Financial avoidance is a pattern of consciously or unconsciously steering away from financial tasks, such as not opening bills or not checking account balances. This behavior is rooted in anxiety and shame, and it can have severe consequences on one’s financial well-being.

Understanding Financial Avoidance

Research has shown that financial avoidance is a well-documented psychological phenomenon. It is a conscious aversion to engaging with financial responsibility, decision-making, and behaviors. This kind of avoidant response is rooted in anxiety and shame, and it can make financial situations worse over time.

Avoidance behaviors can be varied. Some people stop opening mail, while others check their bank account obsessively but never actually do anything with what they see. Some avoid all financial conversations, while others pay random bills semiregularly while ignoring others.

Breaking the Cycle

To break the cycle of financial avoidance, it is essential to understand that avoidance has a cost. It keeps you in the dark about your financial situation, and decisions made without information are almost always worse than decisions made with it. Avoidance also costs you time, specifically, the time that passes between when a financial problem is small enough to be manageable and when it has grown large enough to feel catastrophic.

A crucial principle in moving out of financial avoidance is to try not to think of the goal as ‘fixing everything.’ A better goal is making one small, survivable contact with your financial reality, and that’s it. Stop there.

Here are some steps to help you break the cycle of financial avoidance:

• Set the conditions before you begin: Choose a time of day when your energy is steadier, and choose one small comfort, such as a drink you like or music that doesn’t demand attention.
• Regulate before you open anything: Take three slow breaths before you open the app, the envelope, or the email. Do a brief scan of where you’re holding tension, and consciously release it.
• Choose one task with a clear beginning and end: Set aside vague goals like ‘deal with my finances,’ in favor of one specific, easy-to-complete thing, such as logging into one account and writing down the balance.

Original reporting: KTVZ (Central Oregon) — read the source article.