Reduce Stress by Restructuring Your Finances

Debt is stressful. Feeling the pressures of saving for retirement also can be stressful. While reducing your plastic is one small way of restructuring your finances, you can also restructure finances by restructuring your life so you’re financing as little as possible. Here are some ways to do that:

• Get rid of your mortgage. If your house is mortgaged to the hilt or in need of expensive renovations that you can’t afford, that’s stressful. Many people find that selling the “money pit” house and buying or renting something cheaper eliminates a lot of debt and stress.

• Get rid of your car. If you’re a two-car family, try living with only one car. If you’re a one-car family, getting rid of a car is usually possible only in large urban centers with good public transit. Try living car-free for a year, and see if it makes a difference financially. Gas, repairs, insurance, tickets, parking, and car payments really add up.

• Use retirement funds to pay off credit card debts or other nagging debts. Your retirement savings don’t have to be used just for retirement. You’re saving your money to help yourself in the future. Maybe the time to use some of that money is now. Get rid of those high-interest debts once and for all. Perhaps the money you save by not paying interest can go back into your savings account. Consult a financial adviser before deciding which strategy would be best for you.

• Resist the pressure to play the market. There is a lot of pressure from fund management companies to invest your money in high-risk stocks or moneymarket accounts in exchange for higher interest. You could certainly make money on these ventures—but you can lose your money, too. If you can’t afford to lose, you may not want to play. Keeping your money in guaranteed-interest accounts or lower-interest accounts that are less volatile may give you peace of mind—something perhaps more valuable than a piece of the action! When you consider the time spent on checking the stock market, worrying about the stock market, and so on, it’s a lot of wasted energy. Getting your time back from the stock market may be more valuable than the stock itself.