The best way to get over money stress depression is to actually solve the underlying problem at hand. It’s not about making yourself feel better nor is it about surrounding yourself with loved ones. It’s about actually solving what’s causing the depression in the first place.
I’ve been there before. At the start of 2022, I was on top of the world. I felt like nothing could stop me because my net worth hit all time highs by 27 of $440k. A net worth very few people could boast about, let alone in their 20s. Then the 2022 bear market came.
I lost close to $150k by the end of it all. That’s not all. I took on $50k worth of debt at the start of 2022 because I was confident “I could make more than how much the debt costs”. We all know how this story ends. I didn’t make anything close to the debt costs.
That was a very devastating year and I didn’t feel like I could get out of the money stress depression that I put myself in. It hurt. How could I, someone that smart, put myself in that situation? Layoff news were on the horizon at the end of 2022 as well.
So I lost money, was in debt, and was on the verge of losing my job. A stable 9-5 income that was the last thread from which I was living. That would’ve put the nail in the coffin. Thankfully, I didn’t get laid off. However, I still had to make intentional choices to get myself out of the hole I dug.
Otherwise, I had no choice. The only person that was going to save me was myself.
Money Stress Depression: 3 Ways to Tell
Below are 3 ways to tell if you have money stress depression in the first place. I went through these stages myself and it taught me valuable lessons.
1) You Get Angry
It’s a classic sign of using anger to cover up the hurt and depression. When you feel great, there’s no need for negative emotions like anger. When nothing’s going your way, you have anger. You know exactly what’s causing it, money, because you feel it in your bones.
I went through the exact same thing in January 2023 because I had so much debt I needed to cover. By then, I had about $15k of debt to pay off. I used 100% of my paycheck for the entire month of January and February AND my bonus and additional payouts just to pay off my debt.
It felt like someone else controlled me and I didn’t feel so good every single day. Even during weekends when it’s supposed to be my time. A classic money stress depression is anger. That’s how important money is to our lives.
It affects our mood, whether we like it or not. When I had debt, it felt like someone controlled my time. I no longer want to put myself in that situation ever again.
2) You Can’t Sleep Well With Money Stress Depression
It’s keeping you up at night. Whether it’s credit card debt or your landlord who hounds you down for rent money, something’s keeping you up at night. You just can’t sleep. Mornings don’t feel great either because you tossed and turned throughout the night.
When there’s money stress depression, it seeps into your sleep as well. Which makes the problem even worse. If there’s money problems, you are the person solely responsible for getting yourself out of the situation. When you don’t get good sleep, you might put yourself in a worse situation.
Sleep is your number one priority to getting back to normal. There’s studies that show lack of sleep can cause cancer. When I had money problems, the length of sleep didn’t even matter. I woke up feeling groggy with my heart pounding out of my chest.
How was I ever going to get myself out of this situation? It was a constant feeling that I’m glad I no longer feel.
3) You Constantly Think About Money
When we have bad feelings, we have no choice but to dwell on the problems consistently. Especially when it comes to money. When we have a big bonus coming up, that’s all we can think about, for better or worse. If you have money stress depression, you have no choice but to think about money.
When I had debt, all I could think about on the day that I got my paycheck was to use that money towards paying down my debt. When I woke up, that’s the FIRST thing I did. Logged into my bank to pay off the debt. Sure, it felt great to pay off debt on the day.
However, the good feeling was short lived because I knew there was much more to come. It made me feeling depressed right back again. When there’s money problems and money stress, you have no choice but to constantly think about money.
Thankfully, I was single so I didn’t put my problems onto anyone else. No one else deserved to feel bad but me because I put myself in this situation. It becomes bad if it spillovers to other aspects of your life.
Money Stress Depression: 9 Ways to Get Better
All is not lost when you have money stress depression. Below are 9 concrete choices you can make TODAY to get better!
1) Actually Solve the Problem
It doesn’t matter whether you feel good about money problems or not. What matters in solving money stress depression is actually solving the causes of the underlying problem. If you have financial stress because you have too much debt, then it’s time to pay off debt.
In 2022, I took on $50k of cheap debt because I wanted to “pad up my balance sheet”. That turned out to be a giant mistake by the end of 2022 as the bear market decimated my spirits and money. What actually helped cure my depression was actually paying down my debt.
By February 2023, all of my debt was gone. I never felt so free in my life. Then I started to pad up my savings and investment portfolio all over again. I slowly started rebuilding from the giant whirlwind of an economy we faced and I started to actually feel better about my life.
Curing financial depression starts with actually solving the underlying problem at hand. There’s no better way to move forward than that.
2) Money Stress Depression? Increase Income
When we don’t have money, we get more stressed. I was stressed to my core in my college days and for a solid 2 years after graduation. It’s possible to cure money stress depression by increasing income. There’s an infinite number of ways to increase income these days.
Dog sitting, YouTube, blog, and more. It’s easier than ever to start a money making venture from the comfort of your home. With just a good working computer and a Wi-Fi network. When I made more money, I felt better. Money gives you security in ways you never knew.
When I was making $200k is when I started to feel security. $100k is a fantastic income but what really got me over the hump was $200k. That’s when I really felt secure. I didn’t stop there. I always spent weekends looking for ways to increase income and therefore, security as well.
People say money can’t buy happiness. Maybe, but it sure can buy peace of mind.
3) Pad Up Your Savings
Savings is the antidote to the money stress depression poison. My savings are nowhere near what someone in their 20s are supposed to have. It’s almost in the top 1% for my age group at $400k. I’m always scheming and looking for ways to grow my savings.
Even at $400k, I have money depression because it’s nowhere near for me to retire on. Although I love my job, I can’t imagine just how much more I would love my job if I didn’t have to work. When work is a choice, everything falls into place.
The bedrock of every sound personal finance advice and decision starts with savings. Without savings, you can’t do anything. No one gives you a second thought. Whether we like it or not, money is how we keep score on how we’re doing in the world.
Savings is a great way to achieve upward mobility. That’s ground zero of everyone’s financial journey.
4) Decrease Expenses
At the start of 2022, I had the highest net worth I ever had! Therefore, I was ready to spend to my heart’s desires without caring about the cost! It wasn’t fun at all. Every month, I saw my spending increase and portfolio value decrease. That made the money stress depression even worse.
When you lower expenses, you have security. There are many I saw who minimized expenses at
$1.5k/mo even when they were making $20k/mo. If they can minimize their expenses at that income, there’s no reason why anyone else can’t.
In 2023, I started the year saving as much as I possibly could save. The bear market of 2022 scared me straight and put me back on the path of profitability and growth. It feels liberating to not spend as much money as I want to. There’s less complications and I want to keep it this way.
Spending more money just adds complications to your life. It’s not worth it.
5) Diversify Your Income Sources
Millions have a single source of income for their life. That’s not good. Primarily it’s their 9-5. When the wave of layoffs hit 2022 and 2023, they were left with no plan B. They had to scramble and take the next job opportunity they could find instead of taking their time with the search.
Money stress depression is when you rely on a single source of income. Even if second and third income sources aren’t significant now, that’s only because it’s part-time work. My extra income sources are nothing to write home about but I can’t imagine how much I can grow it with full time work.
Income diversification is so important yet so few see the merit. Employees are just fine watching TV after work and play around on the weekends. That’s not good. Multiple income sources mean there’s less dependence on a single customer to provide a living for you.
There’s a reason why companies hire multiple employees. When one leaves, they can just replace them with someone else.
6) Money Stress Depression? Invest Your Money
There’s no point in your money sitting in a savings account. If you have money stress depression, it’s time to invest your money and let it grow. If your money isn’t growing, it’s falling behind due to inflation. There’s quality asset classes like stocks, bonds, and real estate to take advantage of.
It’s one of the best money habits I used to grow my net worth to $400k+. I know one day, it’ll be enough to cover my expenses and then some. Until that day comes, I’m happy to accumulate money into my investment portfolio.
I plan on accumulating for years on end, saving however much I need to save to get there. It just doesn’t feel good to not have money. Even though it took me seven YEARS to get here, I’ll gladly do it all over again. Investing money is the best way to earn cash flow throughout the years.
It’s a great boost to income than the regular 9-5 job that I have.
7) Build Wealth
When you have enough wealth to cover your family’s expenses for the rest of your life, you don’t have money stress depression anymore. I can’t imagine just how much more secure I’ll feel once I actually become a millionaire.
Building wealth is quite fun. Not only is it fun, it gives security to layoff news and even potential artificial intelligence taking our jobs. It’s only a matter of time before AI replaces human workers. AI is cheaper and more accurate than what a human can achieve.
Until that time comes, it’s time to accumulate assets as much as we can to build wealth and move forward. Many let years and years pass without having a financial goal. Financial and money goals are easily achievable by the millions. Yet few put in the work.
Having a sizable nest egg improves your mood and emotions on a daily basis. There’s no better substitute.
8) Get Quality Sleep
Just because you have money stress depression doesn’t mean you should lose sleep. Sleep is amazing No matter how stressed or busy I am, I always get at least 6 hours of sleep per day. Otherwise, I can’t sleep. I can’t even drive well if I don’t get good sleep.
Depression can be improved with great sleep. Not to mention quality sleep can prevent cancer. Sometimes, lack of quality sleep even causes depression in the first place. Money is already a stressful problem you have to deal with.
There’s no point in adding health problems to the list, especially because those health problems are controllable. It’s difficult to tackle the challenges of the day if you don’t feel refreshed yourself to take on those challenges.
Quality sleep will make a huge difference to your net worth. It allows you to do a better job at work which in turn, earns you more promotions and raises down the road.
9) Stay Focused
Money stress depression doesn’t go away overnight. It takes months and sometimes years to get back. Dave Ramsey became a millionaire and went bankrupt by 28. He eventually became a millionaire again but imagine what would’ve happened if he didn’t stay focused.
If he just let the money depression dictate his life and he didn’t do anything about it. He didn’t do that, he remained focused on his money goals to crush it and came out so far ahead than anyone else by the end. It’s time to stay focused and not be distracted by the clever marketing gimmicks out there.
There’s nothing wrong with saving a majority of your income for 1 – 5 years and then spend afterwards. Delayed gratification is the number one behavioral characteristic that’s a REQUIREMENT to achieve success. Money is too important to just “wing” it.
Discipline, focus, and effort are all necessary components to be a millionaire and to be rich.
Money Stress Depression is Curable
It takes a lot of work to cure money stress depression. It took me about six months before I felt like I was in control with my finances again. I can’t imagine what I would’ve felt if my employer laid me off in the meantime. You just never know.
Even though it’s almost impossible for the everyday person to be invincible with their finances, that doesn’t mean we can’t keep trying. Money stress depression is definitely one of the problems we HAVE to face in our lifetime. At some point.
There’s not a single successful person who doesn’t have a “we almost went bankrupt” story. Many millionaires faced enormous failures before getting to the top. Failures that almost decimated them. We are no different and we’re certainly not better than them to never feel the financial stress.
It may take six months to multiple years and even decades but money stress depression IS curable. The great part is that after learning that lesson, you never want to go back to that position ever again for the rest of your life. I personally now know what my personal risk tolerance is.
I never want to get back to that position. No matter how confident or great I feel. Things have a way of turning around in a jiffy. Especially financial conditions. The global economy is highly fragile that can be taken down with a single virus.
Once you know how to cure the money stress, the good news is that was an invaluable lesson you’ll never forget.
Money Stress Depression: 9 Things to do Shortlist
- Actually solve the problem
- Money stress depression? Increase income
- Pad up your savings
- Decrease expenses
- Diversify your income sources
- Money stress depression? Invest your money
- Build wealth
- Get quality sleep
- Stay focused
