The importan e of Financial Wellness and Why It Applies To You.

This is a very short article. because I mostly wanted to show everyone the video content that I occasionally create for The Wise Council House. Click the link below to watch.

There are only a million reasons why financial wellness is important. Financial wellness refers to how effectively an individual manages their financial life. It encompasses adopting better money habits, setting goals, and taking steps to achieve them.

• Drew Pratt, a chartered financial analyst (CFA), describes it as the ability to lead a successful financial life1.
• Just as psychologists recognize a hierarchy of needs, there’s also a hierarchy of financial needs. From budgeting to retirement planning, financial wellness involves understanding your requirements and making informed decisions1

There are 4 pillars of Financial Wellness, and these are presented in many formats, however, here are some general ideas…

The Four Elements of Financial Wellness:

Managing Short-Term Finances:

• Create a budget and stick to it. Understand your household income and live within your means.
• Seeking guidance from a financial professional can help you get your short-term finances on track.

Managing Long-Term Finances:

• Ensure you save and invest for long-term goals. This includes buying a home and building a retirement nest egg.
• Improving your financial wellness today sets you on the path toward achieving these significant milestones.

Present Financial Freedom:

• Attaining financial wellness provides a sense of security. It means you’re less likely to worry about sudden emergencies, job loss, or career changes impacting your finances.
• It translates to reduced stress, more time with loved ones, and greater purpose in your career2.

Future Financial Freedom:

• Planning for the long term ensures you’re prepared for retirement and other life stages.
• Financial wellness contributes to overall life satisfaction and security, allowing you to focus on what truly matters3

A video that I created recently on this topic.

I created a short video pod, and it’s posted on my Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, so far it has roughly 250 views, not too bad for a slapped together Canva video, and yes, that is me speaking in the video. My video creating skills need work, I quite aware of that, there might come a day when you see my lovely visage on video, but until I get over the heebies about my face being visible for the world to see, it’s going to be voice casting for the moment. There are advertisement descriptions of my business offerings in the video, just to make readers aware of that. I hope everyone enjoys it, if anything for the informational content presented…

The Wise Council House Financial Wellness Pod Ep 2 (youtube.com)

The Importance of Having Goals.

 

Good evening, everyone, what you're looking at is a book cover image for the first book that I published as a Certified Life Coach. It’s available on Amazon for anyone that perchance wants to take a peek. Currently, I have 6 eBooks published under the Wise Council House series, with more being worked on at the moment. 

I don't think a lot of people anymore really take the time or make the effort into creating and implementing, or finishing an actual, planned out and executed by the steps goal, they seem to be just floating along in life with no aim or solid direction.

I make goals for my writing; I plan out what I’m going to write about, do some research where warranted, and give myself a estimate how long it will take to get it finished. On average, it takes me more than two hours to write an article, because I don't use ChatGPT or any other AI to write with, I sit here and bang it out on my Asus Vivo Book, one paragraph at a time. Every word you read of my articles, books, etc., is my original work, and is not generated or produced by any form of AI.

I was slack jawed at how fast ChatGPT can spit out an entire article in 20 seconds or less, using only a single word prompt, and I’ll give it kudos for being accurate, and how well it gives me prompts and ideas, and is definitely time saving. However, I still take a bit of snobbish pride in writing and producing my own content the old-fashioned way. I feel more accomplished having written an article in 2 hours, vs. letting a machine generate 20 seconds of something I could copy and paste. Now back onto our story….

Why do you need a goal?

Most people understand the importance of planning and implementing strategic goals, however what about Jill, who is just starting in her career or just finished grad school, and has yet to decide what direction her life is really going to go? How is she going to plan her life direction out, implement steps towards achieving her dreams, and sticking with it until the end if she doesn't have a solid, well-constructed goal in place? This was how The Short Guide to Goal Crushing came to be, because I felt the need to create a guide specifically for how to set a goal and complete it from start to finish. Why do you need a goal? Because you won’t succeed at anything until you create one, and actually follow it to the letter.

What is the purpose of a goal?

The purpose of a goal is to keep you on track on a path towards achievement of a defined and set intent. Say, you want to sell 60 copies of a book in two weeks' time. Where are you going to market these books, to make those 60 sales in 14 days? How many copies a day do you need to sell to meet your quota? What form of advertising would be best to help achieve the sales quota? Can you realistically sell 60 books in 14 days? This is where setting up a goal comes in, so you can monitor and track progress, implement strategies to achieve the sales by the given time period, and ensure that your objective is met.

A goal set in place, creates a vision and provides tangible results, of where you are going and what destination you will arrive at when you're finished with the journey. Like reading a road map, you plan stops along the way to your destination, what’s going to happen at these stops, why are you going there, and what will you be doing? Which route is the best to save time and gas? Do you need to rent a car to get there, and how much will that cost? Etc. and so forth. If you don't plan your destination, you will be wandering lost and taking 10 wrong turns until you set a goal that goes straight to your destination.

Why do you need a copy of these books?

The short answer is that you don't actually have to purchase a copy of any of my books, but what I’d very much like to ask, is that you consider purchasing them, each being the price of a McD’s dollar menu item, or a Starbucks, and giving a small business some fervently needed support. USD $38.00 for 6 books isn't a bad price at all really.

Or alternately, consider forwarding this article on your social media or other media outlets, to others that might be interested. There see? No gimmicky sales pitch, no desperate sounding, canned drivel about how much we need you to make a purchase to support women-owned, small business owners, none of that tosh. I’m simply asking for a request and that is all. The links to each book are below, listed in order of publication. No one is under any requirement or obligation to do anything, except give my work a good once over and a fair consideration, and with that, I bid everyone to have a great week.

“The Wise Council House; Short Guide to Goal Crushing” by S. Wise Suggs

“The Wise Council House; Short Guide to Financial Wellness” by S. Wise Suggs

“From Stuck to Unstoppable; Strategies for Personal Growth and Success” by S. Wise Suggs

“The Wise Council House: Short Guide to Successful Life Coaching” by S. Wise Suggs

“The Wise Council House: Establishing Financial Wellness in a Dystopian Economy” by S. Wise Suggs

“The Wise Council House; From Anxiety to Zen, Strategies for Personal Mastery” by S. Wise Suggs

Introducing “The Wise Council House; Life & Financial Coaching”

I want to take a minute or two of your time to introduce my most recent business venture, The Wise Council House, Life & Financial Coaching

While I’m also the lead consultant and owner at Wise-Suggs Financial, that is another venture entirely. I had a moment of truth come to me one day, it's been a year ago now, 2023 was quite the year for me, a lot of ups and downs, and I’m still picking up the pieces and doing damage control. One day while taking a break, I was reading this article that I found on Facebook from a life coaching group, which discussed the pros, cons, and information about what being a Life Coach is and what it can do for you and others. While I did not get on board with their group or be involved in their somewhat pricey “high ticket” life coaching programs, the page and its offerings came across as too salesy and hinted at being a scam, what it did was inspire me to research further into what it took to be a Life Coach and where that path might take me if I pursued it.

Something about the whole idea spoke to me in a way that felt rather divinely guided in a sense, as if I was absolutely meant to go down this path, and I am not one to ignore that little voice that says, “Go here and do this!” If there is one thing I trust, it's my own intuition. The more I researched, the more interested and fired up I became, it filled me with a strong sense of purpose, as if I suddenly found another calling that made me feel more whole inside. Another puzzle piece of my life connected together just right. This life coaching thing was something that I was truly meant to be and do. I took a course on Alison for a Diploma in Professional Life Coaching, and it was almost too easy to make that 100% score on the exam. When something just comes to me like that, and it’s literally effortless for me, I know it's something I was meant for.

What other reasons did I have? Well, many things, one of those reasons being, is that becoming legally certified to practice financial anything takes a minute, and it costs a good chunk of change for those grueling exams. I’m not going to cram my brain and then waste money by failing an exam, when I can take the time to truly learn it correctly and be legitimately able to practice what I preach so to speak.

Life Coaching on the other hand, requires no formal study or state board certifications in order to set up shop, and I needed a pathway to offer my knowledge and skills in such a way that I’m using the skills I already have, while earning myself that chunk of change to afford to take those exams. In this article, Life coaching is #2 on the list of great SAHM jobs. While I’m not a SAHM anymore, there are plenty of us who are still, and we need all the help we can get!

I have a strong and impassioned desire to help others that are in my exact situation, if you read the previous article, you already know why I’m living in a hotel right now, and I’m still working to fix that, creating pathways forward, and making a point to be offering what I can to help others. All it takes is one bill not paid, or an eviction, or your car breaking down, or some other financial catastrophe, and you can go from being in the green to the deep end of the red in a matter of hours. I have a strong compassion and empathy for the financially disadvantaged, especially the people that have low incomes, people who are stuck in dire poverty, or are somehow struggling with wealth and personal wellness. No one ever helps the people that are in a hole, there are no life jackets being given to those that are drowning in their seemingly endless cycles of debt, poverty, and financial destitution.

The demand for resources and the ability to get help for the people that are not in the middle class or above, is staggeringly insufficient. We live in a world driven by the haves and the have nots. I have literally been in a homeless shelter before, I have seen days where I had literally no money in the bank, I’ve been hungry and gone without before, and I know what it takes to claw yourself out of that hole, and just how hard that is. Who better to be the coach, than someone who truly knows what it's like and how it really feels?

I also know the inner struggle, and how hard it is, to not have positive and genuine support from family, peers, and associates. I’ve been told countless times in my life why I can't, or I shouldn't try to do something, or what won't become of it if I attempt it. Many of the things I have thus far achieved or accomplished, I done them on my own without a lot of help or support. I want to be the person to others that I myself have not had.

Out of these things and other reasonings, is where “The Wise Council House; Life & Financial Coaching”, came to be. In this coming year, I plan to grow this venture into a lifelong career. We are listed as a business, and post content, on Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn. I’ve written short eBooks and published them to Amazon KDP, (more on that later) and I also have a Square site that showcases what services and products we currently offer.

Another plan I have in the works, is hosting classes on Udemy. I’m looking forward to Udemy, because I also like to create videos and media on Canva, and while I have some reservations about putting myself on a video, the desire to teach and share The Wise Council House mission with the entire world, overrides my social anxiety about how well I present myself on a video. Thankfully I don't have to be visible full face and all that. I’m not a camera person, I can speak on a video and write information just fine, but the idea that millions of people might see my actual visage on camera is something I'm not ready for yet.

Our fast-evolving society, tech and finance are going to be booming soon. The more money, wealth and possessions that society has, the more stressed and burnt-out people will become in trying to manage, and keep it going, thus the greater the need for someone to step up and help them accomplish those goals. The Wise Council House: Life and Financial Coaching, will be one of those resources and persons that will step up and be there when the people truly need it most. So without further ado…I’m cordially inviting everyone that is reading this post to be welcomed and to become part of The wise Council House Life & Financial Coaching!