Heather Diamond, Vice President, Business Development and Community Relations, San Diego County Credit Union

Research shows that poor financial health can often lead to diminished physical health. Stress, including financial stress, can often manifest into physical symptoms such as sleep loss, anxiety, high blood pressure, depression and more. Exercising your mind and improving your overall financial health through financial education and planning will help improve your overall well-being, and SDCCU is here to help. 

As with any physical health improvement, enhancing your financial health happens with time and knowledge of how to make changes for an enriched lifestyle. Boosting your financial health starts with a course of action. Some ideas to focus on include proper budgeting, building a savings plan, paying off debt, and making wise investments. While transformation takes time, it is never too late to begin a better financial health journey, but the key is to get started now with one area of focus and build from there. As the old adage goes, baby steps count as long as you are going forward! 

Each month, track your journey and see the difference a year can make. Financial growth will come from reflecting on your spending habits, focusing on the bigger financial burdens, and sticking to a plan to remedy them. Set a goal each month to tackle a new area so that you are not overwhelmed with improving everything at once. Instead, recognize individual triumphs such as paying off a card balance, paying off a loan, or improving your general credit.  

Educating yourself through available resources can help guide you on the path to a brighter financial future. Our Financial Knowledge Blog and Financial Wellness Wednesdays presentations offer tips and ideas to improve your financial health at any stage of life. Financial education helps provide insight to the common struggles individuals are facing on a daily basis and provides a foundation for improving decision making. These programs also provide insight on how to prepare for major life events such as buying a car, buying a home, or saving for retirement, which will help to incorporate these events in your financial journey. No matter where you start, make the commitment to move your mind to start improving your financial health today.