The biggest effects of financial stress is mental breakdowns. Money is such an important part of our lives that it messes with your psyche on an unconscious and conscious level. Feeling bad throughout the day and when you wake up is quite normal.
I’ve been there before. In 2021, my net worth was hitting highs after highs and it seemed like the music was never going to stop. I felt like I was on top of the world and there were zero money stresses during that time. Then 2022 hit.
My net worth was hitting lows after lows even after scoring a 30% raise to my pay at a new job. That was something insane that I felt. The bear market didn’t seem like it was going to stop. I didn’t think I could ever lose but it helped humble me. Not because it’s the right thing to do.
But because it genuinely humbled me. And on top of that, I had $50k of debt that I was working through. I felt the lowest I’ve ever felt. Add in a car accident which caused me injury AND forced me to buy a car at the worst time in history to buy a car?
The effects of financial stress were real. I was psychologically scarred and I still carry that scar with me to this day. I’m never going to forget how badly life can hit you in the span of a year. The effects of financial stress are real and I’ve been there before.
Below are the 9 effects of money stress I personally felt throughout the ordeal.
Effects of Financial Stress: 9 Effects of Poor Finances
The effects of financial stress are real. Don’t let anyone discount how it feels because once you hit rock bottom, there’s a chance you might never get back up again for years on end. I know because I personally experienced it myself.
1) Mental Health Suffers
When everything is going good, you’re confident. When everything is going bad, your mental health suffers. I can’t even describe what I felt because every day was a battle to just get out of bed. I didn’t even want to pursue any of my hobbies and interests.
Your mental health suffers as an effect of financial stress. Even when my money stress was coming to a close in early 2023, my mental health wasn’t the best. I was scarred and scared to invest again. I didn’t want to open my investing app to try to make money.
Making money was at the last of my mind. When I was close to paying off debt, every paycheck felt bad because I felt that someone else owned my time and money. My paycheck wasn’t even mine, it was the banks’ who lent me the money.
Money stress doesn’t feel good because I know exactly what that feels like. It’s not easy to put it behind you either because it lingers with you throughout the weeks, months, and even years.
2) Anger Throughout the Day
When I was indebted, I felt anger throughout the day and even weekends. What was I working so hard for? Why is it taking so long to pay off my day? Days felt like weeks and weeks felt like months. Add in a wave of tech layoffs to start 2023 and you really have something.
I felt the most uncertain I’ve ever felt in my life. My sense of control was nonexistent and was absolutely gone. Effects of financial stress leads you to be moody, unable to control your emotions because there’s aspects of your life that’s causing the uncertainty.
Investors highly dislike uncertainty but everyday people dislike uncertainty even more. Then I saw consumers spending away like there’s no tomorrow and I thought I was the only one who was this stressed. It made me feel even worse that I couldn’t even afford to spend so much.
There will be uncontrollable anger spread throughout the months. It doesn’t feel good to not be financially stable.
3) Effects of Financial Stress: Divorce
Money is in the top 2 causes of divorce. Yes, it’s not romantic. But a long lasting love isn’t necessarily the most romantic one. Long-lasting love is two people who are on the same page about the important life topics. One of which is money.
Effects of financial stress includes divorce and breakups because money determines quality of life. A spender is hard to get along with savers because spenders think, “what’s the point of money if you’re not going to use it?”. Life isn’t full of rainbows, sunshine, and unicorns.
Divorce and breakups happen between two people, even the ones in love, because money gets in the way. Money stress feels awful. I personally would never date or bring a child into the world if my financial situation wasn’t taken care of.
That’s how much I believe in financial stability between couples. It’s not romantic but it is the truth.
4) Physical Pain
My financial stress would give me chest pains I never had before. It was unexplainable. Effects of financial stress includes physical pain because, whether we like it or not, our mind controls our body. And if our mind isn’t at ease? Our bodies aren’t at ease.
Folks with PTSD feel physical pain not because their bodies are in pain but because their minds are. Stress is one of the silent diseases that America faces today. Money is one of the leading causes of stress because inflation sucks.
We weren’t meant to see 33% increases in our food bills in just a single month. When your mindset and psychology isn’t set right, nothing is set right. I started getting a burning sensation in my chest. Physical pain happens. It’s not just a mental negative.
It’s a physical negative as well. Stress is one of the worst things you’ll experience, especially if it revolves around money.
5) Poor Job Performance
When our minds aren’t calm, it translates to poor job performance. We are working in a knowledge economy where companies pay for our intellect and our brains. What we know is valuable to companies and why we get paid to solve problems.
Poor job performance is one of the effects of financial stress because when you are not confident, it spills over to your day to day job. Luckily, my job performance was on the verge of decline until I left a toxic work environment and moved to a good one.
Effects of financial stress are real and it spills over to job performance. Which creates an even bigger problem because your job is likely the biggest source of your cash flow. The best thing to do during times of money stress is to never let that affect you.
You still need to give your job everything you’ve got because that’s what helps put food on the table.
6) Jealousy Towards Coworkers
It’s one thing when your friends get promotions and make more money. It’s another thing when your coworkers get promotions and make more money. They lap you. It’s even worse when you’re the one doing bad but your coworkers are doing good.
Effects of financial stress is that jealousy rears its ugly head. Even if we don’t want to be jealous, it’s a human emotion that just happens. I never thought I was the jealous type until I saw my friends lapping me in my mid 20s.
You may like your coworkers and even be genuine friends with some of them. But at the end of the day, they are your competition. And when you see your competition doing better than you? While you are feeling money stress? You don’t see them as human beings with real problems.
You see them as competition you need to beat. This is one of the worst side effects of financial stress.
7) Effects of Financial Stress: Desperation
Desperation rears its ugly head and even more so when you are feeling the effects of financial stress. This is one of the worst positions to be in. When I was feeling career stress I made the worst mistake of my life and changed jobs for an employer that was even worse.
That means I dug an even deeper hole for myself. That’s not good for anyone. Not for my employer and certainly not for me. There were times when I actually felt the desperation. I felt stuck. No matter what I did, I was never getting out of that rut.
It’s the worst feeling in the world when you feel like you’re not even in control of your life. No matter what you do, you can’t improve your situation. You don’t want to feel this because it feels downright awful. You psychologically have a need to feel like the hero in your story.
Winners focus on winning. When you feel like you can’t be the victor is when everything fails. This is one of true effects of money stress.
8) Retail Therapy
This is digging an even bigger hole for yourself but it happens. The effects of financial stress is retail therapy. You want to feel you are powerful so you buy stuff to help you feel that way. That’s wrong. Buying stuff certainly feels good.
I bought a brand new MacBook in Black Friday and a brand new iPhone. Did it feel amazing? It absolutely did. However, I only did so because I could afford them. I conduct business through my new iPhone and laptop and I can’t imagine how I competed with having old technology at my arsenal before.
So I know exactly how great it feels to do retail therapy and dish out money. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a good long term viable solution. When you are feeling money stress, it’s the time to cut savings and increase income. Sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.
Retail therapy is not the answer. It’s time to solve the underlying problem instead of trying to feel better. No matter how good it feels.
9) Blame and Denial
When I was down financially, I felt denial. “Everything will work out”. “As long as I just do xyz, I’ll get back on track”. “I already saved up so much money already, I’m doing fine”. Are some of the things I said to myself. Effects of financial stress is definitely denial and blame.
Denying that things are bad and that everything is going to be OK is worse than acknowledging things are bad, head on. When you are honest with the state of affairs, you can start change. There’s no one else to blame but yourself. You should strap yourself by the bootstraps and dig yourself out of the hole.
No one’s ever not experienced hardship in their lives. Feeling financial hardship is such a common occurrence that it’d be weirder if you didn’t feel money stress in your life. The world is not an easy place. It’s cruel and unforgiving because everyone else has their own problems to deal with.
It’s not the right mindset to be the victor in your story. There’s no room for the victim mentality here. You are the person responsible for getting everything back on track.
Effects of Financial Stress: My Personal Story
In the end of 2021, my net worth was at all time highs of $400k. I *barely* turned 27 then. I was raking it in, baby! So then when banks offered the lowest interest rates ever imagine, I took on $50k of debt. $35k in personal loans and $15k from my credit cards.
The interest rates were 5% and 0%, respectively. I was getting ready for a financial war, I needed to load up! Then we all know what happened in 2022. The start of the year was pretty great, my investments actually made me an extra $20k in the span of 2 months.
However, everything went downhill from there. Not only did I start to lose money, I got in a car accident in April 2022. I felt the lowest I’ve ever felt then. Going to physical therapy, therapy, and even going through surgery didn’t feel so good.
The effects of financial stress was real. Then I found out I had digestion problems, which caused me to lose sleep on a day to day basis. Which made the stress even worse. When I get good sleep, I usually tackle the world problems and challenges with ease.
When I get bad sleep, I can’t do that as easily. Effects of financial stress seeps into your other problems. It’s why it’s so important to take care of your body for a rainy day down the road. You never know when bad news pops up into your life because you don’t control them.
Money stress should be the last of your worries.
The Effects of Financial Stress is Real
Millions of Americans feel stressed about their budgets, money, and finances than ever before. The government demonstrated how bad they are at keeping stable financial conditions. Price changes should not happen that dramatically on a year over year basis.
High inflation strapped millions of Americans down on their finances. It’s no wonder Americans feel the effects of financial stress. Even high income earners report living paycheck to paycheck. Even after earning six figures and even multi six figures.
If you are actually struggling and feeling effects of money stress, it’s real. It’s not caused by any arbitrary things but rather, money. Money is so ingrained in our lives that it affects our mood, relationships, and everything in between.
Many will dismiss it saying, “things are going to get better” or that “you’re being too negative”. It’s time to avoid those people because when I felt money stress, it felt horrible. My closest friends and some family members wouldn’t even acknowledge them as real.
Don’t let anyone tell you the effects of financial stress isn’t real. It’s so bad that credit card balances reached record highs in 2023 and continued to reach record highs. Americans feel the sting of financial stress and are turning to debt for the answer.
That’s when everything falls apart.
Effects of Financial Stress: 9 Effects Shortlist
- Mental health suffers
- Anger throughout the day
- Effects of financial stress: divorce
- Physical pain
- Poor job performance
- Jealousy towards coworkers
- Effects of financial stress: desperation
- Retail therapy
- Blame and denial
