How to Stop Money Ruling Your Emotions

Have you ever noticed how you can feel anxious, angry, resentful or afraid when you think about your money situation?

When you get a bill that you don’t know when you can pay? When an unexpected cost comes in that blows your budget or financial plans?

Money and emotions are very connected, and when you don’t have control of your money situation overall, things will always come up that create negative emotions and add to your stress levels.

The only way to manage this flight to negative emotions is to master control over your money. That doesn’t mean you can change your whole financial situation quickly, and stop the stress. What it does mean is that you are prepared for the unexpected, and can deal with bills and life by knowing what position you are in today financially.

To get this control and peace of mind you have to do some work.

It is not the most exciting of jobs, but you need to take a look at what your life costs per month to run. There is a great tool for calculating all your expenses on the moneysmart.gov.au website.  This will also ask you to put in your quarterly bills like electricity and gas etc, and it aggregates them into a monthly cost. Only when you have a complete picture of your money situation can you start to make clear decisions about taking control of…

Continue reading the article >

Vanessa Stoykov writes for Secrets of the Money Masters, a programme she founded, now owned by tech giant Iress for the education of financial advisers