Although 48% of Americans say they’ve “taken steps in the past five years that could simplify their lives,” according to a survey conducted by U.S. News and World Report, most people’s lives are not likely to spontaneously get less stressful in the near future unless they take appropriate action. As people proceed in an ever-changing world, life itself, at work and away from work, seems to be getting more stressful.A Time magazine feature on stress and anxiety titled “The Evolution of Despair,” discussed the views of evolutionary psychologists, specialists in a field suggesting that modern life itself is causing this stress that we all are experiencing. Human beings, the article observed, seem to be “hard wired for a different way of life than offered by modernity.”

One researcher seeking to study depression in a remote pre-industrial society was stymied; he could find no evidence of the disorder. Archeological digs around the world show little or no evidence of child abuse, a phenomenon that many sociologists believe is escalating based on increased stressors people are experiencing.

How Your Happy Home-Life Became More Stressful Than Work

Traditionally, you could count on “dad” to bring his stress “home” from the office. Yet, the dominating direction has shifted. Today, Mom and Dad, Ted and Alice, or alternative significant others are likely to bring more stress to work than they leave with at the end of the day.

Reports show that it’s more stressful for most career professionals outside of work! Researchers at the University of Chicago, for example, report that people actually feel creative, focused, and happier at work more often than at home. The researchers say, “There’s a perfect middle zone often achieved at work when a task is challenging enough to compel your full attention, yet not so challenging that it completely outstrips your ability.”

In a study conducted by Prevention Magazine, the ten top stressors as reported by survey respondents, in order, included:

1. personal finances
2. career
3. too many responsibilities
4. marriage
5. health
6. children
7. loneliness
8. sex
9. relatives
10. neighbors

I know what you’re thinking–items #1, #2, and #3 are all related to work, so how can I and Ph.D. types make the assertion that the direction of stress has changed, that the dominant direction in which stress travels today is from home to work? I’ve polled many people on this issue and the consensus is that while #1, #2, and #3 are work-related, people probably spend more time worrying about them AT HOME.

#1 Personal finances is directly related to your work, how much money you make. According to the Marist College Institute For Public Opinion, the number of Americans having money troubles is rising. In their 1995 survey for example, 20% of respondents said that they always have money problems. A year later, 32% responded as such. Yet, the absence of a high income is not the predominate reason why people experience financial problems. Living within their means is. Too many people, for example, are overwhelmed by credit card debt because they are turning to plastic to pay for things. Money magazine reports that the typical American carries around nine credit cards–count them, nine–and in one year, the combined balance of the typical cardholder increased 23% over the previous year.

Part of the problem stems from what’s allowable with the cards themselves. If you are carrying a large balance on one or more cards, you can transfer your existing balance to a new charge account at no cost. So, some people take the debt that they rack up on one card, pass it onto a new card, and then continue to use both cards.

In his book, Life After Debt, Benjamin Dover says, “Because people can move their new debt around to new cards for free, they can easily double or triple their credit card bills, without paying off any of that debt.”

Even millionaires are losing sleep over their future finances. A survey published in USA Today of the wealthiest 1% of Americans, having household incomes of at least $200,000 annually, or a net worth of 3 million dollars, found that most people in this category are concerned that they will not have enough money in retirement. The key culprit is inflation, which the wealthy are convinced will diminish their entire income and force them to live like everyone else.

If personal finances are an issue for you, and there’s a fantastic chance of that being true, check out perfectly wonderful books entitled The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing Your Money and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Great Retirement. However, the first step to reducing stress away from work is to get your finances in order. Yes, I realize that’s dependant on how much you make at work. Regardless of how much or how little you make at work, the task ahead of you is to get your checkbook, and your finances in order. In short, to live within your means.

No one, from the largest and most successful nations on earth to the individual household, can run up huge deficits especially over a prolonged period of time without making a concerted effort towards reducing them and hope to achieve any measure of economic or psychic prosperity.

• Deficits are risky whether global, national, regional, local or personal.
• When you’re honest with yourself about your deficits, the answers to reducing your deficits naturally appear.
• To reduce a personal financial deficit, place a moratorium on spending– regardless of what items entice you–until all your credit cards have zero balances.
• The moment you get your head back above water, begin saving.

The younger in life you start saving and investing, and the more diligent you are with the money you have, the more successful you will be in the long run. You want to obtain a balance between how much you earn and how much you keep, achieving some relief from financial stress, and a sense of security about your financial future.

Far too many people are caught up in making a living, and making ends meet, to pay attention to their financial health. Too many people count their earning power as their major asset but fail to take those earnings and apply them in any meaningful way that will add to their financial security. If someone like that is in your seat right now, perhaps it’s time to come to terms with your tendency to avoid or deny financial matters. A plethora of articles in all major periodicals have indicated financial planning is more important to baby bloomers and X’ers than any previous generations in history. Why is this so? Because people are living longer. You may not have another 35 or 45 years left, you may have 55 or 75 more years.

Sure, you have important problems facing you right now. There still is a point of no return in your life, at which time you cannot realistically reach your financial goals without drastic increases in your earnings and savings, or without drastic decreases in your cost of living and expenditures.

Financial planners say that achieving suitable income and savings requires discipline–something baby boomers and X’ers haven’t seemed to master when it comes to personal finances. The earlier you begin saving, the greater your ability to benefit from compound interest. In fact, compounding interest thoroughly amazed Albert Einstein. When Einstein was asked what was the greatest miracle he had ever encountered, his answer was the compounding interest of money.

The longer you wait to begin saving and investing (REGARDLESS of how small your salary may be) the longer personal finances is likely to remain at the top of your greatest stressors list. Every ten years you delay in savings costs you three times as much. In other words, if you are 30 years old and you want to retire at 65, if you meant to save $200 a month but instead of starting at 30 you delayed until you were 40, you would need to save $600 a month to achieve the same results.

If you waited until you were 50, you would have to save $1200 a month to accumulate the same sum at age 65. Whether you are 25, 35, 45 or even 55, you can’t go back in time but you can start where you are right now. No need for regrets, just take action. Save some amount every month, and you’ll be on the road to reducing the stress of your personal finances.