How Financial Stress Can Affect Your Health As You Age

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One of the biggest sources of stress in anyone’s life is often finances. Chances are, you’re heavily reliant on your own income for things like rent, food, utilities, and more. These are the essentials that we need, and if at any time you feel as though you don’t quite have enough to meet this level, you’re naturally going to be stressed out, which might end up costing you even more in the long run.

Stress of any kind has a number of adverse physical effects. It can cause hair loss, weight fluctuation, blood pressure spikes, and more. It also comes with its fair share of mental effects, such as depression.

These problems can pile on top of one another and actually cause you to have further worries about your finances, stressing you out even more than you already were. If you have to get medical help for something like blood pressure, that may end up being costly.

If you were already stressed out about finances before, a trip to the doctor isn’t going to make it any better once you get that bill. In order to prevent yourself from spiraling down that kind of path, you need to make sure you have a good grip on your financial situation.

Obviously, it won’t be the same for everyone, because everyone has different levels of income and different bills to pay and so on. However, there are a few commonalities that can apply to almost anyone, regardless of how much they make or how much their rent is, so at least you’ll be able to rely on those.

For example, everyone should have a budget or financial plan. You should know exactly how much you’re paying each month for the basics: food, gas, rent, or anything else you might need.

You should then see how much you’re making, so that you can figure out what extra spending money you actually have, if any. Another common piece of advice is to set away an emergency fund.

Emergencies can strike at any time, and they can be a huge worry financially. In order to avoid stressing out about things like that, have some sort of backup fund. This can be built over time, even if it’s just five dollars a month.

Over time, once it’s a sizeable amount, you won’t have to worry about all of these “what-if” situations, because you’ll have something to cover it.