5 Steps to Overcome Financial Anxiety
The recent news about Coronavirus had left the world with a lot of jobless people, people fighting over toilet papers and businesses shutting down due to lockdown.
Media news showing an increasing number of cases, people dying and an increase in domestic violence and even mental problems had caused more anxiety and fearful emotions to all of us.
But what is anxiety? According to Wikipedia, anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness and worry, usually generalized and unfocused as an overreaction to a situation that is only subjectively seen as menacing.
Knowing the meaning of this, anxiety is usually driven by a fear of the unknown
When it comes to our finances, we can really feel anxious from time to time especially if something unexpected happened and if your work is not as stable as it seems.
Now, I want to help you overcome your financial anxiety in 5 simple steps. You can also use some of these steps when you feel anxious in your career, relationships or even health.
1. Focus on What You Can Do Now
In times like this, it is easy for us to think about things that we cannot control and to follow the crowd doing nothing.
But let’s be honest. If you’re staying at home, you can still do something about your finances.
If you just lost your job, the first thing to do is to check if your government offers financial aid and make a claim.
The second thing to do is to revise your resume and to send job applications as much as you can even if face to face interviews are on hold.
The last thing is to find productive ways on how you can earn while staying at home.
2. Re-assess and Review Your Credit and Budget
Now is the best time to check your credit card statement and see where your money is going every month.
Check if there are expenses you can cut and reduce.
We all know that in Sydney, Australia for example, gyms are currently closed. If you have a gym membership, maybe you can ask for a discount or reduction of your membership for months that you were not able to attend.
You could also check subscriptions you have made that you’re no longer using. $5 per month or $15 per month, multiplied by 12mos is still a lot.
After reviewing your credit, check your budget at home. Is your grocery over the top? Could you cut and focus on cooking your meals instead of ordering online?
Check if you can get a discounted rate in your electricity and internet lines.
Compare prices of grocery items you are buying.
Aim to buy for an item’s practical use and not for its brand. We personally go to Aldi to buy our laundry detergents and dishwashing liquid soap.
3. Remove shame from your vocabulary
We have all messed up with our finances one way or another. This is not the time to hurt yourself more and tell yourself how bad you are with your finances.
Remind yourself that accepting where you are now in your finances and deciding to do something about it is the best step towards feeling more in control and organised with your money.
We cannot change the past, the past where you might have messed up with your credit cards and finances.
However, the good news is, your past is past. What you will do now is more important and you can still change your future by doing something different today.
4. Be realistic
To be realistic is to understand the things you are capable to do now at this moment even if it’s just small steps towards changing your financial behaviours.
Being realistic means being honest to yourself of where you are now and in what you can really do to manage your finances better.
It can be as simple as not ordering food online or increasing your minimum credit card payment to 20% rather than just paying the minimum required.
Whatever that is, do what you say you will do. This will increase your confidence in how you handle your money.
Actions however small contributes to bigger results in the future.
5. Educate yourself
Education helps us understand what is real from not, what’s fact from fiction.
Learning about money is not hard as most people would suggest but you have to really start somewhere.
Educating yourself with money and with personal finance will not only help you increase your confidence but it will open your mind and take control.
With educating yourself, you will be able to take control of your money, understand it and not depend on other people.
Some of the books I can recommend for you to start that’s not too deep but very empowering are: The Secret to a Millionaire Mind by T Harv Eker, The Latte Factor by David Bach, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason.
These books are gems.
With these 5 steps, I hope you’ll be able to understand and believe that you can actually do SOMETHING about this.
Here’s a bonus tip:
One of the questions I asked myself when I feel anxious about something is this:
Based on the past, how will I end up coping with this?
When I asked myself this question, I know for myself that I have overcome this before so I can overcome it now. Sometimes, we forget how we have handled difficult emotions and asking yourself this question reminds you of how resilient you are and how you are still here, alive and still fine.
Love,
Jennifer xoxo
Personal Message: I wish you well in these uncertain times and I pray that you and your family be kept protected, safe and healthy. You are strong and capable. I believe in you.
P.S. Dear , if you have financial anxiety right now that keeps on coming back, I have a session called From Financial Anxiety to Financial Calm. It’s a one-off coaching session. Feel free to book your session here.
PPS. If you know someone who needs to hear this, share this newsletter with them.