What financial wellbeing means for your health

The latest Financial Wellness Index has revealed that people with very little savings and those who are struggling to pay their bills are also those who are suffering from poor health. Conversely, those enjoying good health are more likely to experience a higher level of financial wellness. The findings raise the question of whether working to improve your financial situation could have a positive impact on your health, or indeed whether a healthier lifestyle might also lead to healthier finances.

The Financial Wellness Index from Momentum UK is put together by the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol. It examines a number of fundamental elements of subjects’ financial lives, as well as the macroeconomic state of the UK, to generate the country’s overall Financial Wellness score out of 100.

The latest report has revealed that 17% of people who consider their health as being ‘poor’ have also missed at least one bill payment over the course of the last year, considerably more than the 5% of those who class their health as being ‘excellent’. Similarly, only 5% of those who have a healthy diet have missed a bill payment, compared to 11% of those who eat unhealthily.

The trend can also be seen in the amount of savings held by healthy and unhealthy people. 15% of people in poor health have no savings, compared to just 8% of those in excellent health. There are also considerably more unhealthy (29%) than healthy people (19%) with less than £100 put away. This in turn has an impact on standard of living, with 42% of people in poor health having to reduce their lifestyle expenses such as socialising and holidays, compared to just 23% of people in excellent health.

“The link between financial and physical health is strong in this year’s index, which is not wholly surprising when you start to analyse the similarities in behaviour needed to achieve both”, says Momentum UK’s managing director Samantha Seaton. “Whether you’re improving your fitness or trying to improve your financial picture, success will be found by taking small steps to achieving your longer-term goals”.

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