How to Remove the Stress from Your Finances

My first and most important suggestion: Whatever you are dealing with is temporary and it will eventually pass! Although, I would not recommend keeping things “out of mind and out of sight”, just know that things will eventually work themselves out. Keep at it and stick with it! Never give up on hope and never lose faith.

How to Take Control of Your Financial Stress

The first step is almost always to create a budget and understand where your finances are going awry. If you don’t understand the problem you won’t be able to get a better understanding of your situation and how to fix it. Create a monthly budget, find ways to cut costs and stick to it. The easiest way to do this is by simply putting together an income and expense evaluation. List your income on one side and monthly expenses on the other.

For Discretionary Spending

Evaluate the opportunity cost of your money. Often times people have savings sitting in an account with loads of credit card debt charging them 20% APR’s every month. This makes no financial sense! Although psychologically, having that savings account might make you feel more at ease, keeping that money in savings as opposed to paying down debt is literally like burning money. Your money is going to be worth more paying down debt.

You should definitely consider being more conservative with any investments, if you are stressed by your current finances. Sometimes you need to focus on the short term in order to set yourself up for the long term.

Talk About it With Your Friends and Family

Although carrying financial burdens and debt can often be stigmatized, more often than not, your friends and family have been there before and may be able to provide some insight or at the least some useful advice. You don’t have to go into extreme detail about it but it definitely will help talking about it with someone you know and trust.

Sometimes just discussing the debt with family can help relieve stress on it's own. Letting go and having an open and free conversation can be very freeing.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Take your time to make small changes every single day and get yourself out of your comfort zone. Something as simple as not purchasing a $5 beverage from Starbucks may not seem significant but any change (no matter how small) is always a move in the right direction. Change is often times scary but we all need to do our best to adapt. Implementing a small change can often times be the best way to make a small stride towards bettering your financial situation.