Outsmart FINANCIAL STRESS!

Top money psychologists reveal the simple strategies that will ease your financial fears and help you feel more secure about your bottom line-and your future

- KRISTINA MASTROCOLA

With everything from rent to grocery prices soaring, it's no surprise that more than 77% of Americans are worried about finances. And the events of recent years have only exacerbated this anxiety-especially for women. "Covid undid some of the strides we were beginning to make in terms of catching up to men in earnings equity because more women had to drop out of the workforce to do caretaking," says wealth psychologist Moira Somers, Ph.D., author of Advice That Sticks. "We're still seeing those reverberations today."

She adds that we continue to pay for the pandemic years in other ways, as divorce rates increased during this time notoriously impacting women's bottom lines-and parents of adult children started supporting them to a much greater degree as the cost of living skyrocketed.

The good news? We can mitigate the uncertainty at the heart of financial anxiety and take control by demystifying money matters, says financial dignity coach Christine Luken, author of Money Is Emotional. "A great first step is doing something really simple, like listening to a financial podcast [like the female-focused So Money or Luken's own Money Is Emotional]. You don't have to add anything extra to your to-do list; you can listen while you're driving." Knowledge, after all, isn't just power-it's profit. Here, easy ways to dial down financial anxiety fast.

1 ACKNOWLEDGE THE FEAR