How to Stop Worrying About Money

Have you ever laid awake at night wondering how you will buy groceries or pay the rent this month? If so, you’re certainly not alone. Approximately 73% of adults state that money is one of their main causes of stress. Whether you’re anxious about your bills, your debt, or your financial future, the constant worry can be overwhelming. While financial anxiety is common, it doesn’t have to be a normal part of your life. Keep reading to learn how to stop stressing about money and start feeling more secure in your financial future. 

1. Identify your stressors

The first step to relieve money worries is to determine what causes your stress. Is it a large amount of debt? Could it be your excessive spending habits? Are you living paycheck to paycheck? It could be helpful to create a short list of your biggest money problems. Write down your stressors and update it every three to six months as your circumstances change. Once you pinpoint exactly what contributes to your money stress, it allows you to come up with a solution more easily. Writing down your worries could also help you recognize new patterns that lead to anxious money tendencies.

2. Create a plan

Once you’ve identified your stressors, the next step is to create a plan to deal with them. Making a plan is a solution that helps almost every financial problem. A plan will make you feel like you’re in control of your finances, in turn reducing your stress and anxiety. Create a detailed budget to clearly see where your money is going. Having your income, living expenses, debts, and savings mapped out can give you clarity and peace of mind. Consider including a list of short-term financial goals to keep your personal finance plan on track. 

3. Evaluate and adjust your plan

Fortunately, a financial plan is dynamic, meaning that it can be adapted to your circumstances. If you lose your job or end up paying more for your utilities than you planned for, you’ll be able to adjust accordingly. You’ll also need to adjust when you have more money than you originally planned for. With extra money, such as income from a lucrative side hustle, you can add it to your savings or retirement fund. Ultimately, the plan or budget you create will rarely be perfect the first time. It will take some trial and error, so be ready to evaluate and adjust your plan if necessary. 

4. Build an emergency fund

An important part of your plan to relieve financial stress should include building or contributing to your emergency fund. Having an added layer of security for unexpected expenses will allow you to feel more comfortable with your finances. You never know when you might experience job loss, car repairs, or health problems. To quell your worries, you’ll want to have three to six months of expenses saved up in a bank account. This will allow you adequate time to get your finances back on track if an emergency occurs.

5. Educate yourself 

One of the best stress management techniques is to increase your financial understanding. Constantly worrying about money can stem from feeling uneducated and confused while making choices for your financial future. Reading financial books and listening to money podcasts are good ways to help you learn more and curb your money anxieties. By educating yourself on personal finance and what’s happening in the financial world, you can increase your confidence. Money usually becomes less stressful when it changes from something intimidating into something you understand and can control.

6. Reduce your debt strategically 

Credit card debt and student loans are common, so it’s easy to normalize the financial worries that come with them. These debts can be expensive and slow down your savings goals. Luckily, creating a plan to manage your debt(s) can help eliminate some of that money stress. One strategic method to reduce debt is to pay off the debts with the highest interest rates first. Alternatively, using the snowball method, paying off your debts from smallest to largest, may motivate you to eliminate your debts little by little. Determine which approach will work best for your unique circumstances by conducting research and evaluating your options.

7. Stop comparing yourself, especially online

It’s important to avoid comparing your finances with others both in-person and online. Social media can deceive you into thinking you’re behind others financially. Comparing yourself can be detrimental to your mental health and make you feel stuck in your stressful financial situation. When, in fact, you’re usually not seeing the full picture. Friends or acquaintances may post photos from fancy restaurants and breathtaking landscapes online. But in real life, they could be dipping into their emergency fund or going into debt to cover the costs of their aesthetic lifestyle. 

8. Abolish financial shame 

If you have struggled with spending money excessively or ignoring your budget, you are not alone. You should know that your past money mistakes do not define you. However, developing a pattern of financial mismanagement can lead to feelings of embarrassment and shame surrounding your finances. Feeling guilty can also cause you to become paralyzed by financial fear, resulting in passivity. This can become a vicious cycle of inaction, as you worry about how your potential money mistakes will affect your future but not act to correct them. It's perfectly normal to want to enhance your financial well-being, so don’t let feelings of financial shame weigh you down. The fact that you wish to improve shows that you’re already moving in the right direction.

9. Set up direct deposit and automatic payments

Gone are the days of taking a check to the bank to deposit it or cash it. Today, you have the opportunity to get your paycheck automatically deposited into your checking account. You also have the ability to set up autopayments for things like rent or utility bills. Automating your payments can save you the constant worry of wondering if you’ve paid your balance and give you peace of mind. Because of the available technology, you could also set up auto-transfers to your savings or an investment account. This way, you will know exactly where your money is going, and you won’t be tempted to spend it on unnecessary purchases. 

10. Consider outside help

Maybe you’re not satisfied with your progress on paying down your debt, or maybe you want guidance on some long-term financial goals. When you’re at this point, you may want to consider outside help. Just as you would get a personal trainer to help you improve your physical health, a financial planner could help improve your money health. Often, a financial advisor will offer a fresh perspective and financial expertise that you may be missing. Likewise, you can always talk to your friends and family members for support. However, money can be a sensitive and divisive topic. So, it may be wise to first set some boundaries in order to avoid straining these relationships.

11. Allow your concern to motivate you 

While it’s okay to be concerned about your finances, you cannot let the feelings overwhelm you. Not only do financial worries affect your mental health, they also can lead to high blood pressure. Nonetheless, being anxious about your money is a passive way of dealing with your finances. Alternatively, you should allow your worries to motivate you to make better financial decisions and save money. Consider approaching personal finance with a sense of respect and responsibility, not fear. This new mindset could allow you to plan for your future and eliminate your anxiety from the past and present.

When you worry about money, it won’t magically make a wad of cash appear in front of you. You’ll need to become more active in your finances and share the load with a trusted friend when it gets too heavy. Even if you make some mistakes, you’re still progressing from how you used to manage your money. In the end, learning how to become more confident about your money decisions is a matter of education, action, and respect. With this new mindset, you’ll stop worrying about money and start managing your finances confidently in no time.