How worried are you about money? Take our money stress test

South Africans are stressed about money. Many are worrying about how to pay all their monthly expenses, pay debts when they are due and fund future costs such as school fees.

Stress can be useful in small doses. It can spur you to take action, change bad habits and make important money decisions. But when stress never stops, it becomes chronic, damages both mental and physical health and can lead to poor money decisions.

Occasional money stress is normal and manageable. Chronic, long-term money stress is damaging. How stressed about money are you?

Take the money stress test

Grab a piece of paper or open the notes app on your phone. Read each question and write down the answer that best describes how you’ve felt over the past few weeks:

Never | Sometimes | Often | Almost always

There are no right or wrong answers. Just be honest about how often money worries are affecting you.

1. Do you worry about having enough money to cover your monthly expenses?
2. Do you stress about how you’re going to meet your monthly debt repayments?
3. Do you worry about how you would cope financially if an unexpected expense came up?
4. Do you find it difficult to control how much you worry about money?
5. Do money worries keep you awake at night or affect the quality of your sleep?
6. Do you find it difficult to concentrate at work or get things done because you’re thinking about money?
7. Are money worries causing tension or arguments at home?
8. Do you avoid checking your bank balance, opening bills or dealing with your finances because it makes you anxious?
9. Do you feel like you’ve lost control of your finances or don’t know where to start fixing them?
10. Do money worries leave you feeling irritable, anxious, tired or physically tense?

What are your answers telling you?

Everyone worries about money from time to time. But take a closer look at your answers. If you answered often or almost always to any of these questions, it may be a sign that money worries are taking a toll on your wellbeing.

Pay particular attention if money worries are affecting your sleep, concentration, relationships or how you feel physically or emotionally, or if you feel like you’ve lost control of your finances.

The good news is that there are practical steps you can take to deal with the financial pressures behind your stress and make your money feel more manageable.

Practical ways to reduce money stress

It can take months, sometimes years to get yourself into a more favourable financial position. But the relief is immediate when you take action and stick to your plans to manage your money well because you are taking back control of the situation. Here are some tips to help you face your money worries and reduce the stress they are causing.

Make living within your means a priority

Living within your means takes more than cutting a few small expenses. It means taking an honest look at what you earn, what you spend and what you can realistically afford. That can be uncomfortable, especially if it means changing habits, lowering expectations or making bigger decisions about your lifestyle.

Give yourself time to work through the numbers properly and involve the people who depend on your income. The aim is to build a plan you can actually stick to, not a budget that only works on paper.

1. Draw up a realistic budget based on what you actually earn and spend.
2. Separate essential expenses from the things you can reduce, delay or do without.
3. Be prepared to make bigger changes if your current lifestyle is not affordable. That might mean downsizing a car, home or school.
4. Spend time with a financial adviser to review your budget. An independent view can help you spot costs or savings you may have missed.
5. Look for realistic ways to earn extra income where you can.
6. Take Truth About Money’s Cash Crunch course to learn how to find extra funds when you need them.

Draw up a plan to reduce debts

Managing your debt means no worries about demands for payment.

1. Prepare a debt-status report listing every debt, the amount outstanding, the repayment amount and any arrears.
2. Calculate how much you can realistically afford to repay each month.
3. Contact your creditors and negotiate new repayments that you can afford or speak to a debt counsellor about debt review. Under debt review, a repayment plan is structured so that you can still cover essential living expenses.
4. Take Truth About Money’s Ditching Debt course to help you become and stay debt-free.

Have a long-term money plan

Long-term money worries include lying awake at night wondering how you will be able to afford a new car, school and university fees, as well as retirement. Planning for them eases the worry.

1. Book an appointment with a financial adviser to identify your long-term goals and map out how to fund them.
2. Find space in your budget for these goals, or at least some of them
3. Commit a percentage of any windfall, bonus or extra income to long-term goals, for example 10% or 20%.

Ask your healthcare provider for help with any physical and mental health issues

Stress changes the body and can lead to conditions such as depression as well as high blood pressure, which need to be managed with the help of a healthcare professional. Speak to your GP if your money worries are affecting your physical and mental health.

Get support and take back control

Taking control of your finances and asking for help can go a long way towards easing money worries. That help might come from a financial adviser, debt counsellor, creditor or family member. Once you have a plan in place, the next step is to stick with it and keep working towards a healthier financial position.