Let's be honest: the link between money and wellbeing can be a tricky one at best, and overwhelmingly complex at worst.

Though we might like to think otherwise, our financial health can affect our wellbeing - including our moods and our ability to do things that improve other aspects of our lives - in more ways than we expect. For many people, myself included, our relationship with money can more difficult than we're often ready to admit.

With money, the playing field isn't equal for any of us.

What makes it even tougher to navigate is that all of our financial responsibilities are different. Managing other aspects of health and wellbeing can come down to following pre-set plans, templates and guides; not so with money, where the playing field isn't equal for any of us.

While we might have the basics under control, with enough money coming in to cover our essential spending like rent/mortgage, bills and food, it's not so easy working out how much money we can comfortably spend on ourselves. And more importantly, how to spend it on ourselves without feeling guilty.

One of the best budgeting rules to counteract this is the 50-30-20 Rule. In its basic form, the rule recommends putting 50% of your total income toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings.

Needs are, of course, those things that we have to pay for whether we like it or not. Rent? Yep. Bills? Better believe it. Food? If you want to make it to next month. Any overhanging credit card payments? Keep on top of them - until you're in the clear, these fall under the essential category.

‍Savings is any money you're putting away for the future. What this means for you is up to you. It might be new car money, an emergency fund, money towards a down payment, or even smaller pots for more than one of these things. Regardless, 20% of your total income should be going towards the future.

‍Wants are, naturally, the most fun category. These are the non-essential things that, nonetheless, make life worth living. Hobbies, fancy meals, a leisure activity, a new tech purchase - the important thing is that anything within this 30% category is guilt-free spending on yourself.

No matter what your level of income, we all have a base level of wants and needs. working out how we navigate those wants and needs can be the first step towards real financial freedom, and more importantly, to better wellbeing.