10 Ways Your Life Improves by Saving Money | Refresh Financial

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10 Ways Saving Money Can Better Your Life

saving-money

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Saving money makes your life better. We know putting cash away can be difficult, especially if you’ve built up some bad habits over the years. A lot of people tend to spend outside of their means, and they get used to the lifestyle that affords them. Saving your money means cutting other things down or out of your life and that is never a fun thing to do. However, it is all worth it because saving money has more benefits than you’ve probably thought of.

Here are ten of the best ways that saving money makes your life better:

1. Saving money is good for reducing anxiety levels

People who live paycheque to paycheque, barely scraping by and saving nothing, experience tremendous amounts of stress and anxiety. If you’ve ever gone from situations of financial well-being to the opposite or vice versa, you know how different your overall mood is. When you don’t have any money, you constantly worry about it and it interferes with your ability to get through each day happily. The stats are there. According to an American survey, the number one thing Americans stress about most is money. As next-door neighbors, with similar lifestyles, values, and demographics, it's safe to assume this is a top stressor for Canadians, too. Another survey suggests that 57% of divorces are the result of money stresses. We're here to show you how fixing your credit can relieve stress and give you some great pointers on getting started!

Stress can impact every aspect of our lives. Think of the last argument you had with your spouse - was it about money? Most likely. Think about the last time you were in a bad mood and maybe snapped at people you cared about? What was causing that mood? Was it money? Probably. Our relationships with our significant others, our children, siblings, parents and other loved ones all become strained under the stress of money and our overall quality of life begins to dissolve.

Poor credit and loads of debt all contribute to financial stress. This is why it's so healthy to start being proactive about your finances.

Once you do make that decision, though, to improve your money and credit, you’ve taken the first step towards happiness and reduced stress.

According to studies, financial stress is linked to depression, anxiety and heart attacks. There is often a correlation between money trouble and suicidal thoughts and tendencies. Your mental and physical health is tied to stress which means it’s connected to money, whether we like it or not.

When people get the flu, they care for themselves. They get rest and fluids and keep themselves warm.  It’s the same thing when it comes to money stress. You have to take care of yourself when you’re experiencing money stress. The Financial Planning Standards Council reports that nearly half of all Canadians rank money as their number one source of stress. An even greater amount of Canadians, 87% of us, report having financial regret. All this stress coming from money isn’t good for us. Here’s a list of 7 ways to conquer your financial stress:

  • Face The Problem

Sit down and spend time understanding where things went wrong and how you can improve them. When people are stressed, they tend to play the avoidance game. Usually, when people finally face their fears, they find the situation is not as bad as it seems.

  • Make positive changes

This could be as simple as setting a budget or cutting down on your daily spending. You could also set up a new savings plan or even set a goal to pay down your debts. Finances don't get better on its own. If you’re not making changes, it’s going to stay the same. Creating new and better habits for yourself and your money is going to reduce the amount of stress you experience relating to it.

  • Make A Budget

I know, no one likes the B-word, but it’s necessary for mental and physical wellbeing. The simple act of making a budget is going to relieve some stress and make you feel a lot better about the situation. You might find that as you progress with your plan, you'll feel a little relief start to creep in.

  • Plan For The Future

Saving money now, even just a little bit, can ensure you avoid money stress in the future.

  • Set Goals

If the source of your money stress is worrying about retirement, set some good, solid goals to save. If your stress is a result of poor credit and huge debt, set goals to pay down your debts and improve your credit. Having clear goals laid out ahead of you is the first step to reducing your stress. It will light up the path ahead of you that you couldn’t see before.

  • Seek Help

There is no shame in asking for help when it comes to complicated money problems. There are people out there who have been through years of post-secondary education to understand the intricate details of how money works. Having their input on your situation is a great advantage. They’ll see things that you could be missing and they can guide you in the direction you need to go. You’re also going to feel accountable to anyone who is actively helping you, giving you extra motivation to do better.

You can also seek specially designed credit building programs to help lead you through murky waters, like the credit building program here at Refresh Financial. If the need to build credit is your issue, this credit building program will get you through it.

  • Reward yourself

When you reach the goals you’ve set for yourself or you’ve successfully made some changes to your money habits, don’t be afraid to reward yourself. Changing habits is no small thing and should be rewarded. Make sure to pick rewards that will motivate you.

We all know that money stress is often brought on by bad habits and poor money management. That means, in order to reduce your financial stress, you need to make changes within yourself. It can be scary to take that first step, but once you do, it won’t be long before the money stress starts to melt away. You’ll sleep better, you’ll focus better, and you and your significant other with have more energy to enjoy each other’s company.

2. Saving money is good for your relationships

Nine times out of ten, marital arguments are centered around money and the stress that comes along with not having enough of it. Partners feel the weight of being in debt and not having enough money come down on them, and it can cause an immense amount of tension, anger, distrust and eventually lead to the relationship dissolving. Nurture your relationships with those you love by nurturing your finances. Get a nest egg growing so you can approach conflict without the adding the stress of being broke to it.

3. Saving money is good for your quality of life

Self-disciplined savers are happy because they have less stress, less worry and they have lots to look forward to.

4. Saving money is good for your credit score.

While saving money may not directly affect your credit score, the fact that you have something to fall back on should you hit hard times means your credit score won’t suffer.

5. Saving money is good for opening up opportunities

If you have a decent sized amount of savings and you see an investment opportunity, you have the freedom to take it up. Having money behind you gives you choices: home ownership, career changes, etc.

6. Saving money is good for times of crisis

We prefer to think nothing terrible is going to happen, but sometimes it does. We lose jobs, have house fires, or car accidents. Our pets get sick or our wallet gets stolen in a foreign country. Life is unpredictable, so having a good chunk of money to lean on, just in case, is going to ensure that the bumps along the way aren’t game-changing.

7. Saving money is good for your confidence

Saving money is part of what we call “adulting”. The more adulting you do, the more proud of yourself you feel. You are owning life like a boss and you’re going to hold your head a little higher because of it.

8. Saving money is good for your health

Eating cheaper often means eating healthier. You’re going to have way more veggies in your diet because they’re so cheap.

9. Saving money is good for your goals

Saving money helps you reach your goals, whether they are to start a new business or purchase a home, or finally see Chichen Itza in Mexico. Money can help you get there.

10. Saving money is good for your money

When it’s saved, your money is making even more money for you. Even if you just have your money in a regular savings account, your money is still earning interest. If you save it, it will grow!

As you can see, there are many pros to saving money, and there’s really only one downside and that is living on a tighter budget. Can you cut things out of your spending for all of these benefits? It seems like a pretty good trade-off to me! Refresh Financial can help you put money away for savings, and build your credit score at the same time. Learn more about our credit builder program!

Is It Possible To Live Without Money Stress?

For some of us, money can be a touchy subject. Any time you bring it up with your partner, an argument is inevitable. The topic is avoided, and so is monitoring how much of it is leaving your hands. Don’t look and it won’t seem so bad, right? Divorces are caused by money problems, violent crimes can be the result of the very same. Money, when mismanaged, can bring you right down to your rock bottom and keep you there unless you’ve got some serious fight in you.

It’s really not fair, when you think about it. You’ve been given half a chance at money success. No one sat us down and explained to us how to manage the almighty dollar. No one taught us self-discipline, how to save or how to make our money work for us. Of course, we had brief run-ins with nerdy teachers in high school who taught us how to balance a checkbook and that saving was great, but who really knew what that meant or looked like… really?

Real World Debt

We all just burst out into the real world, our only experience with money had been allowance and paper routes, and suddenly credit card companies were around every corner trying to draw us in as new adults with no credit history. Remember that moment you walked out of the cafeteria in college to see a BMO booth offering a free trucker hat if you applied for a credit card? Yeah. That moment would define your future financial health. We had no idea, but that moment would set the tone for the rest of your life.

Student Debt

How did you deal with student loan debt, made worse by credit card debt? How did you deal with the fact that you were just realizing how expensive life really is? All those mocha-frappa-whatsits you bought at ‘Bucks every morning suddenly seemed way more expensive than they’d seemed when mom bought them, didn’t they? I mean, they were the difference between eating dinner and not eating dinner sometimes, weren’t they?

Sure, there are the overachievers who counted every penny and lived like paupers and had their student debt paid down in a few years after school. That’s not how it went for most of us, though. For most of us, this was the beginning of an awful, dictatorial relationship with the big buck… a relationship that most of us are still trying to escape, decades later.

Money Smarts

There aren’t very many of us who’ve been raised in a money-smart environment. To the vast majority of us, money was a source of stress, anger, fear and anxiety. We’ve subconsciously carried that attitude toward money into our adulthood, and our finances reflect that. It’s easy to get down about it. It’s not difficult at all to give up hope, to resign yourself to the struggle with money being the norm.

The thing is though, it doesn’t have to be this way. Really, it doesn’t. No matter how old you are, or how bad things have gotten, improving your finances is never a lost cause. The hardest hurdle to overcome is usually making the decision to get back on track and committing to it… and then finding out where to start.

Improve Your Credit, Improve Your Life

At Refresh Financial, we think the best way to start turning your finances around, is by improving your credit and starting to save. A Refresh program will help you with both of those things. Don’t let money stress define the rest of your life. Make the choice to take control, now, and experience what it’s like to have a healthy, love-love relationship with your money.

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If your credit score isn't as high as you'd like it to be, consider a credit building program like the one offered by Refresh Financial to boost your credit score!

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