Weekend Reading: How to Stop Carrying Too Much Financial Anxiety
This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
A variety of things can cause you to worry, but one of the most common stressors is money. Self-induced financial anxiety runs rampant in today's society, and it stems from an evolutionary transition of humans going from hunter-gatherers to sedentary citizens, leading you to constantly think and worry about the future.
READ THE ARTICLEHow to cope: Here, author Jacob Schroeder proposes a thought experiment where you visualize your financial anxieties as physical weights on your back. Then, consider whether or not choosing to carry these burdens is worth the emotional toll. As you do so, three ways that can help alleviate feelings of financial anxiety include:
📌 Let go of the notion that everything revolves around your personal desires.
📌 Release guilt associated with enjoying your money, while striking a balance between financial responsibility and self-enjoyment.
📌 Embrace the impermanence of life and financial situations, and remind yourself that both good and bad times eventually come to an end.
Are your financial worries preventing you from living the fulfilling life you deserve? Tomorrow isn’t promised and time is priceless. There’s no better moment than the present to take action and get ahead of your anxieties before they overwhelm you.