How to stop worrying about money: educate yourself, practise self-care, or take Ken Honda’s ‘happy money’ approach and spend it on those you love
- Financial stress affects our health. Relieve it by seeking advice, learning how to manage money, or stop worrying and focus on your health and wellness
- Alternatively, start feeling grateful for money, thank it as it enters and leaves your pocket, and spend it joyfully on a friend or loved one
Money: it makes the world go around, it doesn’t grow on trees, and, if the statistics are correct, it’s the root of all … anxiety. Or, at least, a lot of anxiety.
Research from the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America 2020 report shows that 64 per cent of US adults see money as a source of stress. A 2020 study designed by the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong found that 65.7 per cent of Hongkongers felt stressed about income or employment this year.
“Financial stress has a huge impact on our mental and physical health,” says Dr Sharmeen Shroff, director and clinical psychologist at Central Minds, Hong Kong.
So, can we ease this financial anxiety now that we’ve begun 2021? Yes, believes Japanese self-development author Ken Honda – by practising gratitude. His book Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money explores the idea that cultivating a positive money mindset can relieve financial worries, and allow us to make and spend money more peacefully.
“Happy people tend to receive money with appreciation, and when they let go, they also do that with appreciation,” he explains.
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“Focus on appreciation,” he says – it doesn’t cost you anything, and it might even improve your bank balance. “Appreciative people tend to make more money than people who always grouch and complain about things. Appreciation is very contagious.”
Honda believes that tough times call for us to turn to what he calls the “invisible assets” of friendships and relationships. “I think having people who love you around you is very important,” he says.
“As long as you have a little money and you can appreciate it, you will feel more secure,” asserts Honda, who argues that it is even possible to draw happiness from financial obligations like paying taxes.
For anyone finding it difficult to feel elated when waving goodbye to their pay cheque on rent day, he suggests concentrating on how the money will benefit others in society. “Whatever money touches, it enriches people’s lives,” he says. “Money is blessing everybody when it circulates.”
Education can also be an effective antidote to financial stress. Annamaria Lusardi, founder and academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Centre (GFLEC) at George Washington University in Washington in the US, believes that improving our financial literacy is the key to feeling more secure.
She suggests scheduling a regular time each week to deal with money issues, stressing: “You solve the problem by taking charge of it … ignorance in finance is not bliss.”
For Lusardi, the importance of boosting our financial knowledge bears no relation to our level of wealth. “People feel that finance is for the rich, and I actually think the opposite is true,” she says. “Finance is part of life, and we need to embrace it.”
Talking about money can be socially challenging, but the experts emphasise that it’s crucial to speak out if you need help. “It’s almost a taboo subject,” says Shroff. “So we bottle things up and try to resolve things on our own, but that often leaves us feeling more isolated and overwhelmed.”
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In addition to voicing your worries, she lists staying in the present moment and avoiding social media as positive actions that can help lighten the load.
According to Shroff, one of the reasons money can be so anxiety-inducing is that we associate it with survival, safety and security, but there are things we can do to feel less threatened.
“I think the most important thing is to remind yourself that you’re not alone in all of this,” she says. “No matter how hopeless the situation that you find yourself in, there is always help available. By tackling problems – money problems, any problems really – you can find a way through the circumstances that you’re in and ease your stress levels and regain control of your finances and your life.”
And, as Lusardi points out, a healthy sense of perspective is vital. “Money is not a religion,” she says. “Money is a means to achieve an objective.” By reframing the way we view personal finance to focus on our individual objectives, she believes we can free up time spent worrying about money and live better. “The objective of finance,” she says, “is to be happy.”
Financial help at hand
Do you want money advice, but don’t know where to turn? Here’s where to start.
The GFLEC envisions a world in which individuals have the financial knowledge they need to fully participate in the economy and build secure futures. Its Covid-19 Financial Resilience Hub offers information and resources for people with money-related woes, including “10 Suggestions to Manage Money in the Time of Crisis”.
