Studies suggest that financial stress, along with the closely related workplace stress, may be the most prevalent kind of stress faced by the average person.

In terms of the divorce rate, the leading causes of disagreement and argument between spouses leading to separation are financial matters - money.

And when divorce proceedings are initiated, what’s the most contentious issue, often even more contentious than child custody? Money.

Show me a person who wouldn’t want to have a little extra cash in the bank, and I’ll show you one of two things - a liar or a saint! (and guess which one is more likely …)

But more money isn’t as easy an answer to financial stress as it might seem to be. Some of the most stressed-out people I counsel, people literally crippled by anxiety and depression, are also some of the wealthiest.

The old axiom “more money, more problems” is more often than not a true one.

The key issue surrounding financial stress, the reason why your relationship with money is so often a stressful one, is essentially a problem of perspective.

Most people work for their money.

You get up in the morning and head to work, selling eight to twelve hours of your productivity and your day to your employer in exchange for a paycheck.

When you’re not working, you use the money from that paycheck to fund your consumer lifestyle: mortgage or rent, car payment, food, clothes, bills, entertainment, etc.

Except most of the time you don’t literally spend the money, the cash money, that you’ve earned on these consumer products – you use you’re credit card.

There’s a reason you do that – it’s much easier to swipe a piece of plastic through a machine and sign a little paper receipt than it is to actually hand over real green dollar bills for that purchase.

Have you ever been to a casino? Why do you think they make you change your cash into “chips” before you can go gamble?

Because you’re much more likely to gamble loosely with chips than with cash - it’s basic psychology.

In exchange for the use of that little plastic card, the credit card companies turn around and charge you interest on the amount of their money you have spent at the end of the month.

You see? You’re not actually spending your money, you’re spending the credit card company’s money. And they charge you a fee for it, on top of the fact that you have to pay them back.

Now, you’re not a dumb person. I’m aware that you probably already know how credit cards work. But I’m going through the process in order to illustrate the point of how your lifestyle often revolves around working for your money.

What you want is to have your money work for you!

Let’s go back to that paycheck you worked so hard for …

If you’re smart, you take a portion of that paycheck and put it aside for savings, maybe even using it purchase some sort of investment product. If you’re a business owner, maybe you take part of your profits and reinvest them into growing your business.

Now you’re finally starting to have a little bit of your money work for you.

The key is to try and maximize the amount of you money that’s working for you, and minimize the amount of money you have to work for>. And the secret to doing this is changing your spending habits …

Change - this is where we get to the really stressful part of financial stress.

Deep down, you don’t want to change your behaviour. It’s uncomfortable. It’s stressful. But it’s necessary if you want to change your results.

One of these days I’ll put pen to paper and write down the story of how I changed my own relationship with money – for now, Dave Ramsey (of “Complete Money Makeover” fame) has some great materials on the “how-to” of overhauling your spending habits. Check him out.

Changing your spending habits is just like changing your diet or you exercise routine (or the lack thereof!) – it’s tough, particularly in the beginning, but it’s an investment in your success.

So many people settle for a familiar stress, the financial stress of living from paycheck to paycheck, hand to mouth, instead of embracing the new and unknown but far more productive stress of changing their habits.

Thankfully there is a way to deal with that stress – my book THE STRESS VACCINE™ will get you on the right track.

Not only will HARDCORE STRESS MANAGEMENT™ methods help you deal with the stress of changing your habits, they will give you the tools to become more productive in whatever it is you do to make your living.

What about Coping with Workplace Stress?