A plethora of websites, television commercials and business magazines offer advice on save for retirement, where to find the best deals on insurance and what appliances will save you money on household spending. However, these resources rarely focus on how fatigue and stress affect your money-management capabilities. Fatigue and stress are factors that can have a serious impact on your earning capacity, decision-making skills and your judgment, all of which are necessary to manage your finances.
Inattentiveness
Managing your money and finances takes concentration and attention to detail in calculating expenses, scheduling payments, balancing your checkbook or reconciling your bank account. However, the overall process of money management requires you to be aware of what your obligations are, due dates for monthly bills and how often periodic payments, such as seasonal obligations and taxes, are due. Fatigue and stress take away your ability to recognize warning signs of financial distress and can deplete your body of the resources it needs to keep up with your responsibilities.
Overspending
Stress can cause anxiety and irritability. To deal with stressors in their lives, some people resort to spending money in ways they can't afford. For instance, people who use alcohol to relieve stress may spend more than they realize on cocktails after work and parties on the weekend. Overspending can eventually become a problem for managing their money, particularly when they spend more than they can reasonably afford on activities they hope will ease a stressful lifestyle.
Income
Chronic fatigue may effect your income if you can't work. Most workers don't have the luxury of showing up for work only when they feel up to it. Therefore, exhausting accrued vacation and sick time will eventually force you to use unpaid time off, which decreases your income. This can be even more problematic for people without paid time off from an employer -- people whose ability to work has a direct impact on their income, such as freelancers and independent contractors. The less work you perform, the less money you earn. Without enough income to meet your obligations and support your lifestyle, fatigue and stress make managing your money impossible.
Judgment
Fundamental to good money management is sound judgment and decision-making capabilities. Fatigue and stress affect your ability to analyze your financial conditions and make wise choices to keep you in the black. Taking control of your expenses, savings and investments requires clear and critical thinking processes. Your judgment could be clouded if you're prone to fatigue and stress in your life.
Frugal Fatigue
The buzzword for constantly making what appear to be the right choices for spending wisely and increasing wealth is "frugal fatigue." The onset of frugal fatigue refers to what occurs after you exercise good judgment to manage finances but never seem to get ahead. Hopelessness becomes the result of frugal fatigue and then the two rotate when there's little improvement to your financial condition. When your financial condition fails to improve, frugal fatigue can produce even more stress, which can make you lose the ability to continue making wise choices.
