How does Managing My Personal Finances Affect My Mental Health?

Personal finances are inextricably linked to mental health in Mexico, for better or worse. For example, poor money management can result in stress, grief, misery, and, in the worst-case scenario, suicide.

According to the Ministry of Health, 3,332 suicides occurred in the country in 2020. Financial education is critical in addressing this mental health issue.

According to data from the financial coach Coru, characteristics such as income level, age, and even gender significantly influence how people handle their money and their view of their financial condition.

Men stand out in this regard, since at least three out of ten have considered suicide as a means out of financial difficulties. Additionally, 27% of males spend more than their income level, showing poor financial management.

“Personal finances have a variety of emotional consequences that influence not just the individual, but also the entire family. Financial and emotional health are inextricably linked; having healthy finances alleviates one worry, while financial independence enables you to make better financial decisions,” argues Fernando Garca, Head of Growth at Coru, a financial coach.

In what other ways do finances impact mental health?

According to Coru, the following is how finances affect Americans’ moods:

• 79 percent believe their finances have complete control over their lives.
• 89 percent are depressed if they are unable to purchase something
• 85 percent spend a significant portion of their day worrying about their finances
• 60% have had financial chats with their loved ones.
• 78 percent of respondents express anxiety when asked to keep track of their expenses.
• 88 percent express concern when they examine their savings account.

The higher one’s financial inability to regulate, the greater one’s sense of guilt.

According to Coru, 18% of Mexicans struggle to meet their monthly basic needs, such as paying for power, water, gas, or rent. Additionally, 74% reported a decrease in income during the prior 12 months.

This condition may exacerbate the impacts on mental health if no action is taken, such as the development of solutions that enable people to gain greater control over their financial lives and, as a result, an improvement in their state of mind and quality of life.

Almost nine out of ten Mexican men and women experience stress while considering their financial position. However, 45% of them go shopping when they are down, establishing an artificial reward mechanism that is typically only transitory. And it is precisely because, after incurring the unneeded expenses and viewing the account statement, a sense of shame sets in, and this can spiral into a vicious circle.

According to Coru, at least 82 percent of people who purchase something needless feel terrible about it owing to the influence on their financial stability.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29, and situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbate the problem. According to the United Nations’ (UN) Survey on Youth in Latin America and the Caribbean, 64% of people in that age range expressed concern about their family’s financial situation and 45% about their own financial situation. personal.

In this regard, it is critical for society as a whole to implement robust policies to increase financial education, with a special emphasis on the most vulnerable demographic groups, in order to equip people with the required skills for financial health.