If you’ve found yourself staying up late thinking about your finances or just feeling anxious overall about your financial future, you’re not alone. While finances can impact overall stress, taking steps to manage your finances can support your mental, emotional and physical well-being.
When it comes to money, the sources of stress may look different for everyone, but identifying the underlying causes and setting goals accordingly may help you feel more confident about your financial future.
Chase’s Community Manager in D.C, Aja Clark, has a few strategies to help improve your financial wellness and reduce stress:
1. Understand what causes financial stress
While everyone’s financial situation is unique, several common sources of stress have the potential to strain your financial health. These include financial and economic uncertainty, existing debts, unexpected expenses, and mental or physical health changes. Financial stress may differ from situation to situation, but understanding the factors contributing to yours may help you begin to craft a plan for your unique circumstances.
2. Determine your financial priorities
Start by reflecting on your financial priorities. This can include paying for school or paying off student loans, building an emergency fund, paying down credit card debt or buying a car. Name the milestones that are most important to you, and plan accordingly.
3. Create a plan and stick to it
While setting actionable goals starts you on the journey to better financial health, it’s essential to craft a plan to follow through. Identifying and committing to a savings plan may give you a greater sense of control over your finances, which may help reduce your stress. Creating and sticking to a budget allows you to better track where your money is going so you may spend less and save more.
4. Pay down debt
If you have some form of debt and want to make progress toward reducing your debt obligations, one option is the debt avalanche method, which focuses on paying off your debt with the highest interest rate first, then moving on to the debt with the next-highest interest rate. Another is the debt snowball method, which builds momentum by paying off your smallest debt balance and then working your way up to the largest amounts.
5. Build your financial resilience
Some financial stress may be inevitable, but building financial resilience may allow you to overcome obstacles more easily. The more you learn about managing your money, for instance, the more prepared you’ll feel if the unexpected happens. Growing your emergency savings may also increase resilience since you’ll be more financially prepared to cover unexpected expenses or pay your living expenses. It can seem daunting at first, but it can be motivating to see your emergency fund grow over time.
The bottom line
Financial stress can affect your health and well-being, but it doesn’t have to derail your dreams. Setting smart financial goals and developing simple plans to achieve them may help ease your stress. Revisit and adjust your plan as needed to ensure it continues to work for you.
For informational/educational purposes only: Views and strategies described on this article or provided via links may not be appropriate for everyone and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any business. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but JPMorgan Chase & Co. or its affiliates and/or subsidiaries do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. The material is not intended to provide legal, tax, or financial advice or to indicate the availability or suitability of any JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. product or service. You should carefully consider your needs and objectives before making any decisions and consult the appropriate professional(s). Outlooks and past performance are not guarantees of future results. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates are not responsible for, and do not provide or endorse third-party products, services, or other content.
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