Every area of pharmacy focuses on the health of its customers and patients. Days are filled with patient communication, filling prescriptions, and insurance billing. Often we share in the financial stress our patients are experiencing. Whether that is helping with prescription affordability, or navigating co-pays and deductibles.
But how often do we take time to stop and think about our own financial health?
Our lives as both patients and healthcare workers involve a constant balancing act of physical health and mental health. We should also add financial health to that list. All of these areas impact each other and contribute to our overall well-being.
A nationwide opinion poll from The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) reports 88% of adults feeling financial stress at the beginning of 2026. If you feel this financial stress as a pharmacist or technician, it can follow you right into the pharmacy.
Financial stress can cause sleepless nights, which can cause exhaustion before you even begin your work day. Worry about money can cause physical symptoms like headaches and stomach issues, none of which feel good when you are at work. Concern about bills that need to be paid can hang over you while you are waiting on customers or talking to a patient.
Ultimately we know that financial stress can affect our capacity and our patience. Serving our customers is much harder to do when we are feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
In order to take care of your patients to the best of your ability, you also need to take care of yourself. Focusing on your financial health can help you reduce money stress and allow you to bring your healthiest self to the pharmacy.
MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOUR MONEY
The first step to taking care of your financial health is acknowledging that personal finances and managing money are an important part of life. Every household has to handle money management, and taking time to gain clarity here can positively impact your life and your relationships.
You can make an appointment with a financial professional, but often that takes time or becomes a barrier to addressing your finances.
Making an appointment with yourself to evaluate your financial health is something you can do today.
Scheduling it in your calendar is similar to scheduling a visit with your physician. An appointment makes it clear that you have an intention to take care of yourself.
When you go to a doctor’s appointment you take time to think about your physical and mental health. You acknowledge what is going well, what needs improvement, and what questions you have.
Getting the same clarity on your financial health is imperative. It is good to get clear on where you are today, so you can work towards your future goals.
You want to acknowledge what is going well, such as earning a steady income or contributing to your 401k. You want to get honest about what needs improvement. You may need to stop overspending or take steps to handle credit card debt. You can determine what questions you have or where you need help.
If you feel confident with your money, you may do this a few times a year. But if, like 88% of Americans you feel stressed about money, making regular appointments can get you on a path towards good financial health.
Our natural inclination as human beings is to avoid things that are stressful or worrisome, but the best way to improve something is to shine a light on it.
Think of a patient with high blood pressure who comes to the counter with a high reading, but says they don’t want to go to the doctor. We encourage them to think about the consequences of continuing to ignore something that needs attention. We remind them to make an appointment, and to shine a light on their blood pressure so they can discuss the best steps for their health.
Similarly, taking time to pause and look honestly at your financial situation sets you up for the next best steps for managing your money.
HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT YOUR FINANCES TODAY?
Just like a doctor asks the patient how they are feeling before making a diagnosis, you want to check in with how you are feeling about your money.
Are you feeling stressed or anxious? Are financial worries affecting your sleep or causing you stomach aches or migraines?
Determining if your financial health is having a positive or negative effect on your physical and mental health is an important reality.
Money is emotional and sometimes we have to sit with difficult emotions before we can take steps forward. Many of our emotions around money reflect how we were raised and what we learned about money in childhood. These kinds of money beliefs have been running in the background of our lives, so much so that we may not even notice them.
Taking time to explain how you feel about money, even if only to yourself or your partner, is similar to explaining to the doctor how you have been feeling at your well visit.
Once the truth about your financial health is brought to the forefront, the next decisions can be made.
EVALUATION OF YOUR FINANCIAL HEALTH
At your doctor’s appointment after you explain how you are feeling, your physician begins the evaluation. They take your blood pressure, listen to your lungs, and focus on any areas that are causing problems.
You can do a similar evaluation of your financial health.
You can check your credit score, look at investments, and calculate debts. You can evaluate monthly spending, and look at your savings. You can make sure you have details of your accounts, your banks, your credit cards, your retirement plans.
While you may have feelings and emotions surrounding these pieces of your financial life, you can simply set those aside for the moment. Just like a physician evaluating a patient respects how they are feeling, but also does an objective evaluation. You are simply collecting data about your money to inform your next decisions.
Use this evaluation of your financial health so you have clarity on where you are today.
ASSESSMENT AND PLAN FOR YOUR PERSONAL FINANCES
Once the evaluation of your financial health is complete, it is time for the assessment and plan.
What did you learn from the evaluation?
Were you able to pull together all the numbers and data? If not, then getting organized with your finances might be your next action. This can take some time, but once you have it in place it is easy to keep up with.
Like our patient that comes to the pharmacy and only takes his blood pressure at random intervals, if our finances are disorganized it is hard to discern patterns. It’s hard to know if the one high measurement is an abnormal reading or part of a trend. But if we set him up with a consistent schedule for taking his readings, and a log to keep track of them, we build better data to use for making decisions. Getting organized with your finances helps in a similar way.
If the assessment is that excess credit card debt is causing financial stress, then the plan would be to attack that debt. This can be done by analyzing spending patterns, finding habits that are adding to the debt, and looking for areas to cut costs.
Or perhaps we are doing fine with our short-term goals but are anxious about long-term goals like retirement or paying for kids’ college educations. We can use that clarity to make a plan to do research in this area, and to interview financial professionals who might be able to help.
Personal finances are personal, so your assessment and plan will always be unique to you.
FOLLOW UP THROUGH YOUR FINANCIAL JOURNEY
Taking time to look at your money, speak honestly about how you are feeling, and evaluate household finances is the way to move forward and improve your financial health. Through this process you develop a plan for your next steps, and you plan regular follow-ups so you can keep improving.
Managing financial health is a life long journey. Just like we help our patients navigate their medical health from month to month and year to year, we want to do the same for our personal financial health.
This follow up stage is a great time to determine what other financial professionals could help you. Just like our patients need specialists, we may need to involve a financial planner, a financial coach, a tax specialist, or other members of our financial team.
Financial health is an important part of our patients’ lives, and an important part of your life too.
Taking care of this aspect of your personal finances can improve your own physical and mental health so you can bring even better service to your customers and patients.
Sources:
https://www.nefe.org/news/2026/01/poll-americans-feeling-stressed-to-begin-2026.aspx
