Products and services alluding to financial mindfulness abound, but what exactly are they promising?

According to new research from a Cornell professor and colleagues, financial mindfulness can be defined not just as awareness of how much money one has, but by acceptance.

"When you hear people use the term 'financial mindfulness," they seem to be tapping into financial awareness," said Emily Garbinsky, associate professor of marketing and management communication in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

"You'll see things like a budgeting journal or mobile app promising to make you more financially mindful. But what they are really doing hinges on financial awareness, or helping people keep track of how much money they currently have."

"What we think is special and important about our definition," she said, "is that we make the case that financial acceptance is also really important."

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