This agonizing pressure is more common than you think and can be lived better. Here’s how.
Posted at 9:56 a.m.
Understand your expenses
Before even making a budget, you have to know where your money is going, advises the syndic Guylaine Houle.
“Most of those who get started find that they underestimated several areas of expenditure,” she says.
Psychologist Nicolas Chevrier explains that it is the unknown that is stressful and that many people have never thought about their expenses, because they have never had to.
To easily understand her spending areas, advisor Léa Saadé recommends simply consulting her credit card statements, which present the spending categories. Financial institutions’ expense optimization tools are also very useful, says Léa Saadé, regional vice-president, FDP, wealth management.
Make a budget
About 90% of people don’t make a budget, estimates Guylaine Houle. “They don’t have the psychological and emotional tools to do that,” she says.
When you know that you may have a problem with the management of your assets, you can go into denial or see the exercise as a mountain, especially when you have little knowledge of finance.
Making a first budget often means having to make the difficult observation that you spend more than you earn. And no one is ready to admit that.
Guylaine Houle, Regional Director at Pierre Roy, Debt Solutions
Once done, the budget must be respected and reviewed regularly. “At least at each of the major life changes,” says Guylaine Houle. Whether it’s a divorce, a new job, a change in income, retirement, upcoming retirement or external pressure caused by rising interest rates and inflation.
Get rid of your debts, first
What causes insomnia more than anything is debt, says trustee Guylaine Houle. “Having debt is extremely stressful,” she says. When you get rid of that stress, you can see things more clearly. “Never,” she said, “have I met someone who had regained control of his finances and who was not happier.” »
Save more. and better
Psychologist Nicolas Chevrier suggests something that may seem contradictory: when finances are already tight, he advises to save more. That famous emergency fund? It’s time to launch it, at a realistic pace. So when someone anxious and concerned about their finances goes to check their bank profile, they will find that they are in action.
It’s going to ease the pressure of uncertainty because you’re doing something. It is the opposite of avoidance.
Nicolas Chevrier, psychologist
Financial planner Léa Saadé estimates that the contingency fund should contain the equivalent of three to six months’ cost of living. This is also what is recommended by the Quebec Institute of Financial Planners.
Be realistic
On the other hand, if you get carried away and give yourself unrealistic goals, it will not help you at all. If you create an emergency fund or a project fund with automatic transfers and spend your time dipping into it to meet your current financial obligations, the project will be daunting.
“Set yourself realistic goals that you can achieve,” confirms psychologist Nicolas Chevrier.
These solutions must last over time, regardless of the economic context, because it reduces the feeling of anxiety and allows us to focus on our objectives.
Léa Saadé, financial planner
Talk about money as a family
Financial education begins at home, in the immediate family, says financial planner Pierre-Olivier Desmarais.
“Children will learn from their parents’ attitude towards money,” he says.
How to do ? Open the dialogue, bring new terms into the family vocabulary, flee taboos, answers Pierre-Olivier Desmarais, who assures us that the very “relaxed” family dinner is a good place to broach the subject.
“If we never talk about money, yes, it can create anxiety,” says the planner, who goes so far as to suggest that parents take their children to wealth and budget management appointments. to demystify the relationship to money.
Financial advisor Léa Saadé, of the private wealth management firm FDP, believes that this fluidity of discussion and knowledge about money must also have its place in the couple. Both spouses must understand their budget, she says, and especially not leave all the responsibility for family finances to the same person.
Consult a specialist
Another approach that may seem contradictory: pay for financial services… to save!
It is also a takeover action. “Just contact with a financial planner will be reassuring, says Pierre-Olivier Desmarais, because we are worried about what we don’t understand. The objective is not to fully understand the financial markets, but to act. To take a step forward. »
You should also know that several services are available to us free of charge, such as the network of cooperative associations for family economics (ACEF), which is still little known. There are ACEFs in several regions of Quebec.
Financial institutions also offer advisory services to their clients.
Some employers do this in different ways. In unionized companies, the union may offer one or more consultations with a financial adviser. Otherwise, some employee assistance programs also offer this type of service.
At Homewood Health, which offers these assistance programs in many companies, financial stress is presented as a disorder that must be taken seriously.
“In fact, although we may think that financial stress is transient, studies show that it affects us chronically, manifesting in illness, relationship difficulties, crippling debt and uncertainty about life. future, can we read on the Homewood Health website. At its peak, financial stress can trigger anxiety and contribute to depression. »
Review your priorities
“What makes you happy? Really fun? »
It is the syndic Guylaine Houle who asks the question. She does not expect an immediate response. Quite the contrary.
It requires reflection, introspection.
And that answer rarely comes in numbers, in money, but rather in projects or dreams that cost money.
“The pandemic has changed our perception of happiness, says Guylaine Houle, and our priorities for achieving it. We will want to spend more on shared moments than on material things. »
In financial recovery, it is very difficult to multiply expenses, but it is possible to set realistic goals that will allow you to continue dreaming, despite financial pressure.
Guylaine Houle advises the principle of envelopes. This allows you to save for a specific project, without affecting other financial obligations.
If it is impossible to launch a separate project, we can consider continuing the essential savings once the objective has been reached and then treat ourselves to something that is pleasing and good.
Take care of yourself
“The human body doesn’t differentiate between stressors,” says Nafissa Ismail, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Brain Research Institute.
If your brain reacts to a stressor, your glands will produce cortisol, explains this specialist. They will not tell themselves that interest rates will eventually go down. You must therefore react without discrimination to the reason that causes the stress.
“Exercise, yoga, read,” advises Nafissa Ismail, who admits that with the pandemic, it’s another period of adaptation that we have to live. The good news, she says, is that during this pandemic, we have found many hobbies and ways to be entertained that cost nothing. It therefore risks reducing cortisol, without creating new financial stress…