by Guest | Apr 26, 2023 | Featured, Work Well
Being intentional around how we think about and spend money is connected to living a longer, healthier and happier life. This last fall, Liz Carroll from Mindful Money Coaches LLC, partnered with Tillamook County Wellness to offer a free virtual webinar series on financial wellness – covering everything from what it means to cultivate a “money mindset” to how to budget and plan for the future. If you missed the initial series, no worries! Liz Carroll will be hosting the series again this May, each Monday from 12-1 pm through Zoom (click here for registration link). In honor of this second series, Angelica Ortiz, a previous participant and Career Education Advisor at the Tillamook Bay Community College took some time to reflect on the key takeaways of the Mindful Money series:
What I would have liked to know before, about financial wellness is that we must know our values in order to start creating financial wellness based on those values.
Some of the key takeaways were that in order to create financial wellness, we must first understand that thoughts lead to actions, but actions lead to results. Therefore, if we want to create financial wellness, we must have clear goals, create a budget and follow it, since having a budget allows us to see where the money goes. We must also have a financial well-being coach since it is easier to achieve financial well-being if you have someone to guide you.
The strategies I have found most helpful are following the principles that Coach Liz Carrol shared in the financial wellness series. For example, living without debt brings me peace, it’s okay not to have the newest car, and internal dialogue is very important. Following these strategies creates financial well-being, since having no debts allows you to have peace of mind to set new goals and give you more options, for me this is financial wellness. Do not get me wrong, having a debt is not completely bad but it is better to live debt free.
I would recommend the financial wellness series to anyone seeking financial freedom, getting out of debt or improving their lives. The financial wellness Coach Liz Carrol not only teaches strategies about finances, but she teaches principles that apply to daily life.
AUTHOR: Angelica Ortiz, Career Education Advisor at Tillamook Bay Community College
Other wellness questions? Email us at info@tillamookcountywellness.org. For more local health and wellness information, visit www.tillamookcountywellness.org or follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook and Instagram.
by Guest | Apr 11, 2023 | Work Well
You may be familiar with physical wellbeing or mental wellbeing, but what about financial wellbeing? Financial wellness focuses on our relationship with money and how we feel about the control we have over our financial future. If you’ve felt stressed about money, you’re not alone! Most of us experience a range of emotions when it comes to finances, and finding a starting point can feel overwhelming.
The connection between financial stress and mental and physical health led us at Tillamook County Wellness to focus the last few months on financial wellbeing. Thanks to a donation of time, Liz Carroll, Financial Life Coach at Mindful Money Coaches LLC, has provided insight and guidance for us to share on how to develop a healthier relationship with finances.
You may have seen some of the videos that Liz has created as part of a financial wellness mini-series that we have been sharing on the Tillamook County Wellness Facebook page. Each of the 15 videos are just a couple minutes long and cover a range of topics such as how to create goals & set guidelines, use different approaches for eliminating debt, set up “budget billing” where utility companies distribute your costs evenly over the year, and shift out of a negative mindset when it comes to organizing finances. If you missed some of these videos, don’t worry – we have all of them linked on our new Financial Wellness page at https://tillamookcountywellness.org/work-well/financial-wellness/
We are also excited to announce that we will be hosting three (free!) virtual webinars in collaboration with Liz Carroll for community members who are interested in diving deeper into their financial wellness journey. These webinars will be held on Mondays from 12 pm to 1 pm during the month of May:
- May 1st – Money Mindset: How we think about money matters
- May 8th – Building a Budget: Managing spending habits
- May 15th – Financial Planning Fundamentals: Planning for the future and staying on course
These webinars are open to all community members – join for one or join for all! You can find the registration link here or on the Tillamook County Wellness Facebook page.
If you have any questions about the upcoming webinars, please reach out to Michelle at jenckmd@ah.org. We hope to see you all there!
Other wellness questions? Email us at info@tillamookcountywellness.org. For more local health and wellness information, visit www.tillamookcountywellness.org or follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook and Instagram.
by Guest | Jun 1, 2022 | Work Well
Don’t know where or how to start with planning your financial future? You are not alone. This is the most common email request I receive so I thought it warranted a blog post. To create a Financial Dream Plan, you need to know what you want. This can be a difficult exercise. We are often challenged with verbalizing our desires or imagining our future self. We have a notion of what we want but when asked we can’t provide specific details. And for dreams to come true, they need to be specific.
Here are two fun ways to start dreaming about your future:
1.Plan a Dream Vacation completely budgeted on paper.
Go all out. Where do you want to go? How long will you be gone? Alone or does someone go with you? Pick a time of year, research flight routes and costs. Plan the itinerary. Where will you stay? Accommodations vary based on your dream (i.e. Backpacking, Airbnb or Luxury Resort). What kind of activities will you do? Are you going for adventure or relaxation? What kind of food will you eat? Who will you meet? What kind of memories will you make?
2. Plan your Perfect Day by the hour starting when you wake to when you fall asleep.
Would you wake automatically or to an alarm? Would you have a morning routine?
How about exercise, meditation or gratitude? What about journaling? Would you eat breakfast? If yes to breakfast, what would you eat? Be specific!
What time would you arrive to work? Do you have a commute or work from home? What kind of meetings do you attend? Or do you volunteer? Plan it all out…snacks, meals, cocktails or not. Do you meet up with friends? Play sports? Watch TV? Take a walk or have sex with your partner? You decide. It’s totally your Perfect Day.
This exercise works best the more specific you can be. You may want to create a Pinterest Board for visual representation of your Dream Vacation or write out your entire Perfect Day in your journal. I encourage doodling in the margins of your journal since doodling activates big picture thinking.
Your Dream Vacation and Perfect Day will be as unique as you are. When you start this process, it engages your planning brain (and you’ll need it firing on all cylinders to create your Financial Dream Plan). Most days we live our day the same way we did the day before, almost in default. This is common as our primitive brain likes consistency.
That consistency can make us feel stuck though, especially around our finances. How are we growing in knowledge and wealth if we are following the same process as the prior day, week after week?
This is where activating your planning brain with a fun exercise like a Dream Vacation or Perfect Day starts to get you to think about the future and what do you really want. Your brain can then move onto your finances.
After the Dream Vacation or Dream Day exercise, now write out three financial goals:
- this month, I will:
- this year, I will:
- within the next five years, I will:
How much money do you want to earn? How are you going to provide value to earn that amount? How will you mindfully spend your money? How much will you intentionally save and invest? What kind of financial life do you want to live? Do you want to leave a legacy or are you all about YOLO (you only live once)?
There is no right answer. There is YOUR answer. Write it out. I read that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. Just think, you may get that Dream Vacation and Perfect Day after all.
If you need assistance with your Financial Dream Plan, keep an eye out for the Financial Wellness Workshops provided by Tillamook County Wellness coming this fall 2022. A written plan will save you hours of worry and thousands of dollars over your lifetime. Plus, you’ll be 42 percent more likely to achieve it and that is good for your health!
AUTHOR: Liz Carroll, Financial Life Coach
Other wellness questions? Email us at info@tillamookcountywellness.org. For more local health and wellness information, visit www.tillamookcountywellness.org or follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook and Instagram.
by Guest | Apr 27, 2022 | Work Well
Where we live, work, play, learn, and age has a significant impact on our health. Most Americans spend more than one third of their day, five days per week at their workplace, making this environment inherently tied to our daily routines and overall health. Our workplace can influence our physical well-being, social relationships, and mental health, either positively or negatively depending on the environment. Although employers have the responsibility of providing a safe and hazard-free workplace, they also have the opportunity to promote and prioritize individual employee health. As pointed out by Justin Aufdemauer, the Tillamook Chamber of Commerce President, “Creating a culture of health in our workplaces is important. When the work environment is motivating and fun, there is a greater sense of community. Employees who feel supported are more productive, happier, and healthier.”
Often when we think of “health and wellness,” we think of the goals and intentions we set for ourselves, such as physical exercise after work or packing healthy lunches. Yet, because our workplaces have such a strong impact on our overall well-being, we also included workplace-related activities within our “This Way to Well-Being” map. This activity provides a range of fun, local activities that you can try here in Tillamook County. To learn more about the map and how you can win a prize, visit our website here.
There are several “stops” along the map that serve as starting points for prioritizing workplace wellness:
Take a Stretch or Walk Break:
Sitting or standing for long periods of time can lead to physical imbalances, chronic pain, and illness, but short movement breaks throughout the day can help. To incorporate more movement into your day, try parking a bit farther away from the office, taking the stairs, or scheduling “walking meetings” with your coworkers. You might also find it helpful to set a reminder to stand, stretch and move at your workstation throughout the day. For guidance on a stretching routine you can use at work, visit the Tillamook County Wellness YouTube page for short videos from local YMCA fitness instructors.
Practice Financial Wellness:
Our work and our finances are directly intertwined, and most people report feeling stressed about money at some point in their lives. Thinking about where to start can feel overwhelming, especially when there may be aspects of our finances that we have more or less control over. The first step towards “financial wellness” is taking the time to track monthly spending habits and using that to consciously plan for how much you would like to realistically spend each month. There are many free resources available for creating a budget, including free apps for your phone like Mint (which can also be used in a web browser), or you can find pre-made budgeting templates in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Check out this recent TCW blog about financial wellness and keep an eye out for more resources coming this summer.
Start a Workplace Wellness Group:
As defined by the World Health Organization, “A healthy workplace is one in which workers and managers collaborate to use a continual improvement process to protect and promote the health, safety, and well-being of all workers.”
Whether you are an employee or an employer, it is worthwhile to take a moment to consider how your work environment can support the wellbeing of you and your coworkers. Are there workplace policies or programs that could support employee physical, mental, social, and emotional wellbeing? Who in your organization would be interested in working towards creating a healthier environment? As a starting point in developing a workplace wellness group, visit the workplace wellness tab on our website.
For more information and resources about the above activities, visit our This Way to Well-Being page and explore our website. By participating in our well-being campaign, you may be eligible to win a prize! See our website or Facebook page for details.
Other wellness questions? Email us at info@tillamookcountywellness.org. For more local health and wellness information, visit www.tillamookcountywellness.org or follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook and Instagram.
by Guest | Feb 16, 2022 | Work Well
When we think about our wellness, diet, exercise, and mental health come to mind. In today’s post, we share why your finances should be added to that list – a concept known as “financial wellness.” There is more to cover on this topic than what can fit in a single blog post, so keep an eye out for more information on financial wellness in the future!
A plan for physical wellness might include signing up for a yoga class or doing meal prep on Sundays to make eating healthy easier during the week. A plan for financial wellness includes utilizing tools, as well as developing an understanding of how stress and emotions can play a role in sticking to the plan. Let’s start with one of the most important tools: budgeting. Budgeting keeps track of your income and expenses over a period of time and provides you with information to build long term financial goals, like retirement savings. The elements of a monthly budget include:
- Income (any money coming in, like a paycheck),
- Fixed expenses (things that you need to pay for each month like rent, a mortgage, groceries, credit card bill and the power bill)
- Flexible expenses (things that you don’t have to pay for, but may occur, such as eating out, a Netflix account or buying a ticket to the movies)
- Unplanned expenses (fixing a vehicle or medical bills are examples. You can use past receipts and records to make an estimate of what these expenses might work out to on a monthly timeframe)
- Savings (this includes short term savings that can be used in an emergency, as well as long term savings that might be used to purchase a car, or go towards retirement).
While this can be done easily with pen and paper, using a spreadsheet on a computer makes keeping track and updating your budget much easier. On paper (or the computer), try creating a different column for each category and list all of the items that fall under them. It can be helpful to list items in descending order with the highest dollar items at the top to make it easier to see what is having the greatest impact. Once you have the figures or estimates for these buckets you can put them together to form your budget. First, add up all of your expenses (fixed, flexible, unplanned) with your savings, we will call this Total expenses. Subtract Total expenses from your Income and you are left with what is called Net Income. If you have more money coming in each month than going out, your Net Income will be a positive number. With that number you can estimate what your Net income will be in two months, two years or two decades! The accuracy of that estimate will be less over time, as your income and expenses change, so a monthly budget might be best for estimating up to a few years.
(Total Income) – (Total Expenses) = Net Income
With a positive Net income, you can imagine a future of taking family vacations, going to college, or getting a drift boat. This can make you feel more secure, optimistic, and motivated to reach those goals. Unfortunately, many Americans are finding that at the end of the month more money has gone out than has come in, leaving their budget with a negative Net income. This can happen for a number of reasons including paying a disproportionate amount of your monthly income for things like rent, unexpected expenses, loss of income, or more recently, increasing inflation can play a role. In our next post, we will explore how financial uncertainty can cause stress (impacting your overall health), and what you can do to manage it and take steps toward improving your financial wellness.
AUTHOR: Brett Buesnel, AmeriCorps VISTA at Tillamook County Community Health Center
Other wellness questions? Email us at info@tillamookcountywellness.org. For more local health and wellness information, visit www.tillamookcountywellness.org or follow Tillamook County Wellness on Facebook and Instagram
by Michelle | Dec 23, 2020 | Being Well, Move Well, Work Well
Much love has been poured out in recent months; people supporting local businesses, delivering food boxes and reaching out to others. As we step into a new year, we are reminded that we need to show love to ourselves as well. One way we can do that is by taking steps to care for our own mind, body and spirit at the most fundamental levels.
A friend recently shared a story about her visit with someone who had been struggling mentally, emotionally and physically. When asked to explore what he was really missing and needed more than anything else to get better, it came down to three things: Restoration, Hope and Progress. What this man discovered is truly at the core of what each one of us needs to be well.
Restoration – Our bodies have a built-in mechanism for that. It’s called sleep. If you’ve ever been to Disneyland, it’s amazing to see how clean the park is. Despite thousands of people, including children with ice cream cones, overtaking the park each day, it looks immaculate. For that to happen, a whole crew works all night long to make it look perfect for each new day. Believe it or not, you have a whole Disneyland crew working in your body while you sleep, making necessary repairs, sprucing things up and even helping you retain what you learned during the previous day. We need to give that crew eight hours of quality time each night to get that job done. Setting a regular bedtime, and sticking closely to it on weekends, is important for restoration.
Hope – Remember the TV show, Cheers? Or how about Friends or The Big Bang Theory? What each of these has in common is a sense of belonging among the show’s characters. It sounds cliché but it really is true that sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. That’s because having a sense of connection with others is vital to our well-being. Belonging to a faith community, support group or fitness class is a great way to build connection; as is joining a club with a shared interest, be it quilting, books, dungeons or dragons. Just getting together regularly with a friend for coffee can fill this need. Even in our current, virtual world, there are ways to gather and share a common experience.
Progress – To move forward. To have a sense of accomplishment is critical for our well-being. The two most important ingredients for making progress are what we eat and how we move. Wait, what? It’s true. Because food and activity are how we derive our energy, these are the two most fundamental things we need to progress toward any goal. Making small steps to our daily habits is progress in and of itself. When we eat healthier foods and exercise regularly, we have more energy, think more clearly, and are more productive.
As you ease into 2021, what small changes will you make to bring Restoration, Hope and Progress into your life?
