Each method below provides a way to empower and improve your financial situation.

If I asked you, “On a scale of 1-10, where 1 = ‘not at all financially vulnerable’ and 10 = ‘very financially vulnerable,’ how financially vulnerable do you consider yourself to be?” how would you answer? Public policy makers define a financially vulnerable consumer as “someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to detriment.” With this perspective, an individual with a physical or mental disability, a long-term illness, someone who is older (over 80) or has low literacy or numeracy is considered financially vulnerable.

I feel such a view limits the significance of financial issues that affect us. The truth is that we are all financially vulnerable to a lesser or greater extent whether we have disabilities or not. Instead, I like to think of financial vulnerability as “a slow-changing psychological state indicating the degree of the individual’s susceptibility to making bad financial decisions and experiencing negative financial outcomes.” Financial vulnerability applies to everyone and is a matter of degree.