Mental Health Awareness Week 2024

How the cost-of-living crisis is costing us our mental wellbeing  

According to a recent report by St James’s Place Financial Health, almost half of UK adults suffered physically or emotionally as a result of their finances last year. For 18-to 34-year-olds, the figure rises even higher to 66%.  

Mental Health Awareness Week

While there can be many reasons behind struggling with mental health, it’s clear that financial stress can be a strong contributor. Finances can feel overwhelming sometimes, especially when you don’t know where to start. Worrying about money can also become a vicious cycle and mental health problems can make keeping up with finances feel like an impossible task, which can further impact your mental wellbeing. 

This Mental Health Awareness Week, gain control of your financial wellbeing through our brand-new platform, designed to support you along your journey to financial security. You’re not alone, and there are a whole host of resources and steps you can take to help you feel more financially secure.  

We want to help where we can to make finances feel more manageable, so we have created an easy 4 step guide to help you get started on your journey to tackle your financial situation, whatever it may be.   

Four ways to improve your financial wellbeing  

1. Complete your financial health check   Knowledge is power, and sometimes it’s good to know what you don’t know. By completing the financial health check on the My Money Matters platform, you can discover what changes you could be making to help you be financially fitter now and in the future. Knowing which areas you feel secure in and which areas you may need some help with could help to ease anxiety surrounding your finances.  To complete your financial health check, please log in or register today.  
   

2. Take advantage of tailored financial education  One of the best ways to enhance your financial wellbeing is by improving your financial literacy. By getting more comfortable with financial terms and concepts, you’ll be better equipped on managing money so you can effectively plan for your future.    It can feel daunting when you come across financial terms or phrases you’re unfamiliar with, so that’s where the My Money Matters Financial Education Coaches come in! Our coaches can support you through their webinars and AVC coaching sessions. You can join them at any time to fill any gaps in your knowledge, whether you’re just starting out in your career or thinking of life after work. View our selection of webinars and boost your financial literacy today! 
   

3. Make use of powerful tools and services   Life can get busy, and sometimes we can all struggle to keep on top of our spending habits, with some of us even slipping into the habit of avoiding checking our finances altogether. If you’re finding it hard to keep on top of where every penny is going, there’s an app that can help you manage your finances in a more convenient way.  My Money Matters have partnered with Snoop, an app that allows you to set budgets to stay on top of your current spending and saving. It’s an excellent tool to help you gain control and confidence when it comes to day-to-day budgeting and tracking your long-term spending. Log in and download the Snoop app and see how Snoop could help you!   For longer-term plans, you can also use the My Money Matters AVC projection calculator to work out what your Shared Cost AVCs could be worth when you retire. 
   

4. Start planning more for retirement  For a lot of us, planning for retirement may not feel like a priority. Saving for something that feels far away when there are things to pay for now can seem counterintuitive, but being proactive and saving for retirement could alleviate future financial stress. Taking advantage of the savings opportunities available to you could make planning for your retirement more manageable, and doing something small could lead to a more secure financial future.  At My Money Matters, we work in partnership with your employer to offer a Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contribution (Shared Cost AVC) scheme that could help you save even more for your retirement, alongside your Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). This means your employer would share the cost of your contributions through a salary-sacrifice arrangement, meaning you’ll make crucial Income Tax and National Insurance contribution savings whilst topping up your pension pot.  To learn more about Shared Cost AVCs, please visit the My Money Matters platform.  If you don’t have a Shared Cost AVC plan, start your application, or if you already have a Shared Cost AVC, top up your plan.  A Pension is a long-term investment, the fund value may fluctuate and can go down. Your eventual income may depend upon the size of the fund at retirement, future interest rates and tax legislation.   Tax treatment is based on individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future. Information is based on our current understanding of taxation legislation and regulations. Any levels and bases of and reliefs from taxation are subject to change.  
   

Further resources and support  

If you or anyone you know is struggling and needs further support, here are some useful resources: 

Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/helplines/ 

Samaritans: https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/ 

NHS: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/mental-health-services/where-to-get-urgent-help-for-mental-health/ 

Mental Health Foundation: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk