For many, addressing financial issues can be uncomfortable; it's not a happy endeavor, De La Rosa said. Which is why people put budgeting and other money talk near the bottom of their to-do list, all the while drowning in debt or struggling with spending control.
Calling credit card companies, going through subscriptions, creating a budget or evaluating spending habits are all relatively minor tasks, but nonetheless require time.
This is why De La Rosa suggests individuals take a "financial health day." Either a day or a block of time dedicated to siting down and addressing finances.
"We all have subscriptions that we know we should cancel. We all know that we should probably finally enroll in our company's 401(k) . ... But we are just lacking the time, Right? We don't prioritize ourselves because we're busy prioritizing everybody else around us, and we are just too tired at the end of the day," De La Rosa said. "Love yourself enough to prioritize yourself right now. And whether that means asking for a raise, searching for another job, putting time in your calendar to do all the financial things that we've talked about, these are things that you've been putting off."
For couples and families, it's important to be an open book. Pretending money monsters don't exist won't make them go away. Financial issues are one of the leading causes of divorce, De La Rosa said, which is why it's important that partners and family are on the same page when it comes to money ups and downs.
When people feel financially insecure, De La Rosa said, "Basically half of your brain is thinking about your financial constraints and is unable to really focus on other kinds of problems."
It is mentally exhausting. Which is why it's important to achieve a sense of balance.
Money does — to some extent — buy happiness, De La Rosa explained. So, if you find yourself grinding day in and day out, it is OK to spend a little to help pick yourself after a long week.
"One of the things that we know is that people get more pleasure and happiness out of buying experiences than material goods. So, if you have to choose ... choose to have the experience," De La Rosa said.
[Spending on doing promotes more moment-to-moment happiness than spending on having - People derive more satisfaction from experiential purchases (e.g., travel, entertainment, outdoor activities, meals out) than material purchases
(e.g., clothing, jewelry, furniture, gadgets), both in prospect and
retrospect. Because different types of well-being can have different
determinants, we examined whether experiences have the same advantage
over possessions in the here-and-now of consumption as they do in
anticipation or remembrance. Participants in two large-scale
experience-sampling studies were contacted in the midst of consuming an
experiential or material purchase and asked about their momentary
happiness. Experiential consumption was consistently associated with
significantly greater happiness than either non-consumption or the
consumption of material goods. In-the-moment happiness, furthermore, was
greater for all subcategories of experiential purchases than for any
category of material goods. Experiences thus appear to be a more
promising route to enhancing well-being than possessions, irrespective
of when happiness is measured. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology May 2020]
It can be as simple as going out with friends or loved ones, for example. And if that's a little outside the budget, get creative. What you can or cannot do when money is tight is only limited by your imagination.
"You can turn almost anything into meaningful experience. And that's what I would just hope that people can do during this time, right? It is so taxing to have to think about your financial situation all of the time."
