DEALING WITH MONEY STRESS AND ANXIETY

DEALING WITH MONEY STRESS AND ANXIETY


Money is a major cause of stress and anxiety for at least one among every five
adult you see, According to the American Psychological Association (APA), 72%
of adults report feeling stressed about money, adults are often worried about
paying for their rent, feeding, clothing or feeling they will be bogged down by
debt. Having serious Financial stress and anxiety has major effects on your
health, Stress itself irrespective of the source be it financial stress, emotional
stress etc can cause heart attacks, strokes, and many other serious health
issues, this thus shows the extent to which money stress and anxiety is linked to
so many of the health issues adults experience and why it must be properly
dealt with.
Money stress and anxiety which is simply the act of feeling nervous, worried,
having fear, being under pressure and unease about your Money or finances
has been responsible for so much harm in personal finances, corporate finance
and even public finances. Some persons and entities have become heavily
indebted, having sleepless nights over money stress, some have even become
bankrupt for not being able to manage and deal properly with their money stress
and anxiety.
Furthermore, research have proven that people with so much financial stress
are always desperate to get money by all means, this has made some people
become prey to all sort of financial scams online and offline making them lose
thousands and millions of the money.
Apparently, 45% of all human activities throughout their lifetime are often traced
to the quest of getting money or more money; this alone has been a significant
factor responsible for money being a major source of the stress and anxiety
experienced in the world today.
Money stress and anxiety can be caused by different reasons like:
1. Little or no knowledge about money and management of finance
2. Having Very Little or no savings
3. Dwindling Income
4. Dependence on one source of income
5. Increased Expenses over Income
6. High Debt Levels
7. Volatile stock market
8. Unfavorable business environments
9. Unnecessary competition with peers and undue pressure from family
members / friends.
Other reasons include: laziness, illness, job loss, accident, divorce, excessive
shopping, addictions, spending before earning, High and irresponsible spending
with your income could also cause undue financial stress.
Now that we have known what money stress and anxiety is, and also known the
probable causes of money stress and anxiety, let us look into how we can deal
with it.

FIVE (5) PRACTICAL WAYS TO DEALING WITH MONEY STRESS

1. ACQUIRE AND APPLY BASIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT MONEY/ FINANCE:
Socrates wrote “the only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance”, this
is not arguable as knowledge plays the most important role in one’s life, to deal
with your money stress and anxiety, you need to learn and understand the
money pathway, acquire and apply practicable knowledge on the basic
principles of money, what money is, what money is not, how to legitimately
make money either through an active or passive measure, manage your money
effectively / efficiently through saving, spending, investing and the entire know
how about money.

2. DEVELOP A PLAN FOR YOUR MONEY / FINANCES
An axiom goes that “He who fails to plan indirectly plans to fail”, developing
a sound financial plan goes a long way in making you have a stress-free state of
mind. In accounting, before a new fiscal year begins, the first and most
important accounting function is preparing the budget which is simply financial
plans expressed in monetary terms, you too can prepare this, and it will help in
planning your finances.
The process of preparing a budget for either personal or corporate finance is
simple; start with computing and adding up all your probable income from all
sources (all expected cash inflows) followed by subtracting all your probable
expenses (all expected cash outflows), either weekly, monthly, quarterly,
yearly, once you have done this, you will get a fair idea of your financial
standing, it will show you when your expense will be higher than your income, it
will also disclose when your expense will be less than your income. This allows
you to invest in a healthy and safe investment options as at when necessary and
also disclose when to borrow or reduce your expenses, furthermore developing
a plan for your money and finances will assist you in keeping adequate control
of your expenses as you will be comparing your expenses with your budget.
You may feel overwhelmed and think that a budget is only going to add to your
financial stress, but it is the best tool you have in other to get full control of your
finances and stop worrying about money.

3. PROPERLY MANAGE YOUR DEBT
Persons and entities in debt, owing whatever amount are likely to be in the
anguish of money stress and anxiety. Most times, it is not necessarily being in
debt that puts people in the stress but also the fear of getting into debt also
causes anxiety. Whichever way, debt can be avoided with a strong financial plan
in place.
The idea is not to get rid of debt over night, but it is to make significant progress
gradually. List all your debts and add priorities them, debt rescheduling remains
a best option for settling huge financial debts since setting a plan for repaying
debts helps you pay off your debt slowly.
If you are not in debt currently, but fear that you soon will be, planning is the key
again. Create a Plan for emergencies by setting up an emergency fund or a
precautionary fund. This way you know that you have secured yourself
financially for any emergency that poses the risk of you getting into debt in the
future.

4. GIVE YOUR MIND REST: Things might be going very well but yet you feel stressed, probably because we humans often give our mind to worrying at all times. It is also likely that you
might be feeling lost because you feel you don’t entirely understand where you
are headed financially. Stop being worried about your financial challenges but
look at the best ways and measures out of such challenges; sometimes it is
always a good idea to ease yourself by talking to only some persons that can
proffer good solutions about your financial worries. You can confide in your
professional financial advisors and experts.
Giving your mind rest does not just give you ease from money stress but also
give you peace, happiness and good health
.
5. MANAGE FRIENDS, PEER AND FAMILY PRESSURE UNDER CONTROL
A friend once mentioned that most of her stress financially comes from friends,
peers and family members who expect she should be spending excessively,
anytime she refuses to spend, they will say she is being stingy.

Truth being told; an attempt to please everyone often result in pleasing no one,
you don’t have to carry excessive bills to make all your friends, peers and family
members happy with you, yes it is necessary to assist them but not to the extent
of indirectly putting yourself into unnecessary stress.
Furthermore, the desire to compete with peers causes stress, you have to be
contented with what you have, don’t get indebted as a result of your quest to
dress like friends or behave like them, talk to yourself and put that pressure
under control, Being able to properly manage pressures from friends, peers and
family pressure will go a long way in dealing your money stress as a significant
constituent of the stress come from friends, peers and family members.

Crown up
Money and finances are two things that we can never get enough of at any point
in time. The truth is that no matter how much you strive, you won’t be able to get
sufficient money to meet all your needs at any time, being stressed or anxious
about money is almost normal but one can easily get rid of it.
Yes, Money is not everything in life though almost everything in life revolves
around money, however being worried about money does not bring so much
money but it reduces your chances of getting money and also increases your
problems.

Everyday try to ensure you do one of the following; Learn about Money,
Make Money, Safe Money, Invest Money and Spend Money Prudently.