Brescia University

Financial

Financial wellness is the healthy relationship between your aspirations and financial obligations. This wellness comes from a goal-oriented approach to meet present and future financial responsibilities. When someone is struggling financially, it can affect all of the areas of wellness. A clear and ongoing understanding of the resources and opportunities available to you is vital to helping your relationship to your finances remain healthy.

Signs of Healthy Financial Wellness

  • Understanding your financial obligations and resources
  • The ability to create short and long term financial goals
  • Creating and using a personal monthly budget
  • Awareness of your credit score and minimizing personal consumer debt

Signs you May Want to enhance your Financial Wellness

  • Poor budgeting habits
  • Vague understanding of financial obligations and resources
  • Limited understanding of monetary transactions (i.e. taxes, purchasing, credit, investing)
  • Large amount of consumer debt

Strategies to Enhance your Financial Wellness

  • Document financial obligations and resources for one month and then use that data to create a personal budget
  • Use your debit card or cash when paying for items to avoid credit card debt
  • Borrow only what you need; it is easy to get into debt
  • Use online tools or a financial advisor to create short and long term financial goals
  • Be aware of overdraft fees, late fees and/or when automatic transactions come our your bank account so you have enough money in your bank account
  • Visit your institution’s Financial Aid Officer to learn more about additional funding opportunities on campus
  • Visit your bank and/or financial institution to ask about money saving tips and help with financial planning

Benefits of Financial Wellness

  • Positive financial wellness creates a comforting sense of security when you are living within your means. It allows you to prioritize financial choices and achieve long-term goals, as well as reduce stress
  • Giving to charity if you have the financial means, promotes care for others and in turn we feel fulfilled be doing good for others

Money Saving Tips

  • Go to free on-campus or local events
  • Use the Flip App to price match and find the best deal for groceries and other household items
  • Borrow books and/or DVD’s from the Brescia or local library
  • Need clothes? Shop the sale rack, thrift stores or organize your own clothing swap on campus
  • Use your student discount anywhere you can (on Tuesday’s most groceries stores will give a student discount)
  • Save money by cooking your own meals and not eating out
  • Use online discount websites like Groupon
  • Buy used textbooks or borrow from the library/friend
  • Living with roommates can help cut costs for housing, utilities and sometimes groceries
  • Engage in low cost activities like hiking, potlucks, movie or games night, etc.
  • Track your spending to bring awareness to where you could start saving money
  • Use your free bus pass for transportation

Resources

Off-Campus
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On-Campus
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Online
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Apps
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  • Flipp
  • Spending Tracker

Recommend a resource, tool, tip or app that has helped you with the seven dimensions of wellness by emailing the Student Life Centre.

References
http://iwellness.uwo.ca/financial/index.html
http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/Eng/resources/toolsCalculators/Pages/FingoCa-Calculat.aspx