Financial Anxiety vs. Financial Concern
It is not uncommon to have concerns or worry about money from time to time, for example, during the holiday gift giving season, a wedding, or the birth of a baby. A plan is put into place to cover the expenses, and the concern or worry passes.
Financial concern is different from financial anxiety. Financial anxiety is when the worry or concern doesn’t pass. When the concern or worry turns into an obsessive fear. The fear doesn’t even have to relate to a lack of money, for example:
- Fear of opening bills because you might not have enough money
- Not balancing your checkbook because there might be less in your account than you think
- Avoiding looking at the grocery receipt because it might be more than you thought it would be
But money anxiety doesn’t necessarily mean you have no money at all. You could make an income you consider perfectly decent and still fret about your mortgage, or worry about losing all your savings to an unexpected medical bill or other major expense. Maybe you pay all your current bills easily, but you still can’t push down the uneasy feeling that you should be saving more for your retirement.
Financial anxiety stems from an uncertainty of what the future holds. It’s a fear of not having the resources available to meet your needs or face challenges that lie ahead.
Historical Reasons You Might have Financial Anxiety
You are more likely to feel stressed or anxious about money if you have:
- A history of poverty of deprivation
- A low income
- An unsteady or seasonal job
- Existing debt, for example, credit cards
- A difference of opinion with a significant other about spending and saving
Behaviors that May Demonstrate Financial Anxiety
You are probably pretty aware if you have financial anxiety! However, there may be some behaviors that you aren’t aware of that speak to your anxiety concerning finances:
- Gambling: Have you thought of gambling as a way of bringing more money into your household?
- Hoarding: Are you unable to throw unwanted things out, because you aren’t sure if you would have the money to replace them?
- Substance use: Do you find yourself turning to alcohol or other substances to cope with financial stress?
- Compulsiveness: Are you continually checking your online bank account to make sure you have enough money to cover direct withdrawal payments?
- Doomscrolling: Do you read or watch gloom and doom financial discussions on social media and the 24-hour news cycle?
- Overspending: Do you find yourself overspending as a temporary relief from financial anxiety?
- Poor planning / unable to prioritize: Do you avoid planning for future events, for example, college for your children, life insurance or retirement?
- Obsessive Saving: Do you delay home repair, preventive health care, vacations or buying a reliable car so you have money in the bank for the future.
Physical Effects of Financial Anxiety
Financial anxiety can cause many physical effects, including:
- Insomnia
- Loss of appetite or overeating
- Feeling exhausted
- Unexplained aches and pains
- Headaches
- Heart palpitations
- Sweating
Methods for Improving your Financial Wellness
You can’t always fix the state of your bank account as you might like and eliminate the stress directly. But you can take steps to manage money-related anxiety.
Rather than remaining frozen in fear, consider ways you can alleviate financial stress and take control of your personal finances. Here are some suggestions to help you cope with financial anxiety:
- Set a financial goal for yourself, then do it.
- Create a household budget to control your spending.
- Stop using your credit cards for anything except emergencies.
- Create an emergency fund will give you peace of mind.
- Put money into a savings account every week, even if it is a dollar.
- Talk with a financial advisor, someone who can help you develop a plan for financial security.
Relationships Relearned: Learn. Unlearn. Relearn
To be in a healthy, successful relationship, what you learned in childhood about relationships may need to be unlearned and relearned in a different way as an adult.
Everyone learns about finances in childhood. You either learned healthy ways of managing money from your parents or caregivers (parental discussions about saving for college, paying bills on time) or you learned unhealthy ways of managing money (fights about money, repossessions). If you were lucky, your parents talked with you about healthy spending, saving and investing habits.
Sadly, many children observed unhealthy financial habits, for example, no savings, using credit cards to live on, and living beyond their means. The unhealthy financial decisions you observed may be the direct reason you have financial anxiety as an adult! These are the behaviors that will need to be unlearned.
Relearning a healthier relationship with money will require you to:
- Have an honest and open discussion about money with your significant other or if you are single, an honest discussion with yourself!
- Review and put into practice some or all the tips included in the Methods for Improving Your Financial Wellness section of this blog.
Take Away Points
You are not alone in having financial concerns. Many people today are feeling financial pain at the gas pump and at the grocery store. Financial anxiety can become all-consuming. The results can be disastrous for your physical and mental health.
With warmest regards,
| AI has not been used to create any content for my website, articles, blogs or books. All material is original unless otherwise noted. All photos and graphics within my website and blogs were taken or created by David Harrington or Kathryn Maietta. |
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