5 Tips For Managing Post-COVID Financial Stress

Personal finance causes many individuals to undergo stress, affecting their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. This happens because many people often struggle with managing their finances. Following the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, anxiety among the low- and middle-income people have only heightened. Moreover, many have been left unemployed and depend on their savings. 

Luckily, all hope is not lost if you’re also undergoing financial stress due to a money shortage. Thanks to specific tips that can help you better manage your money, thus, effectively dealing with your financial stress. Below are five tips on best handling post-COVID money-related stress and getting your life back on track.

Create A Budget

For many individuals, financial stress is usually brought about due to a disconnect in the amount of money they earn and how much they spend. Knowing this, a financial literacy skill you need to learn to avoid such a mistake and worsen your money-related stress is creating a budget. Using this tool, you’ll save yourself financial stress by always being on top of how you spend every penny you earn. In the long run, doing this will help you improve your finances to help you achieve your future goals.

To create a budget, you should first identify your net income. After this, take note of all your monthly expenses, such as rent or utility bills. Moreover, you can use a money management app or spending tracker to help you out. Tracking your expenses will help you pinpoint areas where you can cut down.

During the first couple of months, sticking to the set budget will undoubtedly be challenging. However, you’ll slowly get the hang of this recent spending and have a much easier time in the future. As a result, you’ll find yourself less stressed about your financial situation.

Build An Emergency Fund

Building an emergency fund can sound like a far-fetched idea if you’re making barely enough money to get by. But with such a fund, you’ll be able to cope better with financial stress and anxiety, which can give you peace of mind. When building an emergency fund, you should first aim to set aside at least USD$1,000. And after settling all your debts, increase your savings and target setting aside at least three to six months of your monthly expenses.

Because building an emergency fund is often quite challenging, you should start small. This means you can start by saving USD$10 to USD$100, and over time you’ll grow your savings in your emergency fund. With enough money saved, you’ll enjoy greater peace of mind even during times of financial stress knowing that you can comfortably cater to any unforeseen emergencies.

Look After Your Health

When going through financial stress, it’s easy to overlook the need to maintain your overall health. As a result, you find yourself resorting to unhealthy habits such as lack of physical exercise, poor sleeping habits, or an unhealthy diet. Doing this adds tremendous stress to you by affecting your emotional, physical, and emotional well-being, which worsens your financial health in the long run. 

With this in mind, it’s best to put steps to ease your body, mind, and soul into a relaxed state to help you achieve more excellent financial health. The different ways you can do this include:

• Eat a healthy diet to supply your body with nutrients to help your brain better cope with financial anxiety and be less sluggish.
• Get adequate sleep, ideally at least seven hours of rest.
• Exercise regularly to promote the production of endorphins to boost your overall mood and, thus, help you better deal with financial stress.
• Consult your doctor right away if your financial stress affects your physical well-being. If you suffer from an underlying health condition, this is crucial to help your doctor treat the symptoms before they worsen. 
• Get emotional support from a family member, friend, or therapist to share the financial stress you’re going through. This action helps you better cope with your anxiety and ensures you don’t make decisions that further worsen your financial predicament.

Doing any of these activities will ease your mind from financial stress by helping you disconnect from your stressors.

Settle Your Debts

Whereas your focus needs to be on saving and investing to achieve financial freedom, this shouldn’t be at the expense of clearing all your outstanding debts. This is because debt can quickly become a significant burden and cause you great financial stress if left unchecked. With this in mind, it’s essential always to prioritize debt repayment to do away with any financial stress that you might be experiencing.

You can employ different debt repayment methods, such as the snowball method, whereby you start by paying your smaller debts and later go to the bigger ones. In contrast, you can also begin by clearing the debts with higher interest rates, known as the high-rate method. While repaying your debts, it’s recommended that you don’t take any new obligations.

Talk To A Professional 

Money matters can be overwhelming to handle all by yourself. For this reason, it’s best to get help from a financial advisor. With their skills and experience, these professionals can teach you how best to deal with your financial challenges. They do this by teaching you how to save money, reduce your debt, and set attainable goals, which is beneficial during these post-COVID times.

Other challenges that a financial advisor can help you deal with include student loans, medical debt, credit card loans, mortgages, and tax debt. They also can enlighten you about government programs that are in place that are aimed at persons that suffered a devastating blow due to the coronavirus pandemic. With their help and guidance, you’ll, over time, get back on your feet and free yourself from financial stress.

Takeaway

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted millions of lives across the globe, resulting in such persons undergoing money-related stresses. If you find yourself in such a position, learning how to manage financial stress is essential for your peace of mind. This guide has elaborated all you need to know on how to go about dealing with post-COVID financial stress and achieve a positive outlook on life. 

Tristan D. Porter

I am Tristan who loves to ride and spend time with my jenny (horse) and my love Mark. After completing my graduation, I have been working as an accountant in a private firm in Cologne.