Take a moment to answer these questions: How did the holidays make you feel financially? Did you feel overwhelmed thinking about how much money you spent on gifts? Did you feel guilty after splurging on a New Year’s Eve bottle of champagne?
If thinking about any of these queries raises your blood pressure, then working on your financial mindfulness may need to be a 2025 goal—and it can help revolutionize your personal finances for the new year.
Being financially mindful starts with having both financial awareness and acceptance, says Simon Blanchard, professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Doing so, he adds, can lead to making smarter investment decisions and a lesser likelihood of engaging in financial avoidance.
“Individuals should think about how comfortable they are with money generally, not only being aware of it, but dealing with it when it comes and potentially making sure that they're on the right track by talking about it with others,” says Blanchard, who recently published a paper alongside researchers at Cornell University focused financial mindfulness and its impacts.
Keeping a healthy track of one’s finances alongside controlling one’s own financial emotions are key parts of the puzzle. Blanchard says that starts with understanding oneself and one’s assets.
Making account tracking a fun ritual
Being stressed about finances can create an endless cycle of uninformed spending, something that has likely contributed to the rising number of Americans falling behind on credit card bills. The key to being financially mindful is ultimately sitting down and understanding one’s situation.
“Create the habit of keeping on top of your awareness, which is important,” says Blanchard. “That doesn't mean having a gazillion triggers on your budget monitoring dashboard that warns you anytime you spend 12 cents. It just means that when you're in the moment, and you need to think about money, you can bring back that knowledge from your mind without opening your bank account app.”
Tracking your finances on a regular cadence, say monthly or weekly, is generally advised by experts.
“What’s recommended would be something like making a habit with you and your spouse to treat yourself to your favorite coffee shop every Sunday or every second Sunday, and create a fun ritual out of something that would usually be unpleasant as much as you can,” he says.
Looking daily, though, can be unhealthy and counterproductive, Blanchard adds.
“There is no reason for you to be checking your bank accounts daily unless you know you're really, really tight on liquidity, and you have no mechanisms to deal with that,” he says. “That’s just creating anxiety.”
Uncover your money emotions
Being emotionally comfortable with money can sometimes be more challenging than being financially aware. And while wealthier individuals may have fewer financial stressors, they can still be masking their financial emotions.
Blanchard pointed to an example he found of a mid-level executive who was financially aware that they could not afford to spend a lot of money during the holidays—but did so anyway because they “couldn’t deal with the emotion of not spending money for the holidays.”
Working toward acknowledging one’s financial state without being swayed by positive or negative emotions is key to financial mindfulness, Blanchard adds, and that can lead to a less likely chance of engaging in financial avoidance.
“People that are really high on mindfulness have this ability to not disengage from their finances when things don't go their way and that can be really bad when you engage in financial withdrawal—like you refuse to look at your accounts, and you can miss on things that will actually cost you more money,” he says.
Nearly a quarter of Americans do not know their total credit card debt, and 26.5% do not know where to find their interest rates, according to a recent study from LendingClub. And with 2024 having brought historically high interest rates, that can mean it's more important than ever for financial awareness to be front and center for some Americans.
Mindfulness is the key to financial awareness
Short and long-term reflection is key to financial awareness. Next time at dinner, take a minute before responding whether you want to split a $200 bottle of wine. Then, several days later, reflect on how you felt about the cost of the meal as a whole. If you don’t feel that an expensive meal at a restaurant was worth it, then you shouldn’t do that again.
Becoming more financially mindful is also tied to feeling more comfortable holding onto investments when the market becomes volatile. Blanchard says people who have higher financial acceptance are less likely to try to “buy the dip” and instead hold investments steady. While mindful individuals are more likely to take financial risks, the key is that they take calculated risks so that they are comfortable with the potential downsides.
Overall, no matter one’s income level, being financially mindful can help individuals be more comfortable with talking with themselves and others about money—and hopefully reduce financial anxiety next holiday season.
