A framework for thinking about financial stress All of us have experienced stress at one time or another. But have you really stopped to think about what stress is? When you strip it down to its most basic level, stress is an emotional response to a threat. Within the context of our finances, that threat comes from a feeling that we don’t have power and/or control over our money – and by extension, we don’t have power and/or control over all of the things that money can do for us. For a quick and obvious example of how this feeling of being under threat works, consider how you feel when you worry about not having enough money. You might feel powerless to retire when you want to. Or you might feel powerless to do some of the things that have been on your “bucket list.” Or, on a more day-to-day level, you might feel that you lack the power to choose to go out for dinner tonight, rather than cooking a cheaper meal at home. There are a lot of ways in which this feeling of financial powerlessness or lack of control manifests itself. We might feel that we don’t understand how our portfolio works, for example. Or that we lack control over the time which we have to spend managing it. We might feel that we lack the power or knowledge to make the right financial decisions. We might be concerned about how our children lack the financial ability to afford a down payment – and we might feel stressed about whether we have the financial power to help them. And, of course, even the most experienced investors can feel powerless in the face of a stock market downturn. On the surface, all of these worries and concerns are about different financial subjects. But when you actually think about it, they all come back to this central issue of control or power. Looking at financial stress in this way, it stands to reason that if we want to de-stress our financial lives, we need to focus on taking back our power and De-stress your financial life Simple strategies for minimizing money worries and getting rid of financial anxiety By James Dolan Finance Question: when was the last time you felt stressed? If you’re like most people, it probably wasn’t all that long ago that you had something on your mind that caused you to be at least a little worried about what’s going on in your life … or unsettled about the state of the world … or a little anxious about what might happen (or not happen) in the hours, days or weeks to come. But if there’s one subject that will be on nearly everyone’s stress list in some form or another, it’s finances. On one level, this is understandable: money (or the lack thereof) is something that touches nearly every aspect of our lives. And our worries and anxieties surrounding our finances can have a “knock-on” effect and determine how much stress we feel about many other life situations that involve money. But on another level, it’s a little strange that money should be the cause of so much stress. Because, unlike so many other issues about which we may be worried (climate change, the war in Ukraine, the stock market, etc.), financial stress remains largely within our personal ability to control. By making some common-sense decisions to avoid financial problems, and by pursuing some tried-and-true strategies to manage, simplify and clarify the financial part of our lives, we can greatly reduce the impact of financial stress upon our well-being. With that in mind, here are some thoughts which might clarify exactly what we’re going through when we feel financial stress, along with some practical strategies for reducing the money worries that can sometimes cause us to lose sleep. 24 | www.snowbirds.org
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