Wellness Wednesday: financial fitness

So it’s not quite as Instagrammable as the latest quinoa-milk and goji berry smoothie sipped in a hipster cafe, but taking care of your finances is definitely important for your health. Earlier this year, I took part in a Money Makeover for women (you can read my review of it here) and although I’m not exactly using $100 notes to light the barbecue yet, it did get me to stop procrastinating and offer some good advice about how to make the best of your savings – both for now and going into the future. A lot of it was quite common sense, such as boosting the amount going into your super and rolling any separate super accounts into one fund so your hard-earned cash doesn’t get chewed up by fees.

However, another part of the program is about defining goals that will encourage you to create a savings/investment plan: rather than just saying “I want to be a millionaire”, you’re asked to work out why you want to be a millionaire (and whether, in fact, you could do whatever it is that you want to do on much less than a million dollars). In my case, I realised I want to get out of Melbourne every winter for a few months, and do some volunteering and freelance work while travelling somewhere warm. Working as a part-timer and freelancer and not having had many jobs lately, it means I really need to put any earnings in a high-interest savings account if I want to watch my money grow…

… but as a single lady with no dependents, mortgage or other debts, my little “Escape Melbourne Winter” plan is quite achievable as long as I don’t go spending massive wads of cash willy-nilly (which, given my penchant for opshopping and making stuff out of crap, is fairly unlikely anyway).

Money and finances are the kinds of things I don’t enjoy thinking about, but it pays (pun intended) to set aside time to get them in order. If your health/life/income protection insurance, super, bank accounts and other money-related affairs have been neglected for a while, mark a day in the calendar when you can tackle them yourself or get professional advice – or sign up for a Money Makeover. Once you’ve taken steps to secure your financial future, you can relax a bit!