Finance

How To Stop Letting Your Finances Impact Your Mental Health

Published

2 years ago

February 2, 2023

How To Stop Letting Your Finances Impact Your Mental Health

Hand selecting inexperienced completely happy smiley face paper minimize, product, person, service suggestions score and buyer … [+] reveiw, expertise, satisfaction survey, psychology psychological well being check idea

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Have you ever ever felt depressed or anxious as a consequence of your monetary circumstances? If you happen to answered “sure”, you aren’t alone. In reality, a latest MetLife research discovered that 40 p.c of U.S. workers say that having debt or moving into debt is a prime driver of their poor psychological well being. That’s lots of people being emotionally impacted by debt.

To be taught extra about this subject, and what you are able to do to enhance your psychological well being, I chatted with Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, a biracial (Filipina-white) feminine social worker-turned-financial therapist, writer, speaker, and the primary monetary therapist in Michigan. Bryan-Podvin’s mission is to assist folks construct a greater relationship with cash by making use of shame-free remedy methods to private finance.

How Does Cash Really Relate To Or Affect Psychological Well being?

On its face, cash can seem to be it’s simply numbers – prefer it’s nearly how a lot is coming in and the way a lot goes out. Many individuals don’t see the way it can associated to psychological well being or feelings in any respect. Nonetheless, the very fact is, cash has a huge effect on emotional well-being. Based on Bryan-Podvin, “there are lots of the reason why people select to work with a monetary therapist, however psychological well being is finally on the root of every. Cash and feelings are extremely interconnected. In reality, behavioral finance specialists agree feelings drive monetary choices between 80–90% of the time.”

MetLife’s 2022 Worker Advantages Developments Survey discovered monetary considerations have been the highest explanation for decrease psychological well being amongst workers. It additionally discovered that workers who say they reside paycheck to paycheck are considerably extra prone to say they’ve wanted to hunt assist for stress, burnout, and melancholy prior to now 12 months versus those that don’t, which additional helps the sturdy connection that exists between cash and psychological well being.

Steps You Can Take To Enhance Your Relationship With Cash

So are you doomed to have psychological well being points as a consequence of monetary stress? Not essentially. When requested how folks can enhance their emotional relationship with cash, Bryan-Podvin recommended a 3 step strategy:

Perceive Your Relationship with Cash: Begin by wanting again at how cash was mentioned (or not) whilst you have been rising up. Our experiences with cash or the dearth thereof can affect how we take into consideration cash for the remainder of our lives.
Leverage Monetary Wellness Assets: Go searching for podcasts, blogs, books, and apps which may information you in the direction of monetary wellness. Bryan-Podvin recommends beginning with an app known as Upwise.
Reduce Small Prices to Help Huge Monetary Objectives: Take into consideration the little issues you are able to do now within the current second that can enhance your monetary scenario.

“In case you are feeling anxious a few massive monetary resolution that hasn’t occurred but, as many individuals do, try to revert your consideration again to the current second and concentrate on the issues you may management”, says Bryan-Podvin. For instance, subscriptions are a fantastic place to start out. Everybody has forgotten to cancel a subscription after a free trial ends, and people bills can add up. Undergo your financial institution or bank card statements to search out out what subscriptions you’re paying for that you simply don’t use. Begin taking steps to cancel these. If you happen to want assist doing so, there are many apps on the market that can assist you, like Rocket Cash or Upwise. However just be sure you aren’t reducing prices that affect your total well-being, similar to remedy or common massages for persistent ache.

How You Can Handle The Stress That Comes With Debt And Different Monetary Issues

In fact, even in case you work to enhance your relationship with cash, anxious monetary points will inevitably come up over time. In that case, it’s vital to learn to correctly handle the stress that comes with debt and different points.

“Initially, acknowledge it’s frequent to really feel stress in terms of monetary considerations. In reality, it occurs to most individuals, it doesn’t matter what stage of life you’re in. When tackling a monetary concern like a considerable amount of debt, it’s vital to think about putting a steadiness between being laser centered on making progress to pay it down, and acknowledging that some spending does carry worth and make you are feeling good. It would not must be an all-or-nothing strategy,” says Bryan-Podvin.

To construct this steadiness, attempt specializing in what Bryan-Podvin calls the “three pillars of non-public finance”:

Understand how a lot cash is coming in and going out of your accounts every month, to make sure you find the money for to cowl all mandatory bills. That is often known as a “price range,” or a “spending plan”, and it is one thing that digital apps can help with.
At all times have cash obtainable for short-term wants. Consider an emergency fund you may pull from in case you lose your job or have to remain house with a sick little one, and different short-term financial savings targets like saving for a trip or a brand new automotive.
Lastly, be sure you contemplate the long run, which might embody investing in retirement, paying down pupil mortgage debt, and getting a will and belief in place.

With this framework, people can begin to take again management and really feel extra optimistic about their monetary futures. And in line with Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, “in case your cash choices are pushed by peace, pleasure, and confidence, you may relaxation assured that you’re doubtless making monetary selections which can be good for you each now, and sooner or later”.

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Finance

UK Finance Minister to Call for Defence Spending Cooperation at EU Meeting

Published

15 hours ago

April 10, 2025

Press Room

LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Rachel Reeves will call on her European Union counterparts on Friday to work more closely with Britain on defence financing in order to boost economic and national security. Reeves will hold talks at the informal ECOFIN meeting of EU finance ministers in …

Finance

Blockchain: The Operating System For Global Finance

Published

1 day ago

April 10, 2025

Press Room

Blockchain: The Operating System For Global Finance

Block chain network technology

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Blockchain infrastructure ↔ Traditional finance
Digital assets ↔ Real-world usage
Startups and protocols ↔ Institutional systems

In November 2024, while crypto headlines fixated on volatility, the European Investment Bank (EIB) issued a €100 million digital bond on HSBC’s Orion platform—settling the same day using wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) tokens issued by the Banque de France. Days later, Goldman Sachs announced plans to spin out its GS DAP® blockchain platform into an industry-owned utility. Neither event made headlines, yet both signal a profound shift in global finance. These aren’t innovation lab pilots—they’re strategic moves by financial titans rebuilding the core infrastructure powering traditional finance. Blockchain isn’t disrupting Wall Street; it’s becoming its operating system. While headlines obsess over Bitcoin, the real shift is happening quietly. Institutions are laying tracks beneath the surface—moving trillions, settling trades, and weaving decentralization into the foundations of financial infrastructure.

This is about the mechanics of how money moves—legacy systems controlled by intermediaries, burdened by high costs and delays, or blockchain rails enabling direct, peer-to-peer, atomic settlement. By embedding itself into the plumbing of global finance, blockchain is rewiring the system from within—driving the most significant transformation since electronic trading replaced floor brokers. Just as cloud computing became the invisible backbone of digital ecosystems, blockchain is rapidly becoming the core of global finance.

That transformation is already shaping tomorrow’s winners and losers. Whether you’re investing, leading a company, or building financial products, understanding the ecosystem is essential to smart decision-making. It comes down to grasping how these once-separate worlds are converging—and recognizing the key players making it all work. This isn’t theoretical. It’s actively reshaping competitive dynamics, creating new opportunities, and rendering old models obsolete.

The Institutional Shift: From Resistance to Adoption

Once dismissed as speculative, blockchain is now a strategic priority for institutions like JPMorgan, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs. Blockchain is quietly reengineering a financial system that supports more than $100 trillion in global capital markets and moves trillions daily. The shift has been deliberate and strategic—years in the making, but now rapidly gaining traction. What was once seen as a fringe experiment is now deeply embedded in traditional financial infrastructure. Institutions are embracing blockchain not for speculation but for cost savings through improved efficiency—streamlining operations, eliminating intermediaries through peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, and enabling atomic settlement. JPMorgan moves trillions via JPM Coin. BlackRock issues Bitcoin ETFs and integrates blockchain into its $10 trillion portfolio infrastructure. Goldman Sachs, once cautious, is now leaning in—expanding its digital assets desk and signaling that blockchain isn’t a side bet; it’s part of the long game. And rather than being sidelined, Visa and Mastercard are weaving blockchain into their payment systems—Visa alone processed billions of dollars in crypto transactions in 2024. This isn’t capitulation—it’s evolution. These giants are using blockchain to streamline systems, improve liquidity, and boost transparency.

Still, some of the most transformative innovations are coming from agile startups—solving inefficiencies in payments, trading, and consumer incentives. The companies mentioned illustrate broader trends, not endorsements or prescribed winners. They offer a glimpse into a larger shift—one driven by thousands of startups, protocols, and infrastructure providers reshaping the foundation of global finance.

The Modular Architecture of the New Financial Stack

Unlike traditional finance’s siloed systems, blockchain is built for composability—where financial applications plug into one another like Lego bricks, driving rapid innovation and more connected services. This modular architecture enables developers to stack functions—trading, lending, staking, identity, settlement—into seamless user experiences. It’s most visible in DeFi, where protocols like Aave, Uniswap, and Lido integrate natively, accelerating innovation without the friction of closed systems. But composability extends beyond DeFi. As tokenized assets, on-chain identity, and payment networks evolve, the same plug-and-play architecture is beginning to reshape how institutions build and deploy financial products and infrastructure.

Composability doesn’t just speed up product cycles—it unlocks entirely new value chains. A lending app can tap into yield protocols or tokenized collateral instantly—without the bottlenecks of backend integrations or clearinghouse approvals. In this emerging financial stack, the winners aren’t just fast—they’re interoperable.

Concept of mobile payments. Wallet connected with mobile phone.

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Crypto’s Payment Bridge

The structural limitations of crypto as a medium of real-world payment have long hindered its adoption. Digital assets remained siloed in wallets and exchanges, cut off from everyday financial systems. But that barrier is starting to break down—not by replacing payment giants, but by building infrastructure that bridges the two worlds. In fact, payment giants like Mastercard and Visa have accelerator programs focused on integrating targeted crypto solutions that can plug into existing systems, creating corridors between traditional and decentralized financial systems.

Hong Kong-based Aurum exemplifies this approach, enabling users to fund accounts with USDT and spend in local currencies. Its ecosystem offers bots, payment cards, staking, NFT licenses, and a Web3 wallet with low fees and cashback rewards. With $12M in funding, Aurum delivers institutional-grade trading and payment infrastructure powered by advanced AI, complementing traditional financial networks. Former Binance executive Bryan Benson now leads Aurum Exchange, bringing expertise in scaling crypto platforms across emerging markets.

The endgame? A world where crypto wallets function seamlessly with traditional payment systems, making digital assets as spendable as cash—without friction.

Trading’s Transparency Upgrade

For decades, financial markets have been plagued by opacity, insider advantages, and inefficiencies. The blockchain era is changing that dynamic. Institutions like State Street ($43T AUM) and BNY Mellon ($46.7T in assets under custody), with their extensive trading operations and market influence, are already implementing blockchain-based trade settlement solutions, ensuring real-time transaction verification and eliminating counterparty risks.

In the retail trading landscape, Spotware’s cTrader stands as a notable example of transparency while delivering sophisticated trading infrastructure. Built on its Traders First™ principles, cTrader aims to establish high standards for fairness, transparency, and security—tackling long-standing industry challenges and helping to level the playing field for all participants. The platform’s technology handles millions of transactions daily, connecting over 8 million traders and more than 250 brokers and prop firms to global markets.

Specialized infrastructure providers power this shift—the hidden backbone behind evolving trading systems. These providers don’t serve end users directly—they power those who do, underpinning the next generation of financial infrastructure. Fireblocks secures over $4 trillion in digital assets for institutions, ensuring transparent custody and seamless settlement. Chainlink delivers tamper-proof price data to more than 1,900 projects, forming the foundation of reliable price discovery. Circle’s USDC moves across exchanges, wallets, and payment systems, enabling instant, transparent fund transfers. Together, these firms are becoming the “essential middleware” layer of global finance—quietly powering billions in daily activity.

Beyond efficiency, blockchain is redefining who gets to participate in wealth creation.

Democratized Investment: Blockchain’s Bridge to Real-World Assets

Blockchain’s most powerful shift may be this: turning real-world value into liquid, on-chain capital—making static assets move, trade, and work for more people than ever before.

Tokenization is fast becoming the gateway to unlocking trillions in dormant capital. By converting assets like treasury bills, real estate, and private credit into blockchain-based tokens, platforms are transforming illiquid markets into accessible, tradable units. The impact? Fractional ownership, 24/7 settlement, and borderless access.

Major asset managers such as Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC are leading this transformation by developing tokenized investment products. Their participation lends institutional credibility to this emerging market, much like ETFs did for equities decades ago. Similarly, financial institutions like JPMorgan and State Street are laying the groundwork to bring traditional assets on-chain, recognizing tokenization’s far-reaching benefits.

Tokenized assets are projected to reach $2 trillion by 2030, led by cash deposits, bonds, mutual funds, and loans. Their appeal? Mobility, real-time settlement, programmability, and transparency—infused into markets once defined by slow processes, siloed systems, and rigid structures.

8lends by Maclear exemplifies this trend, offering USDC-backed loans to vetted businesses, making passive investing more accessible. Their platform combines blockchain transparency with the familiarity of traditional finance, eliminating cumbersome procedures and accreditation requirements. Smart contracts automate the entire process, delivering predictable returns with complete on-chain visibility.

This represents a foundational shift in financial infrastructure. Tokenization is not only expanding access to investment opportunities—it’s reducing friction, unlocking liquidity, and streamlining capital flows across the global economy.

The New Financial Operating System

The future of finance won’t be defined by crypto replacing banks or banks neutralizing crypto. It will emerge at their intersection—where the trust, scale, and regulatory expertise of traditional institutions fuse with the transparency, efficiency, and programmability of blockchain technology. The boundary between these worlds isn’t just blurring—it’s beginning to vanish.

Like the internet before it, blockchain is gradually disappearing into the background—becoming the invisible rails on which global finance runs. The future of money is being written in code. The biggest winners won’t be those who merely accumulate tokens—but those who understand blockchain as foundational infrastructure. As blockchain dissolves into the conduits of global finance, it’s becoming the architecture through which value will move, scale, and settle in the decade ahead.

Finance

2025 End of Session Wrap-Up: Finance

Published

2 days ago

April 9, 2025

Press Room

The segments below provide a brief overview of MACo’s work on finance policy in the 2025 General Assembly.

Maryland’s 447th legislative session convened amidst a substantial concern over the State’s fiscal situation, with weakened revenues and cost increases for many services at every level of government. Despite the budgetary limitations, many policy issues received a full debate, with many resolutions arising from the 90-day annual process. MACo’s Legislative Committee guided the association’s positions on hundreds of bills, yielding many productive compromises and gains spanning counties’ uniquely broad portfolio.

Follow these links for more coverage on our Conduit Street blog and Legislative Database.

MACo supported HB 498/SB 427 – Economic Development – Delivering Economic Competitiveness and Advancing Development Efforts (DECADE) Act with amendments. This bill proposed a comprehensive restructuring of Maryland’s economic development programs to centralize funding and policy decisions and shift priorities toward targeted industries. Counties requested amendments to preserve local flexibility, protect proven incentive programs, maintain meaningful input in funding decisions, and ensure workforce development strategies align with local and regional priorities. This bill did not pass in the 2025 session.