Written by: Nichole Huff, Ph.D., CFLE
When we consider ways to manage our finances, certain words may come to mind — savings, income, debt, interest. However, there are several considerations besides money that can impact a household’s overall well-being. While financial literacy is paramount, families also should look for ways to manage their collective resources. These range from time and energy, to personal belongings and the spaces in our homes, to relationships.
By managing our resources wisely, we are inadvertently managing our stress levels and mental health. This helps ensure we are not overextending ourselves, our material things, or our finances. According to the National Council on Family Relations, the scope of family resource management includes “the decisions individuals and families make about developing and allocating resources including time, money, material assets, energy, friends, neighbors, and space, to meet their goals.”
Managing our time and energy
You have likely heard the expression, “Time is money.” Time is one of our most valuable commodities, and regardless of how much money is in a person’s bank account, there are only 24 hours in a day. Learning to manage our time wisely reduces stress, increases productivity, and helps us better prioritize to whom and what we give our energy.
Take inventory of your time. In a day, how much time do you devote to sleep? To self-care, like exercise? To family? To work? To household maintenance? To pets? To reading or hobbies? To extracurricular activities, like team sports? To mindless activities, like browsing the internet, scrolling social media, or binging television? If you’re not sure where your time goes, keep a running productivity journal over a week or a month. Be honest about how much time you spend doing what activity until you can account for all 24 hours in a day. Then rank-order your priorities. Are you investing your time in ways that will produce positive returns? Like developing a financial budget, developing a time budget can help us allocate our attention and energy in better ways.
Managing our belongings
When we make a purchase, from a $2.50 soft drink at the checkout line to a $2500 sofa in our living room, it becomes a part of our possessions, or the things we own. When we aim to better manage our belongings, we learn to buy items that will serve us well – items that yield a good return on our short- or long-term investments, or that are of lasting quality. Take inventory of your belongings. Declutter what you no longer need or use, then be intentional to care for what you keep. Invest time into caring for your things — from clothes, to cookware, to furniture, to a vehicle, to your home. And as for those $2.50 soft drinks? As a treat, one-off purchases are okay. However, if you find yourself regularly buying things that you consume after one or two uses, consider the drain they may be on your wallet (and the environment), and look for more sustainable solutions.
Seeing our physical spaces as resources to manage can help us calm the internal chaos that may contribute to stress and anxiety. The world can be chaotic, but by being intentional in managing our spaces, we can create areas in our lives that promote peace and tranquility. This does not need to be expensive. Start by removing clutter and keeping your spaces clean. Cluttered homes often indicate cluttered minds. Are you tending to the spaces that belong to you? Your home, whether a rental or owned property? Your yard, from a .25-acre lot to a farm? Your vehicle? Also, teach your children to care for their things too. For example, teach children to keep their bedrooms or playrooms organized, and develop systems for organizing toys or games that have small pieces to maintain. This helps children develop responsibility and a sense of ownership for their belongings, as well as pride in taking care of their spaces.
Managing our relationships
Take inventory of your relationships. The relationships we have with others — whether our families, neighbors, coworkers, or friends — can serve as resources or stressors (and sometimes both, if we’re honest). Investing in our relationships is important to our overall health, well-being, and functioning. For example, when we work well with others, our professional relationships are strengthened. This often increases work productivity, and we find our workplaces more enjoyable when we operate as part of a team.
The same goes for our romantic, parental, or other familial relationships. When we invest in the maintenance of our personal connections, we have the power to strengthen them. Positive family relationships are one of the most effective buffers against stress, and a substantial indicator of resiliency when faced with adverse circumstances. Also important is your relationship with yourself. Managing your self-care and health can hinder or enhance your ability to regulate emotions and stress. Without intentionally regulating our social, emotional, and environmental resources, we set ourselves up for impaired functioning in other areas of our lives. Toxic stress can impact our ability to work or parent and can lead to depression, anxiety, or other physical health issues.
Positive decision-making
Family resource management requires intentionality. Like with our finances or health, we must be mindful of our decisions if we want to see positive outcomes. Consider your collective resources and assess what is working well in each area, as well as the areas you should manage differently. Deciding to reduce stressors, halt time or energy stealers, take better care of yourself and your belongings, or improve negative relationships can have compounding, positive impacts in all areas of your life.
References:
Huff, N., Bejda, M., May, K., & McCulley, M. (2022). Time Well Spent: Productivity Skills for Success. Lexington, KY: Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Service, University of Kentucky. [Curriculum: #FRM-TWS.001-004]
Military OneSource. (2024). The Pillars of Wellness. https://www.militaryonesource.mil/transition-retirement/national-guard-reserves/the-pillars-of-wellness/
Rogers, C., & Hart. R. (2021). Home and the extended-self: Exploring associations between clutter and wellbeing, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 73, 101553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101553
Photo by Berit Kessler / Adobe Stock
