The Causes Of Financial Stress & How To Avoid It
Money makes the world go round, but it can also be a source of worry for a lot of people. It can be tough to have enough of it and it can be hard to keep hold of too, so there are times when people need to look at alternative methods of funding. Options like credit cards, bad credit payday loans, and extended overdrafts are some of the most popular choices as they provide you with the cash you need super-fast.
These could alleviate some of your stress, but it won’t eliminate the cause and it might not help you avoid it in the future. So, if you want to know what’s causing your financial stress and how you can stay free of it in the future, keep reading.
Overspending
Spending more money than you have is a very common cause of financial stress, and it’s extremely easy for anyone to do. Living beyond your means, while not sensible, can be an attractive lifestyle as it gives you all the latest things that help you feel part of the in-crowd. It could also be things like eating out at restaurants too often or going on too many weekend shopping trips that rinse your bank accounts and put a strain on your finances.
You might not even realise that you’re doing it that often, but if you were to look at your spending habits over the past few months, you’d probably be very surprised. Living beyond your means has a knock-on effect in the other areas of your finances, as it makes it harder for you to pay bills and stay out of debt, which will eventually lead to a lot of stress.
Missing Bill Payments
Speaking of struggling to pay bills, missing your bill payments puts a lot of financial stress on your life. This is because one missed bill can soon wrack up late fees and make it way more expensive than it was before. It may seem insignificant to you at the time, but in the grand scheme of things, missing just one bill payment is enough to put immense financial strain on your purse strings.
Low Income
Having a low income is definitely one of the causes of financial stress. It can be hard when you’re not earning enough money, and the struggles that come with a low wage job can be tough to deal with. It may seem as though as soon as your wages come in, they all go out on your bill and leave you with barely anything left. Though there may not be an immediate solution, you may be able to ease your stress once it increases.
More Outgoings Than Your Income
Having more money going out of your account than you’ve got coming in is instantly going to be a cause of financial stress. It might not even be intentional, say if you’ve been overspending. Sometimes our bills can mount up and be more money than we actually have, and it becomes impossible to live without some type of financial stress or pressure on you.
How To Avoid Financial Stress
Although financial stress is hard to deal with, it can be combatted and potentially eliminated with the right methodology. Find out below how you can avoid it once and for all.
Budgeting
Budgeting is one of the best ways you can reduce financial stress. Make a list of all your in goings and outgoings, and then work out how much money you have left after you’ve paid them all. This number can then be broken down into further categories and used to create a realistic budget. You don’t want to make it too strict that it becomes hard to stick to either. You want to make it so that it will allow you to still enjoy a few little luxuries, but not overdo them. With a budget, you’ll easily be able to avoid overspending and hopefully be able to manage your outgoings a lot better too.
Automate Your Bills
Missing your bills is a big contributor to the stress of your finances, so make them automated so that you don’t forget to pay them ever again. You can easily set up automatic payments with the provider and make it so that they come out of your account when it’s suitable for you. If you have your bills come out on the 15th of each month, but you get paid on the 30th, try speaking to the repayment party and asking if you can change the date it comes out so that you can always ensure it’s paid on time.
Reduce Your Outgoings
It might seem like an impossible task, but you really should look to reduce your outgoings if you want to lower the amount of financial stress that you’re under. Start by looking at your debt and seeing if you can get it paid off sooner so that you can lower your outgoings in the long run. You can then look at other smaller outgoings like subscriptions to streaming services and such can be cancelled or decreased slightly.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have a Netflix subscription, but if you’re paying for four or more different streaming services, chances are, you can probably get rid of a few of them. By reducing your outgoings, you can boost how much money you have left over after paying your bills and help ease the stress you were feeling before.
Look For Ways To Boost Your Income
Although boosting your income is easier said than done, there are things you can do that help increase it without having to change jobs. You could sell your old possessions that are too good to be thrown away, have your own side hustle where you sell your own little creations, or even start working freelance alongside your current job.
Something as simple as being a house sitter can help give you a bit of extra cash too, so don’t feel like you have to be working 50 hours a week to make more money. Boosting your income will help you always stay in the green and it will definitely banish your financial stress.
Financial stress isn’t something you can avoid completely, and it may appear throughout your life at different times. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept it! There are lots of causes of financial stress, which also means there are solutions to it as well.
Try implementing some of these tips on avoiding it, and you’ll hopefully find that your stress starts to dissipate. Before long, you’ll be a whizz at managing your finances and stress will be a distant memory.
