Health & Wealth: What is the Key?
How many times have you tried to go to sleep as your mind keeps racing about your finances?
It has been reported that within the U.S, 72% of respondents to an American Psychological Association survey reported feeling stressed about money. Half of this number reported depression stemming from the initial financial stress, with no means of emotional support as they tried to emerge from financial doldrums.
There is a common misconception that the more money you have, the happier you will be. Financial stress does no limit itself to one specific income level. A 2014 Financial Finesse, Inc. survey found that 89% of people earning less than $60,000 reported feeling stress over finances. The same survey stated 68% of individuals earning in excess of $100,000 reported feeling the same type of financial stress.
Stress, especially financial stress, can cause not only psychological turmoil, depression and anxiety, but also physical ramifications to an individual’s health. When a body is under stress, health can be impacted through lack of concentration, increases in blood pressure, heart attack, strokes, digestive issues, weight gain, and sleep issues.
How Do You Manage Your Financial Stress?
A Key to Managing Financial Stress and the Physical and Psychological impacts upon your health is to Manage Your Finances.
Easy Right?
Managing Finances is one of the hardest of all tasks. You are constantly juggling the pressures of paying bills, preparing for the future, and living everyday life.
So How Can It Be done?
- Define your financial goals. Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 30 years?
- Make sure everyone in your family understands these goals.
- Make a REALISTIC BUDGET. There are no cookie-cutter answers to your financial situation. Everyone is different. Craft a budget that meets your family’s needs…with a few wants thrown in as well.
- Take a Deep Breath…and Smile. Once you start managing your finances in a REALISTIC way, your stress level should decrease.
- Give Yourself a Break. For everything that your try to prepare for, life will throw you a curve occasionally. That’s OK. If you fall off the financial wagon today…get back up on it tomorrow.
Almost everyone worries about their finances. YOU ARE NOT ALONE in this type of stress. One you acknowledge your financial stress you can use some of the steps above to begin to manage your finances and therefore your stress. If it becomes overwhelming, talk with a financial counselor about ways to manage your finances.
Remember…
When Health is absent, wealth is useless. Herophilos
