Introducing Wellness for Financial Grownups

 

Episode Description: Financial Grownup is taking the podcast up a notch with a new focus on Financial Wellness. Bobbi shares the behind the scenes evolution of the podcast and why we need to be talking more about the ties between mental and emotional health and our money.

 
 

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Full Transcript:

Financial Grownup friends.. we are mixing things up here at the podcast and if you read the title hopefully that piqued your curiosity. I am your host, Bobbi Rebell. I am a Certified Financial Planner and the author of a couple of books about financial grownups the most recent one being Launching Financial Grownups: Live Your Richest Life by Helping Your Almost Adult Kids Become Everyday Money Smart. I also run an education and consulting company called Financial Wellness Strategies and spent my earlier career days as a Business news anchor and personal finance columnist.

We have been doing this podcast in a couple of iterations for a few years now- and as we grow as a community it makes sense for the podcast to evolve as well. 

I come from a TV background so I've always tried to make the podcast short, simple, quick and easy- simple money tips to be exact.

But the truth is that if we really want to have healthy money habits, sometimes we need more than just money tips. We need to have thoughtful discussions about the nuances of how we integrate money into our entire lives and into our relationships. It is not isolated. It has to be integrated.

In other words, financial literacy- knowing simply how money works on paper or academically- is not enough. It is table stakes- don't get me wrong. You need to know the basics and more of personal finance. Education matters.

But we also need to know how your emotions and your relationships are impacted by your money decisions and goals. Consider who and what influences these. It can be friends and family that have our best interest at heart, but don't have all the facts. It can be a salesperson in a store- or an influencer online- who knows exactly what to say to get us to buy something we otherwise would not. 

We are humans and we need to recognize that even if we know the math, that doesn't mean the numbers always point to the best solution for us to get to our goals. In fact half the battle is figuring out what those goals really are and to figure out the strategy to get there.

By focusing on wellness for financial grownups our goal will be to cut through the noise and find out what we actually value. We won't find quick fixes but we will find ways to stay the course on our journey and manage the anxiety and stress that will naturally join us even as we make progress.

I have a confession. I have been one of those people who always feels that if I just made x dollars more, I would no longer be stressed about money. But somehow there is always something. About a year ago my family reached a big milestone that relieved a huge financial strain. I thought wow, now that we are there- it's smooth sailing ahead. No. More Money. Stress.

 But you know what? There are plenty of new things stressing me out- some of which are universal. I've seen my investments take a hit. I am keenly aware of inflation every time we shop for groceries. Let's just say my family consumes a lot of eggs. And of course, even though I understand on paper our retirement savings are just fine- I worry a lot. It's not logical. It is emotional. And it is real.

So I hope you join me on this leg of our financial grownup journey together. If you are not already please follow this podcast. And if you have anyone in your life that you also want to feel better about their finances wherever they are- please encourage them to join us. And if you have friends and family that you think are all set and don't have a care in the world- get them on board too. We need them to be part of the discussion.

The format is going to evolve as well. I plan to share a quote at the top of each episode to get us thinking a bit. Then we'll usually have an interview with someone that I have selected because I really believe they will bring meaningful insights into our lives. And to wrap things up I'm going to give everyone an extra credit assignment- which by the way was inspired by recent guest Eric Brotman - which will be a recommendation of something to further elevate the conversation we just had.

This episode we're a little off format so we'll do them both at the end.

So for this very first quote I decided to try Chat GPT and I asked for quotes on financial wellness by Bobbi Rebell. Here is one of them:

"The first step to financial wellness is understanding your own money story and your relationship with money."

I chose it because it really speaks to the fact that financial wellness is not one size fits all and we can all be together but on our own journeys.

Now to the extra credit assignment. I want everyone to watch a movie called "The Joneses"  It is about influencers BEFORE social media and how they get their friends to buy stuff they didn't know they needed- and there is a very big twist that will really make you think twice about why we make the financial choices we make and then how that impacts out mental health. And by the way I do want to warn the plot twist is very upsetting but I do feel that the statement it makes is worth it or I would not recommend it. 

You can see it on Amazon Prime, Hulu and Peacock. And don't forget that a lot of streaming content is available free from your public library. It is one hour and 36 minutes, so not too long.

My plan is to do some kind of discussion about these extra credit assignments via my newsletter. Maybe I'll send out a video something like that talking about it - not sure just yet and open to your suggestions but definitely sign up for the newsletter. 

The link will be in the show notes or you can sign up on my website at bobbirebell.com and also the website for my company financialwellnessstrategies.com

Big thanks to all of you for being part of our journey as financial grownups.

 
Bobbi Rebell KaufmanTemplate