Financial Resilience

Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. It's what empowers you to accept and adapt to situations. It isn't something that is just demonstrated by mental toughness. It involves the ability to work through and cope with arduous human experiences. Sooner or later life will no doubt throw you a curveball and we all have to learn to cope in the face of adversity. It is the process of adapting well in the face of challenging experiences.

People who are resilient tend to harness their inner strengths and resources to rebound quickly and more fully from setbacks. Having a positive attitude and the ability to see failure as a form of helpful feedback are part of what helps to make a person stronger. Negative events are seen as minor setbacks to easily overcome and positive events are to be celebrated as evidence of further good things to come. The more positive emotions we have, the more we can build up a well of positivity which can be accessed in times of adversity.

Financial Strength

In the same way we all need to build our resilience in life situations, we should equally consider taking steps to build our financial resilience so that we are able to withstand and bounce back from any financial hardships. Many households do not have enough financial resilience to withstand an unexpected setback. Having a savings pot that can be drawn upon in a time of crisis, enables people to cope when they experience trauma to their finances, together with the general ups and downs of spending over a lifetime.

Forward Thinking

An emergency fund is your short term financial buffer against loss of income or hidden expenses. It's your peace of mind that you can feed your family and pay your bills until the current storm has passed. Doing your best to prepare for when money troubles hit will help you to spring back more quickly.

We need to shift our attitudes towards saving so that we feel positive about it. It is important to try and improve our financial education so we can see how we can increase our saving ability without sacrificing our present expenditure. It's vital to track your spending. This will help you to build a spending and saving plan – then if financial problems hit you've already taken the first step to building sound financial resilience and thus potentially avoiding making a drama out of a crisis.

Self Sufficiency

It is the resilient person who is the one who keeps planning for the future even when things aren't necessarily working out. They have the capacity to adapt successfully and the tenacity to keep going. It is especially important in these current times to know how to deal with and endure income changes. The business environment is becoming more dynamic and unpredictable every week. By improving our financial confidence and helping ourselves to engage with personal finances, we can be more confident in our own security and well-being, regardless of what the future holds.