The number one cause of stress for Americans is their money. In fact, 87% of Americans will have a stressful financial situation in the next year. Year-over-year money and finances remains at the top of life’s stressors even with our nation’s longest running bull market. For the last 10+ years we’ve seen unprecedented growth in the markets with the S&P 500 up over 330% but our nation continues to struggle with money and the emotions tied to it.
The advice you will probably get when searching for help? Start a budget! Or, hire a financial advisor to help you set up a plan. At no point do we get help or pointed to resources to cope with the emotional challenges of managing our money. This is a direct product of the stigma that still exists with managing our mental health in the United States. As a professional at a large company whose job is to create financial and mental health / emotional wellbeing programs for our employees, I have let people down because I took the easy way out. We have only focused on the technical and transactional side of managing money and left the mental and emotional side untouched. I would say that as an entire industry, we’ve let everyone down. So I decided to do something about it.
I created the Calm Cash podcast and this blog to serve both the financial side and the mental health side of money management. To make lasting change with your relationship with money, you need a sound strategy to manage your money and the stress, anxiety and uncertainties that you will encounter along the way. Our podcast discussions and articles focus on techniques and strategies to manage stress, boost resilience and grow optimism while also providing practical advice and tips to achieve your financial goals. Our motto is Happier Life Healthier Wallet. To achieve and sustain both, you have to treat your whole self.
You may be thinking “doesn’t the stress go away the more financial success you achieve”? The stresses change just as the types of problems you are trying to solve change. But Calm Cash touches on far more than just stress management. Clinically proven strategies to boost optimism will be discussed as well as the tremendous research on happiness that shows profound effects on identifying personal and professional opportunities. Just by changing your mindset, data shows a 7x difference in financial wellbeing for optimists vs. pessimists. The number of stressful days plummets too. Optimists stress 148 fewer days about their cash than pessimists. That is 5 months a year!
We want those outcomes for our listeners and readers, and we want to make it easier to navigate the solutions in the marketplace. I’m encouraged by start-ups and new business models that are challenging the stodgy organizations that created our current, confusing system. Calm Cash will also highlight which of these companies can help you ace your money matters and keep you as stress free as possible along the way.
I have my own stress, fear and anxiety about putting this idea and my actual voice out into the world. But at the same time, I’m so encouraged by the research and solutions that I’m willing to take the risk. I hope you will come along for the ride with me.
