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3 Simple Ways To Cope With Money Stress

3 Simple Ways To Cope With Money Stress
Carly Jacobs
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hey say that money can’t buy happiness but I beg to differ. Obviously there are lots of miserable millionaires but on a basic level people who can pay their rent, buy food and not freak out when they open their gas bill are generally happier than people who don’t have those things. I know I sleep a lot easier at night when I have extra cash in the bank and I know a lot of other people feel the same way too. When I’m feeling crap about my financial situation I find these tips help a lot…

3 simple ways to cope with money stress

1. Be proactive

The reason why people feel so awful when they’re worried about money is because they feel like they’re out of control. One of the first steps to combating this, is to get back in control. It could be as simple as unsubscribing from that TV streaming service you signed up to a few months ago and never use or cancelling your ongoing delivery of the newspaper, if you only read it once a week. You could also set a budget and by that I mean actually sitting down and setting a budget. If you put it down on paper, it makes it real. Even just a few small changes like skipping your cafe coffee for a week can make you feel a lot more in control of your money and ease a little bit of the stress that’s worrying you.

2. Be realistic

Everyone has a different financial situation but whether you’re on government benefits or earning 6-figures as a corporate high flyer, it’s important to be realistic about what is financially viable for you. If you earn a minimum wage, you can probably budget for a holiday or a big ticket item purchase within the financial year but you might not be able to afford both. You also need to look at the reliability of your income. If you’re a casual worker it’s less likely that you can pay off a longer term loan than someone who is in a permanent position in their job. Ignoring money problems and debt won’t make them disappear, so get on board with your current financial situation and be realistic about fixing it.

3. Own your money stress

It can be really easy to play the blame game when you’ve got money issues like complaining that your boss doesn’t pay you enough, your partner spends too much money or have a whinge that restaurants are so expensive. Being a low income earner is no excuse to not have your finances in order. I went to school with a girl who went straight from year 12 into managing a fast food restaurant. She had no qualifications or training and totally bombed on her university entrance score. She bought a house as soon as humanly possible at the age of 19 without help from her parents. She now owns 3 houses and has worked her way up in the fast food industry and is earning four times more than me, and I have two bachelors degrees. Some circumstances do prevent people from becoming financially stable but lots of circumstances only masquerade as obstacles.

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Do you have money stresses? What’s your biggest issue with your finances right now?

 

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9 Comments

  1. Anna Buckley 9 years ago

    Great story Carly. Talking about money is still a bit of a taboo. Being financially literate is empowering. Managing money should be a form of applied maths taught in schools…a much more engaging approach to a rather dry, abstract subject students are choosing to avoid…girls in particular!

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs-Smaggle 9 years ago

      Oh definitely particularly for women, I’ve got lots of friends who are quite blasé about it, kind of waiting until their settled with a partner to sort out their finances but it needs to be done so much earlier than that.

  2. Jessica 9 years ago

    I like the first point about being proactive. I always find when something is stressing me out (money included, of course), having a plan of attack in place helps me deal with the stress.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs-Smaggle 9 years ago

      Definitely! Even just writing it all down so you have a direction to go in makes such a difference.

  3. Brilliant advice, lady! I used to suffer terribly from money stress, but I have found that confronting the issues and taking action makes me feel infinitely better than sticking my fingers in my ears and shouting “la la la la la”.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs-Smaggle 9 years ago

      Oh definitely! I’ve been a huge avoider of my bank account in the past but I find the more I embrace it, the better my financial situation becomes.

  4. KezUnprepared 9 years ago

    I definitely like to be proactive when I feel out of control of it all. After a few rough patches with my husband over the years (job losses and lack of ability to work due to injury), we learned a lot and now we have great fall back strategies for when things are a bit tight or we’re saving for something important.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs-Smaggle 9 years ago

      Oh that’s so great to hear! Mr Smags and I have had our money situation tested in the past few years and we’ve come up with some good copying mechanisms too.

  5. Michelle 9 years ago

    I love these tips! I recently started categorising my monthly expenditure on a spreadsheet so I can see exactly how much I’m spending and on what. Horrified at how much I spend on eating out and on cosmetics. Breaking it down into areas like that really highlights where you can cut back!

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