The impact of financial stress can be caused by many factors such as overwhelming debt, not earning enough money, paying for unexpected expenses and/or having unemployed family members.
Prolonged financial stress can negatively impact mental and physical health, as well as relationships and work performance.
Let’s look at a view health consequences of financial stress:
1. Poor physical health symptoms
Ongoing financial stress has been linked to chronic migraines, digestive problems, heart disease, sleepless nights, weight gain etc. When left untreated, these conditions can lead to life-threatening illnesses, which can put additional stress on your financial status.
2. Unable to afford the right healthcare
Many people run out of medical aid or simply cannot afford to go for a medical consultation, whether it is with a doctor or psychologist to help deal with their financial stress, and therefore do not get any medical attention.
Not getting any medical attention to help relieve the symptoms of financial stress can lead to even higher levels of stress and eventually more financial strain.
3. The toll on mental health
Often there is a link between mental health and financial stress. Poor financial health and heightened stress can lead to poor mental health, which then leads to increasingly higher financial worry, and so on.
Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression (just to mention a few) may develop with prolonged financial stress.
4. Low performance
Employees who struggle financially often bring that pressure to work. Financial stress can lead to increased absenteeism and tardiness, sick leave due to financial stress, employee turnover to cash out pension funds to pay-off debt, decreased morale, as well as lower quality work, avoidable errors, and inabilities to focus. Having employees who are financially stressed is proven to impact a company’s bottom line too.
Here are a few tips to improve financial wellness:
The only way to truly resolve the root cause problem of the stress, is to address the financial issues causing the stress.
1. Create a budget
A budget is an effective tool that can assist in gaining control over your finances again and ultimately reduce stress.
A budget helps you plan your expenses (and if needed to reduce it, such as debt) so that you are able to live within your financial means. A budget also assist you in determining the income you require to live the lifestyle your want to have, so that you are able to create additional income.
Using a budget requires dedication and persistence to make it work, but pays off when financial stress is eliminated.
2. Financial Goals
Financial goals helps you plan for the future, in terms of what you need and want, and how much you need to save to achieve it. The key learning point is to have savings to achieve such goals.
3. An emergency fund
An emergency fund consists of savings to cover unexpected expenses and financial emergencies. While these situations can be expensive and stressful, if you know that you can tap into your emergency fund to cover it, much of the stress will be relieved.
Building an emergency fund may seem difficult at first—especially if you’re already struggling to make ends meet each month. Start just by saving a little bit every month, while you grow your savings over a period of time.
4. Seek professional financial support
If you continue to struggle to get to grips with your finances, consider seeking professional help.
Ask a Financial Advisor to assist you or your Bank in how to plan for the future, yet taking care of expenses for today.
If you are feeling overwhelmed and know that your debt is out of control, another option is to speak to a Debt Counselour to formally restructure your debt and repayment plan. Be aware of the pro’s and con’s for the latter option before committing.
5. Consider a side-hustle
If you are continuously having financial issues, you may have either an income issue or a spending issue. It may even be a combination of the two.
Consider earning an additional income by starting a side-hustle that can earn you additional income until such time as you can pay off all your debt.
6. Track your progress
Tracking your progress towards your financial goals can make a huge difference in the amount of stress you feel on a daily basis. While it may sound like it’s not a solution, looking at the positive aspects of your current financial situation and the steps you’ve taken can seriously help alleviate stress by providing motivation to help you stay the course and see it through for the long-term.
As you start to see the progress you’re making, you’ll feel confident knowing the steps you’ve been taking are working.
Remember, changing and improving your financial situation to reduce the impact of financial stress ultimately starts and ends with you. Only you have the power and resources needed to want change and to start taking action to make improvements today.