Surprising Ways Your Money Habits Affect Your Health
Almost every issue that we have in our lives has an underlying thread of financial or money concerns. Things that you might think are entirely unrelated still has money as a variable, such as your relationship with your family and friends. How you spend your money, how you use it to obtain your goals, and plan or manage the funds can affect your physical health.
Debt
The most significant factor towards assaulting your health is debt; according to the American Psychological Association (APA), finances are the top cause of Americans’ stress. The Federal Reserve is now reporting that Americans hold $4.1 trillion in consumer debt as of December 2020. Some signs that you are experiencing financial stress include:
- Losing sleep from money worries
- Feeling anxious about money
- Feeling guilty when you spend money on non-essential items
- Being afraid to open mail, answer the phone, or look at email
- You are arguing with family and friends about money.
Over time stress can poison your body. When your body stays at an elevated level of stress over a long time, it can cause high blood pressure, obesity, depression, headaches or migraines, chronic pain, and a host of other ailments that can cause long-term health concerns.
Bad Habits
When money stresses you out, you look for ways to handle that stress. How you choose to handle that stress could add to your overall health problems or add to your ailments. Healthy ways that people handle stress include:
- Building in regular exercise to their daily routine
- Getting enough sleep
- Practice meditation or yoga
- Eat well and nutritionally
- Connect with a supportive community
- Adding some time for a hobby
If you find that you are fighting insomnia, overusing caffeine, using self-destructive outlets like alcohol or drugs, consider changing your habits to a healthier practice to improve your well-being.
Alleviating Some of the Pressure
Most people do not go out of their way to damage their health, but when you hold onto stress, you impair your body’s ability to function normally and injure your immune system. Reducing day-to-day stress is often difficult unless you address the root cause. In terms of money anxiety, it might be easy to determine the problem, but addressing the issue and behavior around it could be tricky. Some of the methods that you could use to get your money back on track are:
- Get on a written budget and track your spending habits
- Budget your fun; if you plan to go to movies or an amusement park, add that into your monthly budget.
- Carry cash; if you tend to overspend in a few areas in your life, such as food or clothing, carry cash for those areas, and when the money is gone, that’s it… no more.
- Do not pay for convenience. If you find yourself running through the drive-thru often, you are paying for the convenience of someone else cooking. Fall in love with your kitchen and the process of providing good food and save money at the same time.
