Welcome back to our series on annual financial reviews. Financial wellness looks at your financial security and freedom of choice, both in the present and in the future. We’re exploring the concept today because we believe it is important that you feel confident about your present and future financial status. When you achieve a stable financial status, you gain greater freedom of choice in making financial decisions.
At Iron Point Financial, we believe that your financial wellness is just as essential as your physical wellness. Improving your financial wellness can help you manage financial surprises when they pop up, because you know they will. While addressing your financial status all in one go can feel overwhelming, we have broken it down into 10 manageable areas to show you how to improve financial wellness on your own terms.
1. Set Specific Goals, Start Small
It is advisable, when setting goals, to start small and make those goals attainable. Trying to do too much with lofty goals can quickly become frustrating. By making your goals small at first, you can get a bit of momentum going. This gives you a chance to experience small successes and build off of those.
Along those same lines, making realistic and achievable goals can also help to decrease frustration. This is because realistic goals can allow you to see where and when your goal can be attained instead of remaining a far-off dream. For example, if you were looking to move from an apartment to a house on a median US income of approximately $80,000 (2023), your best option would probably be to choose a house that fits what you can afford, instead of a multi-million dollar mansion (no matter what those people on popular house-hunting shows might tell you).
2. Create a Budget

Creating a budget allows you to see what you are spending on monthly bills and discretionary spending. This helps you know where your money is going and where you might need to reduce your spending, or be able to shift money from one category to another. A Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) can assist you in assessing your income and expenses, so you can build a budget that works for you.
3. Set Up an Emergency Fund
The importance of setting up an emergency fund as you improve your financial wellness cannot be overstated. When you have an emergency fund set up it may help you weather unexpected financial expenses. These expenses can range from everything including medical and vehicle repairs to covering monthly expenses after an unexpected job loss. Most of us have experienced an expense that jolted us, and sent us scrambling for a way to cover it – in other words, the ideal time for an emergency fund to kick in.
4. Create a Debt Plan
Debt can be a big obstacle in your quest to improve your financial wellness. It can keep you from having the freedom to:
- travel, locally or abroad,
- give to organizations that you wish to support, or even
- buy a house.
After you have paid down your debt, it is equally imperative to avoid going back into excessive debt. Working with a CFP®, like those at Iron Point Financial, could help you create a plan to get out of debt and stay out of debt.
5. Review Your Money Beliefs

The way we think about money can affect our spending habits. Some people tend toward overspending and some tend toward frugality. Everyone thinks about money and financial issues differently.
You might want to challenge how you think about money and finances and open yourself up to new ways of thinking about it. For example, instead of focusing on how you are not good with money, you could focus on finding ways to become more knowledgeable about money.
6. Learn About Your Credit Score
Your credit score affects many aspects of life in the United States. Some of those areas are:
- job hunting,
- finding housing, and
- obtaining credit in the form of loans and credit cards.
It is crucial to understand what your credit score is and how it works in order to improve your financial wellness. One thing you can do is check your credit report for free annually. This allows you to spot bad habits, correct them, and see how payment or non-payment of your debts might be affecting your score.
7. Review Spending Habits & Direct Debits

Do you tend to spend your paycheck within days of it depositing to your account, or do you follow a budget? Do you make purchases on a whim, or wait it out and purchase when you know it’s something you want or need? Do you know exactly what companies are automatically deducting their payments from your checking account or credit card?
Reviewing how you spend your money can help you improve your financial wellness by enabling you to make better financial decisions. This may then lead to a more solid way of spending your money, and may in turn provide you with more disposable income.
8. Invest for Your Future
Investing can feel overwhelming and complicated. Thankfully, there are people who can help make it less confusing. Employing the help of a CFP® is one way to get more information about investing. They can help you understand:
- how much risk you can handle (i.e. high to low);
- how you can connect your personal goals to investment vehicles like stocks, bonds and money market funds; and
- various ways to invest on your own (e.g. through apps, brokerages, etc.).
It is critical to know that any investment comes with risk, and there are no guarantees. However, a CFP® can also help you gain greater understanding as to why the markets rise and fall, and when it might be advisable to invest or divest.
9. Protect Yourself with Insurance
Insurance can help you cover expected and unexpected expenses that arise. Some of the various types of insurance that may be necessary, depending on your situation are:
- health insurance,
- car insurance,
- renters and home, and
- pet insurance.
Knowing that you have insurance to help cover a variety of expenses that arise can help you worry less about financial surprises.
10. Get Ready For Retirement
Retirement: that time of life where you while away your latter years sitting on the front porch, sipping a cool beverage…? Not necessarily. There are many new trends in retirement that may not have been options in the past. Some of those are:
- traditional retirement, where you quit working;
- semi-retirement, where you still work a part-time job; and
- temporary retirement, where you quit one career, take some time off, and head back to work in the same, or different career.
Along with deciding what kind of retirement you would like, it can be important to set aside money to enable you to live comfortably during your retirement. At Iron Point Financial many of our advisors are also trained as Retirement Income Certified Professionals (RICP®). With their training, they can help you understand your options for retirement saving and investing. Iron Point Financial works individually with each person to tailor a strategy that works best for you, your goals, and your values.
How to Improve Financial Wellness: Set Yourself Up For Success
While there is a lot to consider in this article on how to improve your financial wellness, we would suggest that you start by choosing one topic and then set a small, achievable goal based on that topic.
Take That First Step to Financial Wellness With Us
The road to your dreams starts with the first step. If you’re not sure where to start, and would like some professional advice from people who care about your goals and want you to succeed, why not reach out and schedule an appointment?
We would love the opportunity to sit down with you to see if we would be a good fit, and to find out where we might be able to help you with your goals.
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Iron Point Financial is here to empower you to secure a brighter tomorrow. We operate physical offices in Grove City, PA and Greenville, PA.
We primarily serve residents of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Florida but we also have security registrations for 22 other states across the continental USA.