Expert Voices: Managing Financial Stress–A Practical Guide

Financial stress doesn’t just stay at home—it follows us to work, affecting focus, performance, and mental health. In fact, one in three full-time employees say money worries have made it harder to do their job. This Financial Literacy Month, it’s time to talk about how financial stress affects not just our personal lives but also the energy we bring to work.

LifeSpeak expert and Certified Financial Planner Shannon Lee Simmons shares how financial stress can chip away at confidence, create daily anxiety, and make it harder to plan for the future. More importantly, she offers practical steps to help you regain control and build a healthier relationship with money—starting today.

Prices have increased everywhere, and with that, financial stress is on the rise. With my job, I talk to regular people on the frontline of financial planning every day. I see the deep financial anxiety rising in people and how it’s impacting their lives.

It’s no wonder people are stressed out! Cost of living is through the roof, there’s uncertainty about future jobs due to Artificial Intelligence (AI), and there’s volatility in the stock market, interest rates, and inflation. It’s been a wild ride for the last few years.

Here’s the thing: When we are stressed out about money, it impacts every aspect of our lives. I’m not a mental health professional, so I can only speak to what I see with the clients I work with every day.

Financial stress negatively impacts us in three ways. It reduces confidence, gives us a lack of hope, and causes us to experience daily anxiety over every purchase.

Let’s break those down.

Financial stress reduces financial confidence

Money is how we pay for our hopes, dreams, and fears. If you want to go on a trip, you need to save up to afford it. If you want to buy a house, you need to make enough money to save for a down payment and float a mortgage. All the things we want to do cost money. So, if we constantly feel that there isn’t enough money as a result of financial stress, or that we aren’t able to make enough money, then the narrative for ourselves can become “I’m not good with money.” And if that negative self-talk starts up, what you’re also saying is “I can’t achieve my hopes and dreams.”

Financial stress leads to negative self-talk about money, which leads to a lack of confidence in our ability to make enough money to achieve our goals, which leads to more financial stress.

It’s a cycle.

The best thing to do about this is to make a micro timeline financial plan. You may not know what’s happening 10 years from now or even 10 months from now, but maybe the next 10 weeks are predictable. Maybe the next 10 days. Often plans focus on the big picture, and far-off timelines, but it doesn’t feel like there are steps to take in the short run.

With a micro timeline financial plan, you can see exactly what needs to happen in the short run to get where you want to go or at least closer to it, for better or worse.

Financial stress can cause lack of hope

Another way I see financial stress impacting people is that the grind of daily financial stress can lead to a lack of hope. A “What’s the point in trying” attitude. A great example of this is someone who has a $4000 credit card they just can’t seem to pay down. When you’re carrying $4000 on a credit card, what’s another $400? Swipe!

We all splurge every now and then, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about giving up on trying altogether due to a lack of hope or belief that there’s a point in trying.

When we lose hope, we tend to give up trying, and then our fears become reality because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The best way to tackle this is to save something, anything! A little bit. It can actually go a long way. The important thing during tight economic times is to hold onto the habit of savings, even if it’s $10. The act of saving is the opposite of giving up. It forces us to feel hope every month.

Managing financial stress: Daily anxiety

The other major trend I see with financial stress is daily anxiety and overall purchases. For example, if you order a pizza, it’s probably not going to rob you of a secure retirement, but so many people feel guilt, shame, and anxiety for spending any money at all.

This is a direct result of constant scarcity mindset. The cost of living is on the rise and wages are tight, so reducing spending where you can is probably savvy. But, there is still money that should be spent each month. You have to eat. You have to wear clothes. There is a portion of your money that should and needs to be spent each month in order to live.

The best antidote to this is to make a budget every month that outlines what money you cannot spend and what money you can spend. I call this your Hard Limit. It’s the line in the sand between what can be spent and what cannot be spent.

A budgeting strategy to reduce daily money anxiety

For example, if you make $2000 a paycheck and get paid twice a month, you make $4000 a month.

Therefore, you have $1400 a month for:

• Groceries
• Gas
• Going out
• Take out
• Entertainment
• Clothing
• Toiletries
• Life!

If you’re paid twice a month, that’s $700 a paycheck ($1400/2).

There you go! You have $700 a paycheck to spend. Who cares what it’s on? If you spend money on a pizza from the $700, that’s ok! You know it’s the money for spending. It’s supposed to be spent! You know your bills are saved, and you’re saving what you need to save. This is the money you can spend to zero every payday without compromising your bills or the future.

Financial stress has been proven to cause sleepless nights. It’s not fun. I’m not saying that any of us can have a life with no financial stress ever, but at least with a plan, a savings habit, and a budget between what’s allowed to be spent vs what we can’t, you can tackle it head on and try to reduce it to hold on to the most important part of financial planning: hope.

Money worries don’t just affect personal finances—they impact focus, productivity, and overall engagement at work. Want to help your employees manage financial stress? LifeSpeak’s wellness solutions fit seamlessly into your benefits, providing expert guidance, on-demand tools, and actionable strategies to help employees build confidence, reduce financial anxiety, and take control of their financial future. Curious to see how it works? Book a demo today.

About the author: Shannon Lee Simmons, Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Investment Manager, Financial Expert

Shannon Lee Simmons is an award-winning Certified Financial Planner, speaker, Chartered Investment Manager, author and founder of the New School of Finance. Her two books, Worry-Free Money and Living Debt-Free are best sellers. She is a personal finance writer for the Globe and Mail, CBC Radio’s Metro Morning money columnist, and financial expert on The Marilyn Denis Show.