The panic attack in the grocery store wasn’t about the $4.99 avocados. It was about what they represented—a lifetime of financial insecurity now triggered by a simple purchase decision.
In moments like these, seemingly small money choices can suddenly connect us to our deepest fears and past experiences. These reactions aren’t always logical, but they’re real. And they’re telling us something important: our relationship with money needs attention and care.
According to the American Psychological Association, 64% of Americans adults report money as a significant source of stress. While not all financial stress rises to the level of trauma, the field of psychology has evolved to recognize how chronic stressors can indeed become traumatic.
We now understand that trauma arises not only from major events like war, natural disasters, and personal violence but also adverse financial experiences that challenge an individual’s financial security, stability, or well-being. Examples include significant financial losses, chronic financial stress, financial abuse, economic hardships, or systemic inequalities. People of all socio-economic levels can experience financial trauma.
The lasting effects of financial trauma can include persistent anxiety and negative thoughts, impaired decision-making abilities, strained relationships, diminished self-esteem, and an altered approach to financial decisions.
While self-care is good for everyone, it’s essential for those of us who’ve been exposed to financial trauma. By taking proactive steps to preserve and improve our well-being, we reduce stress and gain a sense of control.
Self-care includes a wide range of activities that prioritize our overall health and happiness. And when it comes to the financial side of life, self-care is more than just budgeting and saving—it involves aligning money with well-being across multiple dimensions of your life. By addressing each of these areas, you can create a more comprehensive approach to healing your relationship with money.
This post is meant to offer ideas for self-care as you navigate the impact of financial trauma. However, doing some tasks may be triggering to those recovering from trauma and may need to be approached gradually in tiny steps. Please participate in any way that feels safe, right, and manageable for you.
The Dimensions of Financial Self-Care
Here are some ordinary but important things you can do to gain an optimal level of overall wellness:
Emotional Self-Care and Money
Recognize financial stressors and triggers. Pay attention to physical and emotional responses when checking your bank account, opening bills, discussing money, or doing similar activities. These reactions often signal deeper issues that need attention, not avoidance.
Practice self-compassion for past financial mistakes. Replace any harsh self-judgment with the understanding that everyone makes money missteps, especially when living with financial trauma. Speak to yourself as you would to a friend who made the same decisions under similar circumstances.
Build emotional awareness and regulation. Mindfulness practices, journaling, and positive self-talk help you recognize financial stress triggers, respond with intention rather than impulse, and cultivate a healthier relationship with money.
Create a “money wins” journal to reframe negative financial narratives. Each week, record three positive financial actions—no matter how small—to build confidence and recognize your progress over time. Shifting your perspective and focusing on growth promotes a healthier emotional state.
While emotional well-being forms the foundation of financial healing, the physical impact of financial stress often manifests in equally powerful ways.
Physical Self-Care and Money
Notice how financial stress impacts your sleep, diet, and all-around health. Consider how new or long-standing financial issues are affecting these crucial areas. People with low financial wellness and high financial stress are at double the risk of experiencing poor overall health. They are four times more likely to develop various health conditions. In turn, these health issues can aggravate financial strain as more money is devoted to medical care.
Prioritize financial decisions that support your wellness. For instance, when budgeting, give preference to nutritious food, preventive healthcare, and clean, safe surroundings. If money is tight, consider free solo or community fitness activities.
Take care of your body to reduce stress, improve decision-making, and prevent costly health issues. Try exercising, following guidelines for sleep routines, going on walks, taking relaxing baths, or spending time outdoors.
Set up an emergency fund to protect yourself from physical effects of stress. Think of it as your “self-care fund.” It’s there to ensure your peace of mind and prevent the physical toll of financial stress, from tension headaches to compromised immunity.
As we address the physical manifestations of financial stress, we must also recognize how money affects our connections with others.
Social Self-Care and Money
Set financial boundaries. Share your resources as you choose, but decide in advance where you stand on lending money or spending due to social pressure. Be firm in your decisions.
Align financial choices with values-based connections. Give with intention rather than out of habit or obligation, and honor others’ true preferences (e.g., prioritizing sustainability or ethical production).
Stay socially engaged to combat financial stress. Money struggles can feel isolating—connecting with supportive friends, joining a financial accountability group, or simply asking for help can provide relief and perspective.
Use a “spending pause rule.” For social events that exceed your budget, set a waiting period before committing—for example, waiting 48 hours before deciding whether to attend a destination wedding.
Beyond our social interactions, the way we think about and process financial information significantly impacts our relationship with money.
Intellectual Self-Care and Money
Avoid information overload. Learning about money in manageable steps prevents overwhelm from complex strategies. Curate financial advice from trusted sources, limiting exposure to sensationalized or fear-driven content. Set specific times to check financial apps rather than compulsively monitoring accounts. Consider turning off push notifications that might trigger anxiety, and create healthy boundaries around how and when you engage with your financial information online.
Foster a healthy mindset. Engage in intellectual self-care that aligns with your personality—whether it’s reading, pursuing a hobby, learning a new skill, or taking a break from toxic media. These habits can reduce stress, provide low-cost entertainment, and protect against consumer-driven pressures.
Challenge limiting beliefs about money. Question inherited financial assumptions and explore perspectives that empower rather than restrict your growth.
Schedule a “financial learning hour” or “money date” each week. Cultivate a growth mindset by dedicating time to read a book, listen to a podcast, or check in with your financial goals and budget to stay informed in a proactive way.
Equipped with a healthier intellectual approach to finances, we can turn our attention to how we earn and relate to money in our work life.
Occupational Self-Care and Money
Set career goals that align with financial well-being. Consider long-term financial stability, personal fulfillment, and work-life balance when making career decisions.
Ensure fair pay. Trauma can lead to under-earning. Regularly evaluate your compensation, research industry standards, and advocate for raises or benefits that reflect your value.
Avoid burnout from money stress at work. Financial anxiety can lead to overworking. Set boundaries around your workload, and take breaks when needed.
Invest in professional development. Learning new skills or pursuing certifications can increase earning potential and career satisfaction over time. Explore side income options that could lead to better employment.
Our work environment isn’t the only space that affects our financial well-being; our living environment plays a crucial role too.
Environmental Self-Care and Money
Enjoy low-cost or free experiences in nature. Walking in a park, gardening, or spending time outdoors can enhance well-being without straining your budget.
Maintain a clean and clutter-free living area. A well-organized space reduces stress, prevents unnecessary purchases, and fosters clarity in financial decision-making.
Optimize your living space for financial well-being. Energy-efficient appliances, mindful utility usage, and decluttering can reduce costs and improve your quality of life. Invest in quality over quantity, and choose reusable options.
Be mindful of lifestyle inflation. A larger home, new car, or upgraded space can feel like self-care, but consider whether these choices truly improve well-being or just increase financial pressure.
Just as our physical surroundings influence our financial health, so too does our inner landscape of values and meaning.
Spiritual or Existential Self-Care and Money
Connect spending decisions to personal values and goals. By doing so, you foster a deeper connection to your purpose and contribute positively to the world around you.
Practice mindful money management, using money in a way that’s consistent with your deepest beliefs. This creates a sense of meaning and integrity in your life. Try a “values-based spending review.” Look at past spending and ask, “Does this align with what I truly care about?”
Develop an introspective or spiritual practice of your choosing. In this way you turn your attention inward and reconnect with yourself. Spiritual self-care helps you achieve a deeper sense of clarity about what matters most to you—providing valuable insight for financial decision-making.
Give back. Whether you’re a multimillionaire or just getting by, there are benefits to giving within your means, whether through money or service. Giving shows us the power we have to touch lives, creates a sense of belonging, and helps keep financial issues in perspective.
By taking good care of yourself, you’re better equipped to handle the demands of daily life and your recovery from financial trauma.
Even with the best self-care routines, setbacks are inevitable. That’s where self-compassion becomes essential—it allows you to navigate financial healing without harsh self-judgment.
Practical Financial Strategies as Acts of Self-Care
While exploring these dimensions of self-care creates a foundation for healing, translating these insights into concrete financial practices strengthens your journey toward financial well-being. The following strategies aren’t just practical financial tools—they’re expressions of self-care that honor your emotional, physical, social, intellectual, occupational, environmental, and spiritual needs. Each strategy offers both practical benefits and emotional healing.
Budgeting
Budgeting is a tool for clarity, not restriction. Reframing it in this way can make it more accessible, especially for people who’ve been exposed to financial trauma. Set clear financial goals to inspire yourself—whether it’s to build savings, reduce debt, or fund a passion project.
By giving you a clear picture of your finances, a budget allows you to feel in control of your money, plan for the future, and avoid the fear of unexpected expenses. A budget that allows for flexibility over rigidity is a good fit for anyone working through trauma.
Debt Reduction
Paying down debt can significantly alleviate stress and anxiety. Reducing debt contributes to emotional relief and a sense of security and stability in your life.
Reducing debt frees you to pursue important goals. Many people delay starting a family due to debt. And heavy debt impacts your credit score, making it harder to get approved for home loans.
Saving & Emergency Fund
A saving and emergency fund creates emotional security and resilience. The financial buffers you build reduce stress and increase stability.
Savings allow you to handle unexpected expenses without disrupting your life. They offer peace of mind by protecting you from financial hardship and giving you the confidence to navigate unexpected situations.
Investing
Investing is a long-term self-care act that supports future well-being.
Investing over the long term helps your money to grow. It’s about taking proactive steps to care for your future self by building wealth. Seeing your investments grow can foster confidence and a positive outlook on your financial situation and overall well-being.
Managing Money Mindfully
Mindful money management focuses on being aware and purposeful. It involves being present, carefully thinking through each purchase, and ensuring your spending habits reflect your values and long-term goals.
Mindfulness helps you pause and assess your financial decision. By spending mindfully and being clear about your needs versus wants, you can avoid impulse spending that leads to guilt and regret.
Moving Forward
It’s common for people recovering from trauma—including financial trauma—to feel unworthy. We might feel guilty for taking time to do something that puts us in a better position or simply makes us feel good. However, it’s essential to allow nourishing things into our lives. Self-care is a necessary but often overlooked part of wellness.
Self-care for financial trauma is an ongoing process, not a one-step fix. That said, it doesn’t have to be time-consuming or difficult. Start small—perhaps by simply pausing the next time you feel that familiar tension rising, like at the grocery store when you’re deciding whether to buy those $4.99 avocados.
That moment isn’t really about the avocados. It’s an opportunity to practice compassion toward yourself and acknowledge how far you’ve come in your financial healing journey. By recognizing your triggers and responding with kindness rather than criticism, you’re already practicing the most important form of financial self-care.
Keep in mind, too, that while self-care is a supportive and empowering practice, sometimes it’s not enough. If your self-care practices aren’t managing your symptoms, especially if you experience significant distress, persistent negative emotions, difficulty functioning in daily life, recurring intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, or avoidance behaviors related to the trauma, it’s time to speak with a professional. Please read our posts on psychotherapeutic, somatic (body-oriented), and holistic treatments, and see the Resources section below.
As you continue incorporating these practices into your life, you’ll gradually transform your relationship with money from one of fear to one of empowerment. Your financial decisions will begin to reflect not just what you can afford, but who you are and what truly matters to you. And that journey—from trauma to transformation—is worth every step.
Key Takeaways
- Financial trauma manifests in everyday moments. Everyday triggers like grocery store prices can connect us to deeper financial fears, revealing how past experiences shape our current money reactions.
- Self-care spans multiple dimensions of well-being. Effective financial healing addresses emotional, physical, social, intellectual, occupational, environmental, and spiritual aspects of our relationship with money.
- Practical financial strategies are acts of self-compassion. Budgeting, saving, and mindful spending aren’t just about financial discipline—they’re ways to care for yourself and create security and peace of mind.
- Self-compassion is essential for financial healing. Replacing harsh self-judgment about past financial mistakes with understanding and kindness creates space for genuine financial growth.
- Financial self-care is an ongoing process. Healing from financial trauma happens gradually through consistent, small acts of awareness and compassion rather than through one-time fixes or perfect financial decisions.
This post is part of a series that combines insights from neuroscience, psychology, social work, and holism to increase awareness about financial trauma. Whether you’re looking to better understand the situation of a friend, loved one, client or yourself—or whether you’re simply curious— you’ll find valuable insights and practical strategies throughout these articles. For a listing of these articles and convenient links to them, visit our series hub.
Start or Join a Conversation
Thanks so much for your dedication to learning about financial self-care.
Many different perspectives are possible about this topic. Your thoughts are key to this community. Please share them here. If you don’t already have an opinion at the top of your mind, consider sharing your views on one of these points:
- Have you ever made a financial decision that prioritized your well-being over purely monetary concerns? What did you learn from that experience?
- Which dimension of financial self-care do you find most challenging to maintain, and what strategies have helped you (or could help you) improve in that area?
Resources for Further Exploration
Podcasts:
- The Mindful Money Podcast (discusses financial well-being and emotional connections to money)
- Afford Anything by Paula Pant (explores values-based financial decision-making)
Websites:
- The Financial Therapy Association – resources on emotional and psychological aspects of money
- Your Money or Your Life – focuses on values-based financial well-being
Apps:
- Ground. This app allows you to curate your news sources for greater well-being in the intellectual domain. You can compare coverage from 50,000 news sources around the world that are vetted by experts for bias and reliability
- Insight Timer. This is a freemium app and website that offers guided meditations, music, and other resources to help with stress, sleep, and well-being. It can support your self-care across emotional, physical, and spiritual/existential domains.
Notice
This post is for educational purposes only and is not legal, medical, psychological, financial, or any other type of professional advice. The content reflects personal insights and general strategies, not clinical diagnostic or treatment recommendations. Individual experiences with financial stress vary, and what works for one person may not work for another. Always seek professional support for serious or persistent psychological or financial difficulties.
Please understand that facts and views change over time. Posts reflect the author’s understanding at the time of writing, as well as the perspectives of external sources for this post. While maintained for your information, archived posts may not reflect current conditions.