How to Be Joyful When Finances Are Insecure

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I am not feeling very financially secure right now. I am an academic who survives on what is called “soft money.” The university at which I work does not guarantee me any salary. All my money comes from research grants. If I don’t get the grants, I don’t have a salary. My current grants end in June, and I have no idea which (if any!) of my new grant proposals will be funded. After 25 years of stability, I am experiencing financial insecurity for the first time.

Living Month to Month

I think back to my childhood when the money envelope for household expenses was empty for the last days of the month. We waited for “payday” and the reward of a half-gallon of ice cream to share. This month-to-month living is increasingly common in the USA now for a variety of reasons – including being a part of the growing population of “working poor”, being self-employed, or simply overbuying. The Federal Reserve Board’s 2017 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) reports that 40% of adults would have to borrow, sell something, or not be able pay if faced with a $400 emergency expense. This trend toward inadequate savings and crippling debt was evident in the recent stories of hardship for federal employees and contractors during the recent government shutdown.

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Ways to Find Some Joy

Whether temporary or ongoing, experiencing financial insecurities does not mean that you have to live in a perpetual state of stress and anxiety. There are ways to be kind to ourselves and find some joy.

1. Focus on today and don’t “future trip.” One day, I felt almost panicked about my situation, and suddenly I looked up. I sat in my backyard, with palm trees blowing and birds singing, with food in the refrigerator and my family in good health. I was losing this perfect moment to a tomorrow that might end up being fine. No amount of worrying about the future is going to change what comes. Staying aware of present joys makes the present moment radiant.

2. Create a plan and then let it go. Ignoring your financial situation won’t help of course. But do all you can to work towards financial security, and then let go of the story of your worry. You can plant seeds, you can water them, you can care for them, but ultimately you can’t make them grow. Research on rumination – the repeated thinking about something that isn’t the way you want it to be -- shows that there are cognitive or emotional disadvantages to this practice, including increased depression (Spasojevic & Alloy, 2001), social isolation and even eating disorders (Smith, Mason, & Lavender, 2018).
3. Be honest about what you really need to survive. I recently read a very helpful book called “Your Money or you Life” by Robins and Dominguez (2018). The authors carefully lay out the steps to figure out what income one really needs to meet basic needs, help the reader define basic needs, and then guide the reader through setting up a plan to get out of debt, increase saving, and eventually achieve financial independence. The classic Saturday Night Live Skit “Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford,” provides a humorous summing up of this approach.
4. Practice radical generosity. My partner met a simply dressed woman who tithed to charity one-tenth of her income, in addition to volunteering almost full time after her retirement. She was cheerful and grateful, and attributed this to her practice of tithing. He was stunned to learn at her memorial that she lived on a meager social security income, from which she tithed. Giving to others and focusing on how to help others is powerful medicine to a mind that wants to focus on deprivation and threat. Further, research from 23 countries suggests that the benefits are highest when generosity is given without any need or expectation of reciprocity (Oarga, Stavrova & Fetchenhauer, 2015).
5. Remember what is real and stable in your life. During times of uncertainty, our survival brain becomes focused on threats to our well being, ignoring the gifts and elements of stability that exist. We don’t see the people who love us, that would never allow us to go hungry or be homeless. We can miss the beauty of life that is untouched by changes in income. And for those who have a spiritual life, we can miss the opportunity to deepen spiritually as we trust something greater than ourselves with our tomorrow. Actively choosing to see these things by shifting our focus towards what is stable and good, can be a great gift that allows our nervous system a moment to rest.

Closing Thought

Historically, family and community were the individual’s insurance during times of uncertainty. Modern Western culture seems to regard a person as weak if he needs other’s help, but in some cultures, it is the strong person who allows themselves to rely on the persons of their community when in need. In turn, when people have means, they share generously with others. This sharing of resources is more historically common and a key component of how generations of humanity have handled uncertainty in life -- finding love and generosity are more important than the size of your savings account.

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