You're Worth It: Creating a Healthy Money Mindset w/ Anastasia on The Hive!

02.17.2021 - This article was featured as a guest post on Windsor’s popular ShopEco blog, The Hive. Read on to learn more about $HMONEY, creating a healthy money mindset, and some of Anastasia's favourite ShopEco picks.

My idea of creating an accessible space for women to talk openly about their finances felt important when I started piecing together $HMONEY, a media platform comprising a digital network, community, and podcast by the name of $HMONEY Radio, nearly two years ago. But when the pandemic hit, it felt urgent.

How could anyone have been prepared for the pandemic? Though school closures, travel bans, job losses, and government-ordered quarantines are temporary, they can feel neverending when there’s nowhere else to go but home (if we’re lucky enough to have a safe place to stay during this time).

Times are tough, and “what am I gonna do?” is a question that will remain top-of-mind for many. There’s no doubt that dealing with the effects of the pandemic has been scary and anxiety-inducing, and the mounting pressure of a worrying financial situation never helps.

Here’s the thing - nearly everyone is going through it, so you’re not alone. In fact, a new report from Borrowell declared that three in four Canadians are currently experiencing financial stress. Only six per cent of people feel financially secure, while 19 per cent are fearful of increasing personal debt during this period. I break all of this down and more on $HMONEY’s blog, The Ledger, which you can check out here.

...Going back to what I said about there being no better time to put $HMONEY out into the world: I hope that the conversations on $HMONEY Radio can be of assistance or comfort to you if you're feeling buried under the weight of financial responsibility, so you can turn your focus back to staying safe and healthy.

That’s the goal: to address the fact that if personal finance is something you’ve felt shame over, been stressed about or too afraid to discuss, you shouldn’t have to feel that way. The stigma surrounding money and personal finance needs to be talked about. Now more than ever before, especially because there’s no “one size fits all” approach to managing money.

This is something I learned from one of my first guests on $HMONEY Radio, Silvi Woods, a Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment and Retirement Specialist at one of the largest online investing platforms in Canada, Wealthsimple. We got to chat about some of the most common issues women currently have with money, feelings about their financial health, and sharing it with others. Plus, Silvi broke down actionable steps that can help you get your affairs in order during the pandemic, stress-free ways to prepare for the future that won’t affect you in the moment, and simple mantras for creating a healthy money mindset.

I think there are so many great takeaways from this episode (thanks to Silvi’s investing genius), but I think one of the most important points she made is that personal finance is just that - personal. Associating your feelings of self-worth and pride to such variable numbers can be so destructive, particularly with the pandemic at play.

Point is: you are so much more than a number, and as Silvi likes to say, time really is your friend when it comes to getting your finances in order. So this week, take ten minutes to contemplate Silvi’s three rules for creating a healthy money mindset:

#1: Don’t be hard on yourself. Like all good things, making progress with your saving and spending habits takes time.

#2: Talk about money with your friends and family - it can be freeing when you’re feeling stressed.

#3: **Think of personal finance as an empowering aspect of life, not something scary or something that you have to get perfect - because nobody does.**

There’s something to learn from these conversations. Their lessons give us the tools to move forward and recover our losses. Being confident in the language of financial literacy is empowering; it’s a way to arm yourself with knowledge that can guide you to a healthier, more independent existence, once you learn its vocabulary.

Plus, it’s a way to get through the period that we’re all facing, so to stress less, join the ShopEco team here on The Hive and chill out to an episode or two of $HMONEY Radio. Breathe in and breathe out, beautiful - everything is going to be OK.

Anastasia’s ShopEco Stress Less Faves

Happy water: Amal Moroccan Orange Blossom Water
Flower bath: My Weekend Is Booked 'Tea With Jane' Candle
Mind escape: Faerhaven Seaside Essential Oil Blend
Breath of fresh air: Bathorium Northern Sage Recovery Bath Soak

You're Worth It: Creating a Healthy Money Mindset w/ Anastasia on The Hive!