By Kimberly Palmer | NerdWallet

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

The term “self-care” might conjure images of relaxing bubble baths or massages. But true self-care encompasses your finances, too.

“Self-care is about taking care of yourself so you can look better, feel better and be prepared for the future,” says Stacy Miller, a certified financial planner and founder of BayView Financial Planning in Tampa, Florida. “Financial self-care is an aspect of that. You’re giving your bank accounts a facial.”

Money experts say financial self-care starts with looking at your current money practices, then continues toward developing a solid plan for the future. And just like a skincare routine, everyone’s approach looks a little different.

Reflect on your past

Taking time to consider your “money story,” or how you grew up thinking about money, can be a good place to start, says Lindsey Konchar, a financial therapist in Minnesota. “Were your parents open about it? Were you taught anything about money?” she suggests asking yourself.

From there, you can try to shift the way you talk to yourself about money, such as by moving from an attitude of “I am bad with money” to “I am learning about money and am excited to be on this new financial self-care journey,” Konchar adds.

Mykail James, a financial educator in Washington, D.C., known to her social media followers as “the Boujie Budgeter,” says cultivating a sense of gratitude can also be beneficial. “Affirmations can help overcome negative thought patterns,” she says. She suggests ones such as, “I deserve the money I receive for work” or “I am worthy of being financially secure.”

(Kimberly Palmer shares how she practices financial self-care.)

Let your goals inform your habits

James likes to pick a few specific goals to focus on at any one time and then brainstorm about how to achieve them. For example, she likes to scroll through million-dollar home listings posted online and then calculate how much she would need to earn to be able to afford one. “That kind of thought experiment helps me formulate my goals,” she says.

Taking tangible steps toward your goals helps reduce stress and worry, says Robert Stromberg, a CFP and founder of Mountain River Financial in Abington, Pennsylvania. Since goals vary so much by person, those steps also differ, but they often start with a close review of your overall financial picture, including current spending and saving behavior.

Track spending

Budgeting apps can assist with that kind of financial review, says Maggie Klokkenga, a CFP and financial planner at Abundo Wealth in Morton, Illinois. “The first step is to just track your expenses. It’s like stepping on the scale. No one wants to look at it, but then you can become aware of your numbers,” she says.

Getting “financially naked” in that way can inspire some shifts in your spending to better align with your goals, she adds. Using apps that automatically sort your spending into different categories and flag subscriptions or unusually high amounts can also help.

“When people are aware of their numbers and start to take action with intention, they feel more in control,” Klokkenga says.

Ramp up savings

Stromberg notes that “the vast majority of clients I work with are under-saving.” He suggests prioritizing an emergency fund, which ideally holds three to six months’ worth of expenses, as well as saving for any known large expenses, such as a new car.

Being aggressive about savings “gives people a tremendous amount of comfort,” he says, because you know you are prepared for different scenarios. Keeping the money in a high-yield savings account insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. allows it to continue to grow until you need it.

Save what you can, even if it’s less than the recommended amount, James recommends. “Saving a little money is better than no money, so start wherever you are, and you can always grow it over time,” she says.

Automating your savings so a certain amount is transferred from your checking account or paycheck into your high-yield savings account each month can reduce stress, Konchar says. Anything you can do to reduce the mental load of managing your money allows you to spend that mental energy on other things, she says.

Take advantage of employee benefits

Contributing money to an employer-sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k); funding tax-advantaged flexible spending accounts for health care and child care expenses; and signing up for any other employee benefits like disability and life insurance can also contribute to your overall financial self-care, says Kevin Keller, CEO at CFP Board, a financial planner association.

“Consumers can enjoy life today and feel more comfortable, knowing they are on track to achieve their life goals,” he says.

Any good self-care routine also involves smaller daily pleasures, too, which is why James suggests giving yourself some kind of reward, such as a leisurely walk or an ice cream, after working on your finances. “Positive reinforcement gets people to continue to do something good,” she says.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article 5 Ways to Practice Financial Self-Care originally appeared on NerdWallet.

St. Paul gymnast Suni Lee pulls up to Midwest Gymnastics in Little Canada shortly after 4 p.m. It’s a hot summer day in early July, and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are quickly approaching.

She makes casual conversation with a couple of coaches on the mat as the local gym quickly starts to fill in around her. She puts the finishing touches on her warmup when a group of little kids rush in to give her a hug before their practice. She smiles and wraps her arms around them before heading to the balance beam to work on her routine.

The scene doesn’t make sense on the surface. You’ve got Lee working to perfect a tumbling pass under the watchful eye of longtime coaches Jess Graba and Ali Lim, then less than 50 feet away are a handful of 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds learning the basics of the sport. The whiplash is jarring for an outsider.

Not to Lee. The chaos inside Midwest Gymnastics has never bothered her. She has been working out there since she was a kid herself and has always found beauty in being able to blend in.

“This is her happy place,” Graba said. “She’s just another kid when she walks in here. She doesn’t have to worry about anything else. It’s like home for her.”

That feeling has been instrumental for Lee over the past few years.

The journey to qualify for another Olympics hasn’t been easy. Not only has she had to figure out how to handle fame at a young age after winning the gold medal in the all-around competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, she also has had to navigate an incurable kidney disease that nearly ended her career.

All the while Midwest Gymnastics has served as a safe space where she can go whenever things get overwhelming.

“I think it’s been a saving grace for all of us,” Lim said. “We can come in here and leave the rest of the stuff outside.”

The culmination will come this weekend in Paris for Lee with Olympic qualifications starting at 4:40 a.m. CST Sunday. local time. If things go according to plan, Lee will be competing in the team final and the all-around final next week. Frankly, no matter what happens, Lee can take pride in the fact that she made it back.

“I’ve learned that I’m a lot stronger than I think,” she said. “I’m capable of anything if I put my mind to it.”

How it helped her handle fame

Nothing was the same for Lee after winning the gold medal in 2020.

Everybody wanted a piece of her in the immediate aftermath.

She returned home to St. Paul and was greeted with a parade in her honor. She traversed the country on a media tour that featured countless public appearances as well as a trip to the Met Gala in Manhattan. She competed as a contestant on “Dancing With The Stars” alongside other celebrities.

“There were a lot of things on her plate,” Graba said. “You can’t prepare an 18-year-old for that.”

She handled it with grace every step of the way, and continued to do so once she got to Auburn University. As much as she enjoyed parts of her college experience, there were certain aspects that made it difficult for Lee to settle in and feel completely comfortable.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Lee highlighted some of the challenges, like how she had to opt for virtual classes because she couldn’t walk to class without a security detail. She added that her teammates at Auburn weren’t the nicest to her because of her stature.

She started to feel like an outcast. It was a far cry from her experience at Midwest Gymnastics back home where she felt love from everybody around her.

“The way she handled everything was so impressive to watch,” Lim said. “She’s just been so poised through it all.”

How it helped her navigate illness

After announcing on social media that she planned to leave Auburn to focus on qualifying for the Olympics, Lee was diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease that ultimately forced her to move back home sooner than expected. She stopped training completely while doctors tried to get things under control.

Forget the Olympics. She just wanted to be healthy.

“That was scary,” Graba said. “We had no idea what was going on.”

As she slowly started to learn more about it, Lee returned to Midwest Gymnastics, as a way to clear her head more than anything else. It wasn’t about training for the Olympics at that point. It was simply about feeling like herself, even if only for a few moments at a time.

“She can just come here and go about her business,” said Puner Koy, who coached her at Midwest Gymnastics when she was young. “That’s really important because she’s constantly under a microscope with everything else she has going on in her life.”

Eventually, Lee felt herself getting stronger, and she let herself start thinking about the Olympics. She talked to Graba and Lim, and they came up with a plan.

“It was a really hard transition for all of us after I got sick,” Lee said. “Just having to work through all of that, they almost had to relearn how to coach me.”

There were ups and downs as soon as they started training with a purpose. Sometimes she would wake up and her energy levels were so low that she could barely get out of bed. Sometimes she would wake up and her hands would be so swollen she couldn’t grip the uneven bars.

Whenever she was at Midwest Gymnastics, though, Lee was thrilled to be working toward something again.

“I’m so glad that I never gave up,” she said. “There were so many times where I thought about quitting.”

The hard work paid off last month at the Olympic Trials at Target Center in Minneapolis. After completing a ridiculous routine on the uneven bars, Lee had a pretty good idea that she had done enough to make the U.S. team. It became official a couple of hours later, and Lee burst into tears on the mat.

“The further away we get from it, the more we’ll realize how big of a deal it was,” Graba said. “It was relief more than anything in the moment. It was like a weight lifted off our shoulders. Now at least whatever happens it’s going to be happening at the Olympics.”

How it helped her appreciate success

Fittingly, after qualifying for the Olympics, Lee found herself back on the mat at Midwest Gymnastics. Never mind that she had accomplished her goal. There was still work to be done.

“There’s more in the tank,” Lee said. “I’m never going to be satisfied.”

Maybe the coolest part about seeing Lee in her element is observing the way some of the little kids perceive her. As much as she might exists as a celebrity when they watch her compete on television, she exists as a peer whenever they are in the gym together.

“She’s just Suni in their eyes,” said Eric Kangas, who coaches at Midwest Gymnastics. “She just so happens to be an Olympic champion.”

That doesn’t mean there aren’t hilarious moments along the way, like earlier this year when Lee literally had to avoid a little kid while practicing her mount onto the balance beam.

“I was joking with her,” said Tony Maras, who got his start at Midwest Gymnastics, then went on to compete collegiately for Nebraska. “If she can train with a little kid running across the mat, she can go out there and compete at the Olympics, no problem.”

Asked about her goals heading into the Olympics, Lee said she would like to win a team gold medal more than anything else. She added that individually she would like to be competitive in the all-around final and that she also wants a gold medal on balance beam.

You can bet her family at Midwest Gymnastics will be following along every step of the way.

“We are so incredibly proud of her,” Lim said. “I would not want to do this with anybody else.”

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PARIS — The new sport for the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, which open Friday here and continue for 17 days, is breaking.

It is more commonly known as break dancing, but the dancing part has been removed, presumably, to deflect criticism and encourage its acceptance as a worthy athletic competition. It also fits the Paris Games in more semantic ways.

Because the goal, the hope, the aspiration of these Olympics, truly, is breaking.

Breaking with the recent trend of flawed Games, either from authoritarian governments (Sochi and Beijing), overwhelmed organizers (Rio de Janeiro), remote locales (Pyeongchang) or pandemic restrictions (Tokyo).

Breaking with the habit of building new venues that instantly become white elephants when the flame is extinguished at closing ceremonies.

Breaking even financially, avoiding the tsunami of cost overruns and red ink that have sunk past host cities.

Breaking with tradition, hosting the athletes’ parade before Friday’s opening ceremony on 94 barges over a four-mile stretch of the River Seine instead of monotonously marching into a stadium.

“It’s not perfect, it’s never perfect,” said Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris organizing committee and a three-time gold medalist in whitewater canoe. “I remember when I crossed the finish line when I was an athlete with the gold medal, I didn’t make a perfect run. Perfect is never the case, but it’s also important to assess what we are willing to deliver.

“We dared to be audacious, to be ambitious, to make sure the Games will not be the same as the previous editions.”

People pose for pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower with the Olympic rings prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Thursday, July 18, 2024. In addition to the athletes who will participate in the parade, 3,000 dancers, artists and other athletes will be featured in the opening and closing ceremonies. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

They arrive at an inflection point in the Olympic movement, with declining viewership, with increasing cynicism from doping and corruption scandals, with cities reluctant to submit host bids, with longtime sponsors departing, with rising terrorist threats, with political decisions jeopardizing its purportedly neutral image.

Paris’ great advantage, and Los Angeles in 2028, is that it isn’t using the Olympics to attract tourism or revitalize a region or launder a political ideology through the interlocking rings.

A Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, created the modern Games in 1896 after seeing a model of ancient Olympia at the Paris Exposition. The city has hosted the Summer Games twice, in 1900 and 1924. France has hosted the Winter Games three times and will make it four in 2030 in the Alps.

The 1900 Games didn’t go so well, spread over five months with a litany of obscure sports such as equestrian high jump and a swimming obstacle race where competitors dove under a row of boats in the Seine.

Paris got another shot in 1924 and began shaping the current Olympics, introducing the “Citius, altius, fortius” motto (faster, higher, stronger) and a dedicated athlete village of wooden shacks. Johnny Weissmuller won two gold medals in swimming before starring as Tarzan in Hollywood movies. Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi took home five golds in track and field.

This, then, is about reshaping the Olympics. Resuscitating, revitalizing, reimagining, rebooting them.

“Light up people’s hearts,” French President Emmanuel Macron says.

The Arc De Triomphe at the top of Champs-Élysées prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Saturday, July 20, 2024. .The opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics is set for Friday. Instead of a traditional march into a stadium, about 10,500 athletes will parade on more than 90 boats on the Seine River. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

One thing that hasn’t changed from 1900 is swimming in the River Seine. The swimming competition was held there back then, which the competitors liked because a) the river wasn’t as polluted then and b) the strong current meant world record times.

France spent $1.5 billion in a massive clean-up campaign in order to stage a triathlon leg and marathon swimming there, with mixed reviews. A protest movement with the threat #JeChieDansLaSeine (literally, “I poop in the Seine”) claims the water quality is still unhealthy, prompting Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo to take a dip herself in wetsuit and goggles.

Other venues, most of them in cost-efficient existing or temporary structures, have equally historic and photogenic backdrops.

Beach volleyball is in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, fencing and taekwondo in a renovated Grand Palais, skateboarding and breaking at Place de la Concorde, equestrian at the Chateau de Versailles, judo and wrestling at the Champ de Mars exhibition hall, the marathon start at Hotel de Ville, the road cycling course up Montmartre hill past the Sacre-Coeur basilica, tennis on the famed red clay of Roland-Garros.

Surfing is on a reef break off the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. Sailing is on the Cote d’Azur in Marseille.

The Olympic flame will be displayed not in a stadium but Jardin des Tuileries, a palace garden created by Catherine de Medici in the 1500s on the fashionable Right Bank of the Seine not far from the Louvre Museum.

“It’s been very rich,” Christophe Dubi, the Olympic Games executive director for the IOC, said of their journey with the Paris organizing committee, “with people that always had this attitude of, ‘Let’s create, let’s innovate, although Paris offers a lot of history and culture, let’s use this to make it something very special.’”

It’s not perfect, as Estanguet says, it’s never perfect. Not when you bring 11 million visitors to see 10,714 athletes from 206 nations compete in 329 events over 754 sessions in 35 venues.

The biggest challenge is security in a city that has suffered several major terrorist attacks, including one in 2015 that killed 130 people and was attributed to the Islamic State as retaliation for French air strikes in Syria and Iraq.

The result is what is considered the largest peacetime security operation in French history, with 45,000 officers drawn from police, military and dozens of foreign countries. In the past few days, groups of uniformed soldiers have appeared on street corners with guns slung across their chests while police are regularly posted at Metro stations. Speed boats with armed officers zoom up and down the Seine. Divers patrol beneath the surface.

A no-fly zone with a 100-mile radius will be imposed from 6:30 p.m. to midnight during opening ceremonies, forcing commercial airlines to cancel flights into area airports. Drones have been banned, and police estimate they are intercepting six per day, most by unknowing tourists.

France’s interior minister said more than 4,000 Olympic credentials have been rejected on suspicion of being foreign spies or having radical Islamist ties. On Tuesday, authorities raided the Paris apartment of a 40-year-old, Russian-born chef, alleging he was “conducting intelligence work on behalf of a foreign power … to provoke hostilities in France” through a large-scale attack during the Games.

There also was a YouTube video posted this week of a masked person claiming Hamas would turn Paris into “rivers of blood” in retaliation for France’s support of Israel’s invasion of Gaza. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has since questioned its validity.

“We’re not sure,” Attal told media, “but it looks like it is fake and has been spread by pro-Kremlin and pro-Russian channels.”

Simone Biles trains on the uneven bars with the U.S. women’s gymnastics team Thursday, July 25, 2024, at Bercy Arena before the Paris Olympics. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

The other fear is a crippling Russian-backed cyberattack on Games-related computer systems. The Russian team has been banned from the Olympics as punishment for the invasion of Ukraine, although some individual Russian athletes are allowed to compete independently with no national association.

All this plays out amid the backdrop of political instability in France. Macron dissolved the National Assembly last month and called for snap elections, with no party receiving a majority of seats to form a new government without creating a coalition. Attal has resigned but agreed to stay on through the Games operating a government without the power to pass laws.

But the Games must go on. They always do.

The hope is the athletes come to the rescue and provide the ultimate diversion: Simone Biles in gymnastics, Katie Ledecky in the pool, LeBron James on the basketball court, 400-meter hurdler Sydney McLauglin-Levrone on the track, along with French stars like swimmer Leon Marchand, rugby player Antoine Dupont and 7-foot-4 NBA rookie Victor Wembayama.

The $10 billion budget, thanks to strong ticket sales and only a handful of new venues, so far is manageable. The Olympic rings hang majestically from the Eiffel Tower. Pollution levels in the Seine remain low. The famed Gallic indifference of Parisians appears to be waning. The opening ceremony dancers called off a threatened strike after receiving a new pay offer.

There are reports that Celine Dion and Lady Gaga will partner on a duet of a 1940s song by French singer Edith Piaf, “La Vie en rose.”

A rough translation: Life in rosy hues.

3M Co. shares soared Friday after raising its full-year profit forecast as its new chief executive officer vowed to reinvigorate the iconic manufacturer’s innovation engine.

William Brown

The shares were up nearly 20% as of midday Friday. The gains came after the Maplewood-based maker of Post-it notes and industrial and consumer products said adjusted earnings this year would be between $7 to $7.30 per share as it reported second-quarter results. That boosted the midpoint of 3M’s forecast to $7.15, up a dime from its previous outlook.

The results are the first under CEO Bill Brown, who succeeded Mike Roman on May 1. Brown inherited a much smaller company following the spinoff of 3M’s huge health care products division unit amid massive legal liabilities.

Brown kicked off his first earnings call by stressing the need to accelerate 3M’s sales growth. To get there, he wants to increase the pace of new product development.

Revenue from new products has steadily declined over the past decade as 3M shifted spending and focus to other needs, such as exiting its “forever chemicals” business and revamping its complex supply chain, Brown said. And although 3M has identified sectors such as electric cars and semiconductors as key sources of growth, “these efforts aren’t material enough today to offset erosion in our core,” he said.

“The simple fact is our products are aging” in 3M’s core businesses, he said.

He also plans to reduce the organization’s complexity. For example, a Command strip passes through five factories and two distribution centers before it gets to the customer, he said.

“We’ll take a fresh look at what cost is embedded in that complexity,” Brown said in an interview. The aerospace veteran was named to the top job in March.

Adding to the company’s challenges is that it’s also looking for a new chief financial officer after announcing earlier this month that Monish Patolawala would depart for Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.

Adjusted earnings were $1.93 a share for the second quarter. Analysts on average expected $1.68 a share, but it wasn’t immediately clear if their estimates are comparable to the company’s number. Net sales were $6.26 billion, outpacing Wall Street’s expectations.

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