Strategies to help keep financial stress at bay
Written and accurate as at: Apr 14, 2025 Current Stats & Facts
Financial stress can have a huge impact on our relationships, our work, and even our health and well-being. If money issues are weighing on your mind, here are six strategies that you can put in place today that might help.
Find the weak link in your finances
As anyone who’s visited the doctor understands, a problem needs to be diagnosed before any medicine can be prescribed.
If the source of your money woes isn’t immediately apparent, it might help to pick apart all the details of your financial life — your income, debts, savings habits — and try to pinpoint the areas that need attention.
Be kind but honest with yourself. Sometimes we overlook the small, seemingly harmless behaviours that can quietly compound over time. Unused memberships, frequent takeout, sticking with an overpriced provider — all these can slowly drain your finances in ways that can be hard to notice until it’s too late.
Start small
Once you’ve given your finances an audit, it’s time to take action. Keep things realistic — remember, no one’s expecting you to turn your finances around overnight — and focus on the small adjustments that you’ll be able to sustain over time.
A few ideas to get you started include:
- Cancelling any subscriptions or memberships you don’t use
- Negotiating a lower home loan rate with your lender, or refinancing to a cheaper loan
- Switching to a cheaper phone or internet plan
- Trimming your grocery bill by shopping at a cheaper supermarket or buying in bulk
- Looking for ways to automate your savings
- Bringing a packed lunch to work instead of ordering in
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by this list, pick your biggest expense and start there.
Get a handle on your debts
While it's wise to cut down on unnecessary spending, sometimes the problem goes deeper and calls for a more urgent intervention. If you feel overwhelmed by debt, for example, you’ll need a comprehensive plan to get it under control.
That might involve:
- Deciding how you’ll tackle it (e.g. using the snowball method and paying off the debts with the lowest balances first, or using the avalanche method and whittling away at the debts with the highest interest rate)
- Consolidating your debts into a more manageable loan (ideally with a low interest rate)
- Cutting up your credit cards
And while it’s important to focus on your outgoings, you shouldn’t neglect the other side of the balance sheet – your income. Look for ways to increase how much you earn, whether it’s finding a higher paying job or taking up a side hustle. It might also be worth upskilling so opportunities for advancement don’t pass you by.
Build your financial safety net
When you’ve got your most pressing debts under control, you can start working on an emergency fund. Having three to six months’ worth of living expenses set aside can help cushion the blow if you’re let go at work or face an unexpected bill (like car or medical expenses).
To make sure you don’t dip into these funds for everyday purchases, try to keep them in a separate account — and consider setting up automatic payments so they can steadily grow. Just $25 a week will add up to $1,300 by the end of the year.
Reach out to someone
Financial stress can put pressure on your personal relationships and make you want to withdraw. While your inner voice might be screaming at you to pull away from your loved ones, now is probably the time to reach out for support instead.
Consider opening up to someone who cares about you and will listen without judgement. Talking things over can help give you a renewed perspective on the problem at hand and make you feel more prepared to tackle it head on.
And if the problem is quite serious, it might be worth contacting your bank or lender’s financial hardship team. Depending on your situation, they might be able to offer some reprieve by adjusting your loan terms, waiving fees or even pausing repayments until you get back on your feet.
