What does wellbeing mean?
Wellbeing is about more than just health. To have good wellbeing is to:
If you’re interested in evaluating your own wellbeing, you can take quizzes like this one.
The 2019 New Zealand government’s “Wellbeing Budget” demonstrates a societal shift, where wellbeing is regarded as a key indicator of success alongside traditional data-driven measurements.
With this powerful political statement, it seems that wellbeing is more than just a default state, or an empty conversation about emotions. Wellbeing is a skillful practice, a set of positive and productive behaviours we need to do in order to feel happy and satisfied.
This could involve:
Wellbeing practices provide structure, and this is key to ensuring our positive state of mind is consistent – not up-and-down.
Turns out, just as the happiest people engage in positive behaviours to support their mental wellbeing, having good financial wellbeing also depends more on your skills and behaviour than the figures in your bank account.
Two people with the same income could have very different financial health experiences, and even those in the highest income bracket could require more guidance with the behaviours that improve their financial wellbeing.
With this in mind, we’re taking a look at how a behaviour-driven approach can boost our financial wellbeing.
Financial wellbeing is about behaviour.
Wellbeing isn’t just about where you’re at today, it’s about the behaviours you use to interact with the world and prepare for the future. Put simply, people who are unclear about their finances can’t adequately determine the lifestyle they want to sustain in the future – and they lack clarity around the actions necessary to achieve it.
In an ANZ survey of New Zealanders’ financial wellbeing, they discovered that the contributors to financial wellness were far more nuanced than just one’s income and attitude to money.
The results showed that the biggest indicator of financial wellbeing was a person’s financial behaviour, where being able to actively save for the future – as well as not borrowing for everyday expenses – accounted for 43% of overall financial wellbeing.
This illustrates that, just like how we need to invest time in learning and enacting practices that promote our wellbeing, the same behaviour-focused approach is fundamental to achieve good financial wellbeing.
Financial planners can guide you on the path to financial wellbeing. As you engage in practices and behaviours in your daily routine to improve your state of mind, NZFP guides clients toward the financial decisions and saving behaviours that will improve their financial wellbeing.
In ANZ’s Financial Wellbeing survey, only 30% of respondents claimed to have good knowledge about investments and retirement. The rest are unsure of what to do
When people are unclear about their finances, or lack direction with positive financial wellbeing behaviours such as saving or investing, they tend to build an exaggerated perception of the challenges they’re facing.
This is a behaviour we can probably all relate to – with our finances and with our general sense of wellbeing – where we tend to put off the task of tackling important tasks and allow them to balloon out of proportion.
This is something Jordi Garcia sees all the time. Having worked as a financial advisor for NZFP for nearly 30 years, Jordi sees how often people ignore or dismiss the important financial decisions they need to make for the future.
“Without a clear picture in our minds of what is important in our lives and what sort of lifestyle we want, it is easy to let our finances become the ‘boogie man’, especially when heading to retirement. I help people identify what they actually want with their lives and how to get there , reducing the ‘boogie man’ into a tangible and achievable picture. Rather than a depressing indefinable fear, their finances and direction are now tangible and clear.”
Jordi Garcia
Financial Advisor
Clarity and structure are as important to our financial wellness as they are to our overall wellbeing. Jordi explains that he provides clarity and structure to his clients, which is invaluable to those who for so long have only had a vague idea of what their financial goals were. Empowering his clients with a financial plan, and the behaviours that will get them there, has dramatically improved their financial wellbeing.
NZFP’s life-first approach to finances.
At NZFP, a holistic view of a client’s lifestyle goals are at the centre of all financial advice. This wellbeing-centric method combines trusted discussions around financial and life goals, with the informed saving and investment decisions that get clients to where they want to be. A big part of this is also empowering clients in retirement with a sense of confidence and security to enjoy life without financial worry by showing just how their financial resources can support them for the remainder of their lives.
It’s a philosophy that has enabled NZFP to tailor their services to each client, using their expertise to create financial plans that advocate for their client’s long-term goals.
With a financial plan as a clear roadmap, clients are supported to learn and enact the financial behaviours that will get them to where they want to be.
Take a sensible approach to your financial affairs
If you have a KiwiSaver portfolio, it will have also been impacted by recent market moves. But don't rush out to see if you can shift it to a low risk or cash strategy right now. The time to do that was before it all started, but no-one knows in advance when things turn or how quickly.
If you can resist the temptation, avoid looking at your KiwiSaver values every day completely. They’ll be volatile and seeing that won’t help you sleep any better at night.
Rather than making a rash decision, speak to your advisor and make sure you aren't in a fund that is too risky for your profile. Ideally, your fund is suitable for your longer term KiwiSaver needs and is properly diversified so that you’re not putting all the investment eggs into one basket.
Your financial advisor will help you take care of your insurance needs and make sure that your life, health, income and assets are appropriately covered.
If you haven't reviewed your insurance in a while, now is the perfect time to review this with your advisor so that you can minimise the stresses that events such as this may bring. The same goes for having your wills, enduring powers of attorney, and trusts all up to date and properly documented. It’s about focussing on the things that you can take control of and removing stresses where you can.
