I’ve been using Wednesdays to go further in depth on each point of diagnosing your financial health since I truly believe that solid finances leads to less stress and happier lives.  Today is the last post of this series.

I have already covered the first seven points - Spend Less Than You Earn, start an Emergency Fund, review Retirement Savings, evaluate Debt, Diversify your investments, have enough Insurance, and creating an Estate Plan.  The last point is to ask yourself if you are happy.

Honestly, all the financial health in the world wouldn’t be worth anything if you aren’t happy.

If you aren’t happy, I’d highly suggest actually figuring out why.  If there are actual reasons that can be worked on, hop on it.  It might be hard, but trust me, it will be worth it.  My husband is currently busting his hump to secure a happier career.  This means that he is teaching 8th grade science, taking 9 hours of grad school, and looking for a new job all at the same time.  Being happy sometimes takes that kind of work.

If you can’t pinpoint the problems by yourself, open up your wallet enough to afford some professional help.  I have several friends and family members that were actually putting off therapy due to cost.  They feel different about it now since money is pretty useless if you can’t be content.  Therapy does work.  All four of the people I know feel better now than they have in years.  Mostly, I think talking helps and some people need a stranger in order to open up.  It also helps when that stranger has the experience to help.

If you are interested in reviewing all the areas of your financial health, please check out the BFS Way to Diagnose Your Financial Health where you can find links to each point covered in detail.

Once again I ask, are you happy?