Managing Financial Stress Means You Need To Get Mentally Fit Too.

Getting a call from a creditor demanding money or payment on debts you may be having trouble paying can be very stressful. Besides worrying about our families and children, we lie awake at night stressing about our financial commitments. When these get serious, you may feel helpless, sick or even angry with yourself for getting into the situation in which you find yourself.

There have been numerous studies highlighting the impact financial stress has on individuals, families and society at large. The findings include reduced self-esteem, depression, and increased levels of anxiety, hostility, drug, alcohol and spousal abuse and even a turn to crime. Ultimately these stresses can also lead to decreased productivity, absenteeism and loss of your job and income. We all have a level of financial stress, as the financial pressures increase so do their impact on our stress levels. Such stress doesn’t happen overnight.

Then there is the fact that we all experience stress differently. How I feel about missing a debt repayment may be very different to the next person.

The bottom line is we would not stress if it did not matter.

As I hold no qualification to address the psychological and physical impact of the financial stress, I know that addressing the financial situation will put it in context and allow you to gauge the extent of the problem. Now that you know what you are dealing with you can seek the appropriate assistance. You may have missed a few payments and are getting calls from creditors. Do an income statement to see what has changed. Take your net income and list all your expenses.Has your income decreased or have your expenses increased? You have two options; you need more income or fewer expenses. If earning more is not an option you need to really analyse your spend.

This is time to be aggressive. Remember the deeper into the debt spiral you get, the more difficult it will be to get out. Cut non-essential spend, pay TV, eating out and takeaways, treating a minor cut with major surgery may prevent a financial collapse. Talk to your creditors if the bleeding won’t stop. Ask for payment holidays or a renegotiation of terms to bring down your payments. If this is still not a solution approaching, a reputable debt counsellor may help as you can be protected under debt review.

By nature nobody wants to be seen as incapable of meeting obligations, debt or other. We don’t tend to talk about the things we feel stressed about.Carrying this burden along may lead to a sense of helplessness when it’s not the case. If you want to be financially fit you need to be mentally fit too. As you can be see, they are very closely related. Get professional help for both.

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