How To Overcome The Stress Of Being Bogged Down By Money

In highly charged and expensive Singapore, it’s easy to find yourself mired in debt pressure. As we grow older, we have to take on more debt. Some of this debt include our homes and some investments, but may also include credit card debt. We also start building a family and see expense go through the roof with new children in our homes.

Socially, we need to be seen as successful, wearing nice clothes, driving nice cars and living in nice homes. Not being able to show our affluence may cause shame or fear of being left out of a group.

With costs increasing so rapidly, it’s easy to find ourselves stressing over where we’ll find money to fund these extra expenses. These thoughts will start to bog us down and if we don’t share this stress with our partners, can lead us down a route of depression and anxiety that may destroy our lives.

We need to have a proper state of mind for our lives to be fulfilling. Here are some ways we can prepare ourselves right to handle money stress and the anxiety that comes with it.

1. Focus On The Now

If we focus on the now, we’re already occupying our brains from worrying and stressing. You need to understand your situation right now and recognise the things that require the most priority to the least priority. Make decisions like buying diapers and milk over spending on CNY’s TOTO draw or saving for David’s university over getting a new car because people have been seeing me drive this three-year-old car for three years.

This will go a long way toward getting you to understand your priorities and instantly relieving some financial stress.

2. Build A Budget…And Stick To It

After you’ve gotten intimate with your priorities, you need to create a budget that you can commit to every month and you need to stick to it.

This will significantly reduce your stress levels because you will know exactly where your money is going and exactly how you will be able to pay for commitments.

This will also provide guidance for when you need extra discretionary spending. Because your budget would have showed you if this was possible or not beforehand already. You don’t need to think, debate or argue. You already know the decision.

3. Get Support

If you’re already suffering from depression or feel isolated because of money woes, you need to get support. Worrying about it on your own is not going to help. You need to get your partner on board this strategy to find a stress-free way of living or you need to seek professional help.

Summary

We already know living in Singapore is always stressful and costly. Other ways to not get bogged down too much by it is by having a healthy social and family unit to support one another. Being able to talk things through and discuss how we can help one another is a great way to reduce worry. Another thing people can try is keeping active. Not only does it keep you away from spending money (unless your only passion is golf!), it keeps your mind active and alert, and also helps us build social circles.

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