"Personal finance is a component of well-being that we have neglected for far too long. One of the things I love to do is to help people understand the enormous amount of freedom and the release of stress that can come about when your finances are in control and you understand what's going on with them." 

-- Manisha Thakor, director of wealth strategies for women, in the latest BAM ALLIANCE foundational film that captures the essence of who we are and what we do through conversations with National Thought Leaders


BEING ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR SPENDING
Building a budget is a task most of us dread. But, in order to build up your savings,
you need to be accountable for your spending. Stuart Smith, with ML&R Wealth
Management, joined KVUE to share these five easy tips to help us build a budget.



>Watch Video
A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL
Depression can take on a snowball effect, as people can become engulfed by feelings of sadness, fatigue and apathy as they build on top of one another. Alex Korb's book "The Upward Spiral" offers straightforward tips, based on research in the field of neuroscience, for reversing these feelings of negativity. While reading Korb's book, Larry Swedroe, director of research for the BAM ALLIANCE, thought about how applicable this is when it comes to investing.

"The findings from research in this field have helped us gain useful insights with regard to the errors of judgment made by investors -- errors that penalize results. And the fields of psychiatry and neuroscience have made other advances that can help us not only lead healthier lives, but to be better investors."

THE WELL-BEING INDEX


Gallup and Healthways have been teaming up since 2008 by polling 1,000 Americans each day in order to take the "national pulse of individual and collective health and well-being." The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is designed to be the "Dow Jones of health" by offering a measuring stick of people's well-being at the close of every day.

Given that the projected annual cost for health care by 2017 has been estimated at more than $4 trillion, the aim of the index is to provide education to help policymakers, community leaders and employers make decisions that will positively affect our overall health and well-being.

Among the topics covered by the index include a look at obesity rates, overall well-being rankings on a state-by-state basis, workplace health and ways families spend their free time.

The World Health Organization defines health as "not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental, and social well-being." The Well-Being Index bases its methodology and research on that definition. 
7 DIMENSIONS OF WELLNESS
Your overall wellness can be defined as the act of integrating your physical, mental and spiritual well-being. The University of California, Riverside looks at how seven dimensions of wellness "act and interact in a way that contributes to our own quality of life": 

1. Social wellness is the ability to relate and connect with others. 
 

2. Emotional wellness is the ability to understand ourselves and cope with life's challenges.
 

3. Spiritual wellness is the ability to establish peace and harmony in our lives.

 

4. Environmental wellness is the ability to recognize our responsibility for the quality of our physical surroundings.
 

5. Occupational wellness
is the ability to get personal fulfillment from our careers while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

 

6. Intellectual wellness is the ability to be open-minded to new ideas and experiences that can be applied to our own decisions and community betterment.

 

7. Physical wellness is the ability to maintain our health and complete our daily activities without undue fatigue or physical stress.

 

> MORE: UC Riverside's seven dimensions of wellness

Follow us on social media