Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Crushing Your Financial Anxiety
Money is a funny thing. We all want it, yet most of us think it doesn’t lead to happiness. It brings people together and drives them apart. It is a stress reliever, and yet also the largest causer of stress in average Canadian’s. Today I will speak about the later. 72% of Canadian’s say that money is the greatest cause of stress in their lives. Having been, and still am, someone who has stress about money, today I will give you my Top 10 Tips on Crushing your Financial Anxiety. While the concern over money never fully goes away, you can negate its effect on your everyday life.
1) Focus on the positive
At my lowest point, I had over 50K in debt, owed everyone money including some scary people, was isolated from family and friends, and just lost my job when my employer shut his doors. It was bleak, but I did have a few things going for me. I had, and still have, an insane work ethic which cannot be taught. I also had at the time and an amazing partner who supported me no matter what. That is saying a lot because she probably should have jumped ship long before that, or never even have come aboard. There is always something positive going on in your life, always. Find what that is and focus on it. Enhance it and cling to it. The world is full of negative forces and they will always find ways to bring you down. Keep your hope, because hope is always a good thing, maybe the best thing.
2) Get it all out there
Now that I got the lovey-dovey out of the way, let’s get down to business. You must get it all out there. Yesterday a follower of mine posted something that made me think. I asked my followers which of Dave Ramey’s “7 Steps to Financial Freedom” was the toughest to complete. Some amazing bright lady said Step 0 (which isn’t a step Dave mentions), admitting you need help to yourself. The greatest battle is always within. In fact, it is the only battle of any significance. Take some time and jot down everything you hate about your current financial situation. Also, jot down the things you like about your life. Do the things you hate counteract the things you like? They probably do. The key is, no more secrets, no more financial hiding. It’s time to conquer this shit, starting now.
3) Know that you are not alone
The average person in our country does not have adequate emergency savings. The average person has consumer debt and a good amount of it. The average mortgage is too much, and the average paycheck is too little. Average, average, average. What’s not average is the attempt to remedy this situation. You are not alone in making money mistakes, heck I make them still. You are not alone if you have debt and you are not alone if you have a spending problem. Know that you are not alone but also know that when you make the decision to rectify your financial situation, you might walk alone for a while. Let not being alone give you comfort. Let deciding to change your scene give you even more comfort.
4) Make a basic budget
Creating a basic budget is a huge eye-opener. Putting all your income and expenses on a piece of paper will tell you a lot. If you have very little money left after putting your necessities down, (Housing, food, transportation, utilities, etc.), it means one of two things. You either spend too much on the basics, (ie: you are house poor, car poor, or all of them), or you make too little money. If you have a huge surplus at the end of every month and still feel broke all the time, then you, my friend, spend way too much money on crap. Either way, the basic budget will show you a lot about your family finances and it is the foundation of any successful financial plan.
Your Own 1-Page Financial Plan – Budget Boss
5) Commit to saving even a small amount
I have said it many times, everyone must save money. I don’t care if you make minimum wage or you are a millionaire, everyone must do it. I also do not care if you are track for a pension. Some of the most indebted, day-to-day people I have ever met are on track for pensions. Step one of Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps is saving a mini emergency fund of $1000. That should take priority no matter who you are. This may seem impossible to those who are in debt, but it has to be done. For those of you who have emergency savings, and not a credit card or line of credit, beef them up. If you have 3 months savings, go for 6. If you have 6, go for one year. There is only one person in this world who doesn’t have to save money and that is retired people. The truth is, even they save money, so get on it.
Really Want to Save Money? Pay Yourself First – Maple Money
6) Realize any negative possibility
This is a sucky part of the exercise and it may even seem counter-intuitive to crushing anxiety. You must jot down any possibility that could happen to derail your financial situation. Some of them have probably already occurred. The question is not if something will come along to throw you off course, it’s when. Things like job loss, illness, injury, car and housing expenses and of course the death of a loved one are all possibilities. Take some time to jot down the bad things that could happen and beside each one, put a financial solution to curing those. We all have goals and one of our goals has to be to mitigate any negative financial influences on our life. We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan.
7) Speak with an advisor
Call me biased, but I think everyone should have a financial advisor if even for purely therapeutic reasons. I have become a shoulder to cry on, a person to express outrage to, a second opinion, a problem solver and a family friend. When I was in dire financial straits, one day stood out to me. I walked into my bank and asked to speak with someone about my finances. I broke everything down to the guy behind the desk. While he was a bit of an idiot 2 good things happened that day. I realized the importance of paying off my debt. He wanted me to be debt free, so I could qualify for more debt with him, nonetheless, I wanted to be debt-free for myself. The most important thing that happened was I expressed my feelings about my financial state to an unbiased person. It helped me realize what I had to do to get out of the mess I put myself in.
A Blueprint to Financial Success – Budget Boss
8) Speak with loved ones
It may be tough but finding a family member or friend to confide in could be very useful to you. Make sure this person is non-judgmental and loves you dearly. Having a friend to confide in will be helpful during the tough times, and there will be many. It also alleviates some of the stress you are going through. They can provide you with their experiences and maybe give some tips as well. Having a good support system isn’t essential, but it does make life a little easier when going through the financial evaluation process.
9) Educate yourself
There is an abundance of financial advice out there. In your community, there are workshops, events, and gatherings of those seeking financial freedom. Online you will find advice from everything like budgeting to estate planning. There are so many methods to get what you what out of your finances so take some time and educate yourself on the topic. If you take 15 minutes every day and read one article on personal finance, you will be far ahead of most. The internet has made it so easy to connect with others and learn from their successes and failures. Oh yeah, reading my blog doesn’t hurt either. 😉
10) Stop comparing yourself to others
The absolute worst thing you can do when setting out on your financial journey is to compare yourself to others. It is incredibly mentally damaging. Let me put it this way, what you see in real life isn’t always what it appears to be, let alone on social media. Facebook and Instagram have made us all small celebrities and what do celebrities do? They show off. We all know how much things cost and we all know most people can’t afford the glamorous life they portray. What they do is none of your business and what you are doing is none of theirs. Focus on bettering yourself, not on being an Instagram star. I personally would rather have a bank account full of money than a closet full of clothes. Don’t forget, the Joneses are broke!
Taking the steps to cure your financial anxiety will do wonders for your life. It is essentially just a checklist that over time you cross off one by one. Debt-Free, check. Emergency Fund, check. Saving for retirement, check. Protecting my assets with insurance, check. Paying off the home, check. The key is to start with what you can do and then the tougher stuff gets easier. I remember the first $1000 I saved. I felt like the king of the world. Take those steps and you will feel that way too.
“Happiness is a choice. You can choose to be happy. There’s going to be stress in life, but it’s your choice whether you let it affect you or not.” – Valerie Bertinelli
Email – joe@budgetboss.ca
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