5 Strategies to Keep Your Finances from Adversely Affecting Your Mental Health- By Ally Willis

Stressed about finances? You’re in good company.

The American Psychology Association’s Stress in America 2020 survey noted that “nearly 2 in 3 adults (64%) say that money is a significant source of stress in their life.”

The pandemic — and its financial domino effect — aside, these numbers hold up from previous years. In the Stress in America 2019 survey, 60% of adults reported finances as a top personal stressor.?

The point: We’ve always been stressed about money, pandemic or no pandemic.

As a freelance writer and marketer who works primarily with small businesses, the pandemic hit my clients hard and rippled out to affect me. Money stress was always my personal default; 2020 just amplified it. I noticed that this financial stress — some of it based in reality, most of it just me dwelling on theoretical future scenarios — made my mind hyper-focused on money and my body tense with anxiety.?

Whether your financial stress is grounded in challenges you’re currently facing or fear of future pitfalls, here are five strategies to keep your finances from adversely affecting your mental health.?

1. Train your brain??

There are your classic money tips: make a budget, create an emergency fund, save for retirement, pay off debt. While these tactical actions can create healthy personal finances, they don’t necessarily create a healthy mind. You need a different strategy for that.

It’s important to assess your relationship with money. Money is a tool to be used, not a souvenir to be hoarded. Unlike time, it’s a renewable resource. While saving for the future is a responsible way to steward your resources, saving simply for the sake of a bigger bank statement shifts into viewing money, in itself, as the end goal.

Without a mindset change, any money “rules” I set for myself are just restrictions I bump up against. So I developed this daily money mantra: I have everything I need for today. With this reminder, I’m able to ground myself in the present moment, releasing the “what if?” disaster scenarios I sometimes paint of my financial future.

2. Practice self-compassion.

Studies find that self-compassion leads to better mental wellness. If you find yourself in a precarious financial situation, viewing this hurdle as a part of life — and not as an impossible failure to bounce back from — empowers you to make positive incremental changes while buffering against paralyzing shame and self-flagellation.?

3. Set boundaries

Do you really need to log into your checking account multiple times a week, helicopter-parent style? Answer: no. Set a day for finance-related tasks (Finance Fridays, anyone?), like updating your budget and monitoring your statements. Outside of this day, stay out of your accounts unless it’s an emergency.

4. Enroll in alerts and notifications

To that end, many major banking and credit card companies offer SMS and email alerts and notifications. Often, you can tailor these alerts to share only the information you need, like withdrawal/charge notifications or alerts if something fishy appears to be happening with your account. With these set up, you’ll feel comfortable — and safe — setting boundaries to only check your accounts once a week.

5. Automate

Automation serves a dual purpose: It keeps you from forgetting to pay bills on time, and it allows you to stick to your once-a-week finance day. By automating your payments, you can set it and (temporarily) forget it, freeing your mind from money worries.