About Time: We Talked About Financial BurnoutBy Angelica Malin
We hear a lot about burnout these days, it’s said to be the word that defines the entire millennial generation, as we try to ‘have it all’. Fortunately, millennials, as well as other generations, are fighting back and starting to prioritise their mental health and take care of themselves. Burnout is typically associated with our jobs and being unable to balance our work and home lives, however, stress is just as likely to occur in other areas of our lives, too.
You might be familiar with financial burnout; these are some signs that you are struggling from financial burnout
- You have become apathetic or detached from your finances as a way of ignoring them
- You are extremely stressed about your finances but can’t seem to stop spending
- You are unsure how much you bring in on a monthly basis and how much goes out – including the dates of all your bills are due
- You have no savings or little financial cushion to cope with an unexpected bill
- You feel less energy to sort out or organise your finances, even though you know you need to
- Apathetic or discouraged towards your financial goals
These symptoms could occur for the same reason that occupational burnout occurs; studies show our mental faculties become impaired when we are too stressed and too drained. This means we’re not making responsible decisions or the same choices we would when we feel our normal, healthy selves. In many situations, this can worsen an individual’s financial situation as they might impulsively spend as a result of impaired judgement or simply to make themselves feel better.
The crux of burnout is that it is a persistent issue and a continued exposure to the cause of stress. This is a serious situation and could affect your mental and physical health, as well as your emotional wellbeing. In order to tackle burnout and its effects on your day to day life, you will need to take on the source of stress, as it won’t go away on its own. These are our tips for managing your financial burnout before it gets too much.
Managing Financial Burnout
The hardest part of combatting your financial burnout is getting motivated, if you’ve caught it early, this will be easier than if you have chronic burnout.
- Get Organised – As rudimentary as it sounds, setting yourself a budget will help to organise your mind, which could help to tackle some of your stress. You could lay out how much money you have coming in on a monthly basis, how much is going out and any debts you may have. If you are in an emergency financial situation and need funding to pay priority bills, a short term loans might be a one-off option to consider to helping you get on top of your bills.
- Take A Financial Course – We’ve advocated before how these could benefit you, as they could even help your career rather than forcing you to take time off (which burnout eventually will) and could provide a great way to get motivated about managing your money.
- Talk To Someone – Research shows that talking about money with our nearest and dearest can improve our relationships, make us feel more intimate and improve our mental health, which will help the emotional and mental impacts of any kind of burnout.
- Go Through Your Bank Statements – this could also be part of getting organised, manually go through your bank statements to review where your money is going. Identify what you spend your money on and start assessing what you can cut out
- Prepare For Your Financial Future – Learning about your financial data, credit score and as much as you can about your monetary situation could make you feel more equipped to handle what comes your way. When it comes to burnout, this is called resilience, and you should start training now.