Why We’re Seeing a Drop in the Financial Health of American Households and How We Can Improve It: An Interview with Angela Fontes

The Mental Health and Wealth Show

What is the difference between surviving and thriving? It’s all a matter of financial health. In today’s episode, I chat with Angela Fontes of the Financial Health Network about their Financial Health Pulse report. Find out how income, race, gender, and more all impact financial health and what we can do to improve our financial health.

"I think we want to sort of think about financial health as both an individual responsibility and certainly as part of a macro-environment." - Angela Fontes

"So many different identities are getting left out of the conversation and it’s like we all have to deal with money so why are some people getting more of the conversation when this is something we all have to deal with."- Melanie Lockert

“Check your credit, pull your credit report on a regular basis and just make sure that what you think is happening with your debt and credit accounts is what is being reported and if you do see errors, make sure that you’re addressing those so you do have the good credit score that is an important part of financial health.” - Angela Fontes

What You Will Learn From This Episode

• Why we’re seeing a drop in the financial health of American households
• How financial health increases and decreases based on income
• Four financial health metrics - how you can determine if you’re financially healthy
• Why Black and LatinX communities experience less financial health
• Ways to improve financial health from an individual consumer perspective
• On the financial health gap between men and women and how we can decrease that gap
• What we can do to boost our financial health

About Angela Fontes:

As Vice President of the Policy and Research team, Angela oversees policy and measurement research for the Financial Health Network, including the Financial Health Pulse and FinHealth Spend initiatives. Using cutting-edge data and methodologies, Angela elevates important insights for policy-makers and the academic community to advance financial health for all.

Resources:

• annualcreditreport.com
• Financial Health Network

Connect with Angela:

• finhealthnetwork.org

Connect with Melanie

• mentalhealthandwealth.com
• melanielockert.com
• Instagram
• Support the podcast through Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/melanielockert
• Buy Melanie’s book “Dear Debt”
• Contact: [e-mail]

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