Financial situations may cause stress for some of us, at least at some point of life. There are ways you can relieve financial stress, easily.
Hopefully these tricks can help you sleep your nights a little bit better. A list of the things you can do is below. I will have deeper explanations on all of them later in this post.
- Budget your expenses
- Keep an emergency fund
- Invest a portion of your income
- Find ways to earn more
- Don’t buy things on installment
1. Budget your expenses
Budgeting your monthly expenses can relieve your stress, since you know exactly how much you can spend on each thing, and your money will be enough for them. When you have clear guidelines for yourself about how much you can spend on eating out, for example, each month, you don’t have to worry about if you can afford the extra smoothie on top of your order.
Also, when you’re budgeting, don’t just budget all your money into the essentials. Have some part of your budget for fun as well. What is the point of earning, if all your money goes to mortgages and essential bills? Have some fun as well, include that into your budget, and you can have your fun more freely, without having to stress about the expenses.
The point of having a budget is to stick with it. There is no point in making a budget if you are just going to ignore it. Have the essentials such as food big enough, so you don’t have to save on it. Go through your past month’s grocery bills, for example. Calculate it, and put the next month’s grocery budget at 1,5 times that much to make it last.
Having some extra on your grocery budget will help you do your shopping more freely. After all, we have to eat to stay alive and well. Don’t put a price tag on your health.
2. Keep an emergency fund.
After you have done your budgeting, you can more easily calculate your monthly expenses. The idea of keeping an emergency fund is to cover any unexpected expenses. That might be your car breaking down or losing your job due to a global pandemic.
Those things can happen, and by knowing you have an emergency fund to get through those times, will probably help you sleep a little bit better, knowing you are prepared.
When calculating, how much you should keep in your emergency fund, there are a few ways to do that. You can calculate only essential expenses, or your whole budget. If you happen to lose your job, you might want to hold back a bit on eating out and buying expensive non-essential stuff.
Some say emergency funds should cover six to twelve months’ worth of your living costs. This can be a lot for some people, but this is what you could aim for, to have that financial confidence.
Start small, if you don’t have anything saved up yet, don’t worry. Saving even a small portion of your income can grow into good emergency fund over time. Just stick to your saving plan and do it consistently. For example, just 50 dollars a month can over a long term help you out, if unexpected expenses show up.
I have a dedicated post about why you should have an emergency fund and how to create one. You can read it here.
3. Invest portion of your income
If you have your emergency fund all set up, you might want to start investing. By investing, you are putting money to grow, for example, to your retirement. These can be different reasons you would want to invest.
Some invest so their children or grandchildren can have a better future. Others want to make their retirement days a bit more comfortable. No matter what your reason is, investing can in the long term, according to past data, help you grow your wealth.
Knowing that you have your own retirement savings account of investments, can help you sleep a little bit better. Even if the governments retirement plans didn’t pay you enough to live by you have your own retirement fund as well.
The sooner you start, the more you have when you retire, or the sooner you can retire. Having a backup plan will also have you covered if you want to take a few months off from work. I have a post about if investing can make you rich, you can read it here.
4. Find ways to earn more
By earning more and keeping your expenses the same, you would have more freedom on what you spend your money on. For this to work, you should try to keep your expenses the same, or at least, not spending every extra dollar you earn.
You could, for example, make a deal with yourself. Invest half of the extra money you earn and spend the rest on something you like. Or, if you don’t already have an emergency fund, use the first half on that instead.
Internet has brought new ways to earn a little extra for almost everybody’s hands. You can, for example, sell your services on a freelancer network such as Fiverr or Upwork (not sponsored) or get a part-time second job, what ever fits you.
One option is to start your own business. This can be done even without quitting your day job. If you can manage your time well, and have a good idea, why not give it a shot? I have a post about why you should start your own business, you can read it here.
5. Don’t buy things in installment
Last thing on my list is to not buy things in installments. Chances are, there are high interests on the payments you take on products you necessarily don’t need. If you take a long installment on your phone, for example, chances are you are still paying for that phone even after it breaks down.
There is a saying, “if you can’t afford to buy it twice, you can’t afford it”. And by this saying, I mean, if you don’t have the cash to pay it upfront twice, you can’t afford it.
If you need a new phone, save for it first. Don’t buy it in installments or borrow money for it, if your old phone still works just fine. If your phone breaks down, then the situation might be different. For these kinds of situations, it would be good to have the emergency fund we talked about before, to cover these unexpected expenses.
Final words
Hopefully this was helpful to you, I have found these things helpful if I happen to feel stressed about my own financial situation. Knowing your expenses and that you can manage unexpected expenses will help you sleep a little bit better. Hopefully. Have a nice day.
This is not financial or investment advice. Always do your research before risking your hard-earned money. Past returns are not a guarantee of future returns.