The words “stress” and “pandemic” appear together in many news stories. That’s because many people can’t experience the latter without experiencing the former.
A recent survey found that 1 in 3 Americans “sometimes feel so stressed about the pandemic that it hurts their ability to make basic decisions,” WalletHub wrote. “Overall stress levels are not uniform across the country, though, and certain states worry more than others about specific issues.”
To determine 2022′s most and least stressed states, the financial website compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across four key dimensions: work-related stress; money-related stress; family-related stress; and health- and safety-related stress. Its data set ranges from average hours worked per week to the personal bankruptcy rate to the share of adults getting adequate sleep.
It then evaluated those dimensions using 41 relevant metrics each graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of stress.
Eight of the top 10 most stressed states are in the South, with Louisiana’s score of 61.38 leading the country.
The good news for Georgia is that we’re apparently feeling less stressed than we did last — and the year before. In fact, the Peach State has fallen from No. 8 in 2017 to this year’s No. 22, with a score of 46.24.
The state was most stressed about health and safety, ranking No. 17, and money, ranking No. 19. This might be because we tied for fifth for lowest credit score.
What steps can people take to reduce stress over finances?
“In psychology, there is a stage of change model (Prochaska and DiClemente’s Transtheoretical Model) that can be useful in thinking through a process of addressing financial stress,” Alisia (Giac-Thao) TranPh.D., associate professor at the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University, told WalletHub. “If I were to map it out, I would say:
- “Recognize that finances are the problem and causing stress. This may sound obvious but sometimes it is not always easy to pinpoint the source of stress, especially when there are some positive aspects of a stressor. It may be stressful to have credit card debt, for instance, but some of our purchases may make us feel pretty good so it may be hard to see this.
- “Set financial goals that will reduce your stress. When deciding on your goals, I am a big fan of setting ourselves up for success so be sure to set goals that are realistic, easily attainable, are clearly laid out (for instance, have a date when you have “X” thing done), and something you can see and feel proud of yourself for, especially just starting out. These are the ‘invest $10 then $20 then $30 a month in a retirement plan for three months’ type of goals. After you devise smaller goals, then set up more ambitious goals. Meeting the smaller goals will put you in a better place for the bigger goals.
- “Start taking healthy steps to reduce stress about finances and meet those goals. These do not have to be big movements. This may involve meeting with a financial counselor who can help you identify specific steps to take to meet your goals (and maybe there are free local options or options through one’s employers or place of worship or local community center); making a budget and practicing with it one week at a time; setting savings goals for the week or month; developing a payment plan for your highest-interest debt for the month, etc. Some people are lucky enough that their stress reliever (for instance, photography, arts/crafts, home repair, etc.) can actually be a source of income and those are great goals and actions to build up.
- “Then keep it up. Fine-tune the process to help you identify how to make it SUSTAINABLE. Know that financial stress is a part of life (adulting!) so sometimes it will come up and that does not mean you have failed. Instead, it could be that you are in a better position to manage it b/c you have built your personal financial tools and resources.”
Georgia was least stressed about work, finishing No. 38 nationwide, which is interesting because we ranked No. 47 for job security. You can check out the full analysis at wallethub.com.
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