A recent survey found that seven in 10 Americans report anxiety or even depression about their financial situation. Financial therapist Steven Hughes joins with more.

A significant portion of the population is experiencing heightened anxiety and depression about their financial situation, with recent surveys indicating that nearly 70% of Americans are affected. This trend is especially pronounced among millennials and Gen Z, with about 40% reporting weekly financial stress. 

Financial therapy is being highlighted as a potential solution, focusing on the emotional and psychological aspects of money management rather than just budgets and investments. Financial therapists help clients address past experiences and emotional patterns related to money, aiming to reduce shame, guilt, and uncertainty. This holistic approach can support individuals in building a stronger foundation for both their financial and overall well-being.

How to deal with financial anxiety

If you've been feeling anxious about your finances, well, join the club. A recent survey found nearly 7 in 10 Americans report anxiety or even depression about their financial situation, and that's up eight points from 2023. Those feelings are even stronger in younger generations. You see some of the stats here with about 40% of millennials and Gen Z experiencing this weekly. But the answer to financial woes may be found in therapy rather than in your budget. Financial therapist Stephen Hughes joins me now to talk about this. Good morning, Stephen, and welcome. This is a new concept for some people watching. So what is financial therapy exactly, and how does it differ from what we understand to be like a financial advisor or advice that we get? Sure. So financial therapy is really combining financial well-being with mental health and holistic well-being. So we're moving past financial education and really helping people make healthy financial decisions that will help them now and in the future. And for financial advisors, generally they help you with your investments in the present and in the future. For a lot of financial therapists, we're helping our clients really deal with the stuff in the past so they can do more of the things they want to do now and in the future. Let's talk about that specifically because a financial advisor wants to see your spreadsheets. They want to see your assets. They want to see the data. A financial therapist maybe wants to see your emotional wheel. But what's the connection? If I'm anxious and depressed about some things in my life, how does that translate to how I might be managing or mismanaging my money? Yeah, everything is connected. And so if you're not feeling the best, you've probably heard people say that they will use retail therapy to feel better and get more control of their money, because they feel as they are using the money the way they want to, and they may not be able to pay that big unexpected expense, that they can get control of things. So really, financial therapists are helping people understand what they experienced in the past, even if it's a money mistake that happened very, very long ago or something that you saw someone else experience that you developed some financial stress or trauma from. Another piece of it, I think, is part of this, which is sometimes there is intelligent spending or putting money, let's say you have savings and you put them in bonds, which means they're locked away. Yeah. That can feel anxiety-inducing, even though that's a smart decision with money. So the emotions and how you were raised around money can have a huge impact in your intelligent decisions too. Absolutely. Not just the way that you were raised, but also the things that you saw around money, the experiences that you had, the experiences your parents had, because they're generally your first teachers, and even back seven generations, because their teachers had to teach them something or not about money, in terms of how they taught you about money. And you might have to unlearn some things. I mean, my mom would always brag about how cheap a shirt she bought was, and I'm like, okay, mom, what's the quality? So what behaviors should our viewers look to address if they think that financial therapy is for them? Yeah, well, a lot of my clients, they want to kick away the shame or the guilt they feel around money, or they want to get rid of the feeling of just not knowing what the next step looks like and what they can do when it comes to putting one foot in front of the other. Some people, when they have a lot of financial stress on them, it seeps into every area of their life, so they can't focus on their physical health or their mental health, or even being able to focus at work. And so when you're thinking about right now the economy that we're going through, a lot of people are trying to stabilize themselves, not only at work, but in their personal financial lives as well. So financial therapy can help with setting that stage and helping people build that foundation on concrete and not quicksand. That's a great analogy, and I think an interesting concept for people who need help in every way they can get. Stephen Hughes, great to have you join us today. Thanks so much.

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