How to Cut Down on Financial Anxiety, No Matter Your Situation

For millions, these are tough financial times. Here are a few steps that can help calm financial stress.

In January, shortly before we collectively learned of COVID-19, Capital One conducted a survey. The survey found that 77% of Americans are anxious about their finances. Further, 58% feel as though they are controlled by finances. We have yet to measure the financial anxiety born of dealing with a global pandemic or fully understand how our mental health will be impacted by such a turbulent year. Money stress is a reality in the best of times. What we're dealing with now is a deeper distress than what most of us have ever experienced.

Financial anxiety can make you sick and rob your life of joy. We can't control everything in our lives, but we can cut down on financial stress and learn to control our money rather than allow it to control us.

Before we go any further, let's look at what anxiety does to us, physically, emotionally, and mentally. While this list is not exhaustive, it touches on some of the ways financial anxiety impacts us. According to experts, financial anxiety (and related stress) can:

• Change the brain, causing memory issues
• Promote inflammation, which adversely impacts heart health
• Increase heart rate and blood pressure
• Weaken the immune system
• Lead to high blood sugar
• Cause tension and migraine headaches
• Lead to digestive issues
• Worsen mental health conditions

This is an abbreviated list of the impact anxiety has on our bodies. Perhaps of more immediate concern is how financial anxiety is affecting your mental health, relationships, and ability to plan for the future. If your money situation is causing you financial stress, here are three actions that can help.

Focus on debt-to-income ratio (DTI)

You've probably heard about the evils of debt a thousand times in your life, and debt truly is awful -- if you're in too deep. What we recommend you focus on is how much debt you're carrying, and here's why: It doesn't matter how much you earn, as long as you live below your means. One of the surest ways to alleviate financial stress is to bring in more money than you spend. You can change your entire financial situation by allowing DTI to guide your financial decisions.

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