Photo Mikhail Nilov
Smart money management isn’t just about protecting your bank account. It’s also important for your mental health. Stressing about money can take a negative toll on your well-being, leaving you in a constant state of anxiety. If your financial situation deteriorates further, you may also have to deal with stressful tasks like filing for bankruptcy, which can further take a toll on your wellbeing. Find out how to maintain financial health and reduce stress with these tips from Bliss Planet below.
Understand how financial problems can harm your mental and physical health
If you find yourself nervously eyeing your bank account and afraid to open your monthly bills, you aren’t alone. Financial stress is a problem that many people deal with. However, not everyone is aware of just how detrimental financial problems can be to an individual’s emotional happiness. Money worries can lead to ongoing stress, which may increase your risk of issues like anxiety and depression, making it impossible to enjoy everyday life.
Sometimes, mental health issues and poor financial management go hand-in-hand. For example, if a person is feeling depressed, they might get a brief high from buying something, resulting in a spending spree. This can result in a vicious cycle. The person is worried about money and gets depressed. They then buy something and feel better briefly—but this exacerbates their overall money problems, returning them to a depressive state.
In the big picture, long-term stress about financial issues can impact not only your mental health but also your physical wellbeing. The Mayo Clinic explains that chronic stress increases your risk for many health issues, like high blood pressure, which is linked to an increased likelihood of stroke and heart attack. In the short term, stress can also cause uncomfortable symptoms like muscle aches, headaches, and indigestion.
Create a personal financial management plan for greater stability in the future
Money problems aren’t just bad for your bank account. They’re also bad for your mental and physical wellbeing. The good news is that you can help stay financially healthy and safeguard your body and mind by seizing control of your money. Start by creating a budget and making a list of your monthly income and expenses. You can then use this budget to manage and track your spending. Expense-tracking apps can help.
When you create your budget, make sure to include a category for savings. Every month, put aside some money into this emergency fund. When unexpected costs arise, like a car repair, you’ll have the cash you need to cover it and won’t have to use a credit card or take out a loan, which incurs interest. Frozen Pennies provides tips for saving money, like packing your own lunch, creating an interest-bearing account, and setting savings goals.
When creating your budget, you also want to tackle any outstanding debts you have. It’s important to eliminate debt because you don’t want to keep paying interest on money you owe. There are many approaches to tackling debt. Some people start by tackling the largest debt, for example, while others prefer to pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first. You can also consider debt consolidation, which involves rolling all your debts into one loan.
Smart money management isn’t just about reducing expenses and debts. You can also improve your financial stability by increasing your income. With more money coming in, it will be easier to tackle debts and boost your savings. One way to do this is to establish a side hustle. In addition to your main source of income, you can do other small jobs you enjoy, from pet sitting to driving for a rideshare company.
If your side hustle takes off, you can even set it up as a formal business entity. Creating a limited liability company, LLC, offers some distinct advantages. It protects your personal liability in case of legal troubles, improves flexibility, minimizes administrative burden, and has tax advantages. The laws for creating LLCs vary between states, so check your area’s guidelines before going ahead with your company’s formation.
Another area where you’ll need to exercise smart money management is when purchasing a home. You may have heard about purchasing a foreclosed home and wondered “what does foreclosure mean?” Foreclosure is part of the legal process by which a lender repossesses a home whose own is delinquent on payments. Importantly, however, these homes can often be purchased for less money than they would otherwise as a result. This can be very helpful to a homebuyer who is willing to be patient and thorough.
If you’re still struggling to get your money under control, consider seeking help. A financial advisor can provide the guidance you need. These professionals offer various specialties and can assist with everything from wealth management to tax preparation and investment advice. When selecting an advisor, interview a few different professionals. You want to find someone who is qualified and knowledgeable, and who you feel comfortable with.
Come up with strategies to address stress head-on with self-care
Even if you take the steps above to get smarter about your financial management, it’s inevitable that you will still run into money concerns now and then. For example, surprise expenses like medical bills can arise. While you can’t eliminate stress about money matters from your life completely, you can control how you address that stress. Implementing some basic self-care will help you keep anxiety at bay.
Self-care doesn’t have to mean drinking green juice or running marathons. There are many ways you can implement self-care in your everyday life. This list includes activities that take 15 minutes or less. Options include taking a walk, enjoying a cup of coffee, doing a 15-minute YouTube workout, or stretching. A simple task like calling up a friend for a quick chat and a laugh is yet another way to bust stress.
Meditation is another activity you can try to reduce stress and improve self-care. As Insider explains, the benefits of meditation are backed by science. Research shows that it can improve self-awareness, concentration, and self-esteem. It’s also shown to reduce anxiety and lower levels of cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress. Simply repeating a word or a phrase during meditation has a calming effect on the mind and body.
Stressing about money is never fun. On top of that, worries about your finances can cause mental health issues, which can also lead to physical ailments in the big picture. Protect your bank account and improve your overall well-being by following the tips above.
Author: Virginia Cooper
Virginia Cooper is a retired community college instructor. She always encouraged her students to see the real-world value in their education, and now, she wants to spread that message as wide as possible. Her hope is that Learn a Living will be a go-to resource for adult learners embarking on starting, continuing, or finishing their education.
