4 Financial Fears of Americans and How to Address Each One

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Do financial fears keep you up at night? Whenever you find a moment’s break from the business of daily activities, does your mind immediately wander to your worries about your lack of financial security? If financial fears are a recurring part of your daily life, you are not alone.

In fact, a survey conducted by GOBankingRates revealed that 1 in 3 people worry about money all the time. That same survey showed that, “More people are worried about living paycheck to paycheck, falling into debt and becoming homeless than dying.”

Why are we bringing this up? Well, we want you to know that you are not alone when it comes to living with financial insecurities and financial fears. In fact, there are many others just like you in our online financial support groups and online community sharing their fears in a positive, healing environment designed to offer support on your journey to financial wellbeing.

Below, we list the four of the biggest financial fears of Americans as reported by that survey from GOBankingRates. And with each one, we’ll share a proactive step you can take to overcome each financial fear and move your life towards financial wellbeing. Each of these proactive steps can be found in our My Money Myself self-help program.

4 Financial Fears of Americans and How to Address Each One

Being Unemployed

 

To overcome the fear of losing your job, you must take the necessary steps towards moving away from living the paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. For most of us, this involves changing financial behaviors when it comes to spending and saving.

In lesson three of our self-help program, you will be introduced to the Personal Spending and Saving Plan (P.S.S.P). Using this tool will help you start putting money aside in savings which you can use if needed during times of unemployment.

Never Getting Out of Debt

The second biggest of the financial fears was accumulating uncontrollable debt. Large amounts of debt not only affect us financially, but its effects carry over to us mentally and physically. The fear of never getting out of debt can make us feel hopeless. But remember, this always hope.

We touched on uncontrollable debt and how to get back on the path towards financial wellbeing in the blog post Don’t Allow Credit Card Debt to Limit Your Life and Harm Your Health. One of the tools mentioned in that post was the Financial Therapy Network Get Out Of Debt (G.O.O.D) plan. This proactive tool empowers you to overcome your fear of never getting out of debt by taking the necessary actions to get out of debt.

Never Being Able to Retire

Luckily for you, the fifth biggest financial fear on the list is also one which is avoidable. With more Americans living with more credit card debt than ever before and with the housing crash and financial crisis we recently went through, it is easy to see why many Americans are terrified that they will have to work until the day they die.

The cause of this fear can be dealt with by taking necessary steps to changing financial behaviors. Both the P.S.S.P and G.O.O.D plans mentioned above are action-based tools to begin to change those behaviors. Another positive step towards reaching your financial goals and being able to retire is to know how to set the right kind of goals. You can find that information in our blog post Achieve Your Financial Goals Successfully the SMART Way.

Losing Savings in Stock Market

While this financial fear is understandable, it is also unfounded when you follow a healthy investment strategy. The sixth biggest of the financial fears is one based mostly on not understanding or being afraid to ask about sound investment strategies.

We touch on this in our self-help program as we share – not financial advice – but instead what a healthy investment and savings portfolio should look like. And a healthy portfolio would never have all of your savings in the stock market in the first place.

Unfortunately, many women suffer from low financial self esteem when it comes to topics such as investing and the stock market. There are proactive steps you can take to overcome this low self-esteem and financial fears. Education is key. You can also join support groups where you can share your fears and learn from others.

Financial fears are understandable. They are also preventable. Take a proactive approach to overcoming your financial fears and empower yourself to find financial wellbeing.

The post How to Overcome Financial Fears with Positive, Proactive Steps appeared first on Financial Therapy Network.

Written By Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW

How to Overcome Financial Fears with Positive, Proactive Steps was originally published @ Financial Therapy Network and has been syndicated with permission.

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