Use These Managing Money Tips
to Reduce Financial Stress

Problems with managing money can lead make us feel fearful of every new bill and vulnerable to our creditors.

Lack of discipline and financial vagueness can keep us in a stressful swamp of under earning, overspending, financial insecurity and confusion.

Managing money wisely includes:

1. making money,
2. spending money
3. saving money and
4. budgeting money, (planning)

Following these money management tips can dramatically
reduce your money stress.

Tips to Reduce Financial Stress

Keep a daily written record of
everything you earn and spend

Specify the categories of each income and expense item. This enables you to accurately see and evaluate:

• What you are spending your money on
• What your sources of income really are

When you know how you actually spend your money then you start to have the ability to make other, sometimes wiser or more practical choices.

When you know what your sources of income really are you can better evaluate how you spend your time and which business activities are most productive for you.

We provide a free PDF download of a Daily Money Log to assist you in this task. (The link will open in a new window.)

Allocate your income into
practical categories:

• Put aside money for your fixed overhead expenses like rent, food and car payments, phone bill and utilities. These are your basic survival necessities.
• Build yourself a financial cushion, or a prudent reserve.
  Put aside money for -the unexpected expenses which always come like doctor bills and car repairs. Include some for long term savings. This financial cushion will add comfort and softness and a feeling of greater safety and security to your financial life. (For years my husband put aside 10% of everything that came in. We had to live on what was left.)
• Then plan for the periodic bills that don’t come every month, like insurance and birthdays.
• Whatever is left is available to be spent on other things. It is important to set aside even a little bit of money for fun and enjoyment.

Take precautions to
prevent impulsive purchases:

• Leave your credit cards and cash at home when you visit the stores to go window shopping.
• Eat first before buying food. Dress up nicely before shopping for clothes.
• When going to make purchases, work from a list and don’t buy anything unless it is already on the list.
• Some people find it enormously helpful to cut up their credit cards and work only from cash. They even put their cash into envelopes. They make one envelope for every category of spending. They can spend on that category only as long as there is cash in that envelope. This system gives them a more concrete sense of how much money they have and where they can safely spend it.

Find creative ways
to live better on less cash

Wisdom in managing money does not mean deprivation.

This may mean:

• Having potluck dinners with friends and eating out less,
• Making simple gifts and cards instead of buying expensive ones. Some of the gifts I often give are gifts of service, or helping someone with a project they are trying to accomplish. Sharing whatever skills and talents you have is often very satisfying and appreciated.
• Waiting to purchase clothing or household items until they go on sale,
• Finding pleasure in simple, inexpensive things like a walk in the park or a visit to the museum or zoo.
• Borrowing books from the public library instead of purchasing them,
• Making meals from simple basic ingredients rather than buying expensive processed food.
• Drinking pure water instead of coffee or soda pop can be another healthy budget saver.

Spend only on what is
really important to you

Clarify your values.

Do not judge yourself by your car, clothes or possessions.
Avoid judging yourself by comparing your possessions with those of your family, friends or neighbors.
Instead, place a greater value on using your financial resources wisely. This will lead to less stress and greater inner satisfaction.

Besides...

Your real value is far beyond these physical things.
And your real source of happiness is actually already within yourself, (not at the shopping mall).

Commit to learning stress reducing
ways of managing money

For additional help managing money and coping with financial stress, try Debtors Anonymous (www.debtorsanonymous.org) or seek the assistance of a reliable financial adviser.
Debtors Anonymous has helped many thousands of people in:

• finding solvency,
• paying off debts,
• eliminating vagueness about money,
• increasing their earnings,
• decreasing their overspending and
• coping with financial stress in their lives.

Members of Debtor's Anonymous work together and assist and support each other in accomplishing these goals.

Managing money wisely can eliminate enormous financial stress, tension and worry from your life

It is a discipline. But it need not be painful.

Discover how you can minimize some of the other
Biggest Causes of Stress, or

Explore many ways to reduce stress by visiting 
Gentle Stress Relief home page.