try, the better for your finances. 💸
Unexpected costs appear everywhere – so having a plan on how to deal with them, can help to avoid getting caught out. 🪝
This could involve things like:
- Keeping an eye on financial news to help you predict changes 📰
- Building up savings 💰
- Getting insurance 🚑
- Writing a plan out to deal with different financial emergencies 📝
If you’re someone who plans ahead for unexpected costs –
Congratulations – this is a sign that you’re financially healthy! 🥦
Conclusion 👍
So that’s it!
Hopefully you’re feeling more confident about understanding ways to look after your money.
You could be financially healthy if you:
- Spend less than you earn ⚖️
- Pay your bills on time (and in full!) ✅
- Have enough money in savings to cover living costs 💰
- Have enough savings to support you in the long-term 🧓
- Keep your debts under control 🌪️
- Have a credit score that would let you borrow comfortably 📈
- Have insurance to cover yourself for emergencies 🚑
- Plan ahead for unexpected costs 🔮
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about signs that you’re financially healthy, share this post with them!
Finally, don’t forget to check out our similar articles below!
Similar articles to “8 signs that you’re financially healthy” ⬇️
How to start looking after your money 🌱
8 reasons to start saving money now 🐷
Why you need to start thinking (and talking) about money💸
Is borrowing money a bad thing? 🤷♀️
How to keep control of your money 💸
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