Money and Stress go hand in hand.  According to a Bankrate survey approximately 65% of all U.S. adults say that money negatively affects their mental health.  Financial stress only seems to be getting worse by the day.  In light of that I would love to share with you a quick post written by Franklin First’s CIO and Financial Coach Dave Howe.

Stress.

More than half of us is stressed about finances.

Possibly more than that are stressed for all sorts of reasons. You know what they are, so I don’t need to poke at them. Different things stress out different people.

I’m not here to write about how to get over stress from preparing for a public speaking gig – that would be a very different topic.

I’m also not going to bring up an Emergency Fund quite yet. It happens to be one of the best ways to reduce financial stress – it lets us actively do something and not just worry, it gives peace of mind….but I wasn’t going to talk about that now.

Instead, I want to suggest a different stress relief approach:

Walk away from it for a minute. Take a few breaths. Distract yourself.

Now, before you get all fired up, I am NOT recommending going off on a spending spree, or switching off your internal financial advisor in training.

Not. At. All. (Pro tip: all of the best internal financial advisors are always in training.)

If you have been working on a saving target, like for a movie, or a weekend trip off with friends, or something that is low cost or free that works like a balm for you, then budget time to do that thing.

If it’s art, but you haven’t had time to do anything lately, create a space in the calendar and do that. If it’s listening to music, reading light fiction, watching a documentary on how ice cream is made, walking outside [possibly with a dog or a friend, or multiples of both]….whatever it is, make some time for it.

No one can sustain stress indefinitely. The longer you hold the stress, the more of a toll it takes. Take a breath, walk away from it for a moment.

The important part here (not to stress you out again) is not to dig yourself into a new hole of debt or bad spending. Nothing will wipe out the benefit of a break like knowing that you’ve made things worse.

If your break involves spending money, budget for it. There might be guilt, but keeping the mental engine going is also important.

Put another way – a food plan that doesn’t have room for limited cheating will fail, as will a budget that doesn’t have room for fun.

Planning your spending should be about empowering yourself, taking control of your spending, managing and hopefully eliminating debt. It is not about feeling guilty that you bought a coffee once this week.

The trick, as always, is to do things with clear intent, not by reflex.

Spend on purpose, save on purpose.

You knew I was going to write it somewhere. And for this article, maybe it’s worth doing an edit:

Spend on purpose, save on purpose.

Breathe.

Repeat as necessary.