Effective strategies to manage your money worries

It shows up in all sorts of ways; blurry vision when looking at your banking, confusion around what “should” be a simple financial decision, panic attacks, headaches, muscle tension, relationship challenges, avoiding meetings with your adviser, flaking on social meetups, fear you’ll never have enough and that pit in your stomach that’s keeping you up at night.

- LESLEY-ANNE SCORGIE

Financial anxiety is no joke for your emotional and physical health.

Having worked in the financial well-being space for nearly two decades, these are six effective ways to reduce financial anxiety.

Deprivation is not a strategy

How likely are you to stick to a diet of 500 to 900 calories per day? Zero chance it’s sustainable.

We were all taught to believe that financial deprivation is the way to fix all our money problems.

But, like a yo-yo diet, it never lasts. It’s too restrictive and doesn’t target the part of your brain that craves and thrives off of rewards.

Rewards give you the motivation to keep your financial momentum high.

The key is to keep the rewards on budget and linked to some aspect of your financial well-being.

For example, you could incorporate a small “treat” into your weekly budget — say $5 to $10 — that makes you feel great and that you give yourself when you’ve had a financially mindful week, or when you’ve been great about updating your budget.

Small rewards can be more effective than big expensive ones, which often cause more financial stress in the long run.

As you gain financial confidence, you can start to link these small rewards to bigger milestones, like paying off your credit card, increasing your RRSP contributions and showing up prepared for your financial-planning appointment.

Do something good for your finances each day