SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Money Talk for Real, a podcast where I talk about making money, spending money, and everything in between. I'm Nick, and in this episode, I want to talk about something that probably does not get talked about enough. And that is financial burnout. Now, I'm not talking about being broke. I'm not talking about being irresponsible. I'm not necessarily even talking about being bad with money, just being kind of exhausted by it. Because money is a big topic. You know, I talk into this microphone every day for this podcast, and I do not get financially burned out, but I can certainly see why and understand and empathize with people who do. You're just exhausted from thinking about money. You're exhausted from stressing about money, from trying to fix your situation, and maybe exhausted from just by quote, doing the right thing. Because here's the truth you can be doing everything right and still feel completely drained. So I would just want to take a few minutes to kind of talk about what burnout actually is and what it can look like, so to speak, why it happens, how to recognize it, how to get out of it without making things worse, just kind of all that stuff surrounding financial burnout. It might not even look like what you would expect it to look like. It's not always burnout doesn't always look like, well, I have no money left. That's not the only form. Sometimes it's just, well, I'm tired of thinking about this. Or I don't even want to check my bank account. Or something like, I know what I should do, I just don't feel like doing it. It's mental, obviously. I mean, that's what burnout is. It's mental. It's also emotional a little bit. It's that constant background pressure of I should be doing better with money. And frankly, after a while, like with anything in life, money's no different. You just kind of check out. And it's not because you don't care, but it's just because you're tired of caring, right? You're tired of making this a priority in your brain, thinking about it and talking about it. Let's talk about why it happens. Because generally, it doesn't just come out of nowhere. It could be that you've been, quote, trying this money thing for a long time. You've been budgeting, you've been saving, you've been cutting back, you've been consciously spending less, you've been living on less than you make, creating that gap between your income and your expenses. And it just feels like progress is slow. And when that happens, your brain starts to say, well, what's the point? I've talked about that before. It's the what's the point mindset. That can burn you out very quickly if you feel like you're not making progress. As humans, we are very results driven and we want to see progress. And if you don't see that, that can lead to burnout. Another thing is that life is expensive right now. I mean, let's just be real. Let's call it like it is. Everything costs more. Groceries, rent, gas, you name it. And even when you're doing okay, it still kind of feels tight. Feels a little like, uh, you know, we're not living paycheck to paycheck, but it just doesn't feel comfortable. And then the last thing I would say, well, I have two more. The next thing I would say is you're constantly just exposed to better situations. This is primarily online. Social media. Online, you see people making more money than you, you see people saving more money than you, you see people doing better than you, or at least so you think. Social media is not real life. That's social media life. It's a perception. But when you see these things, you start comparing yourself and you start to feel behind. But the key word is that you feel behind. You're not behind. You don't, you're probably not behind. You just feel behind because you're comparing yourself to the luxury on Instagram. Another reason why you might get burnout is you don't get the quick wins. And this goes hand in hand with the what's the point mindset I talked about, but money progress is slow. Let's be honest. You're not walking into a million dollars tomorrow. You're walking into a paycheck every week at your job or twice a month or every other week or even once a month. That's not daily progress, right? The daily progress on your income is probably not realistic because you only get paid every other week. But the daily progress on your expenses, that can absolutely happen. Again, that's why I'll talk about it's not always the income. Wealth is not always associated with income. It's also associated with your expenses and controlling those expenses. But if money progress is slow, or at least feels slow, then there's no instant reward. So it feels like you work all the time. We're all working hard, we're hustling, right? And then you put in the effort, at least you think you are, and then there's nothing exciting. And when there's nothing exciting, again, you don't feel positive progress. You don't feel positivity, and that can wear you down over time, leading to financial burnout. So what do people do when they are burnt out or they're on the way to being burnt out? This is where it can get a little bit dangerous because burnout doesn't just feel bad, it can change your behavior. And I've talked before about how financial control is all about your behavior, it's about your habits. And when your behavior is changed, you start doing things like avoiding your money. You start not checking your accounts, you start ignoring bills. And if you're not looking and aware of your money, then you're wrong. You you need to be aware and looking and tracking your money. Know your accounts, spend time in your bank account, studying your habits, studying your expenses. You also start spending for relief. You're like, screw it, I'll just buy this. It's a relief, right? You you're burnt out, you get the relief. You start giving up on your systems, the budget goes out the window. Again, you're burnt out. That that's a repeat saying on this episode. You you start comparing yourself constantly, which makes it worse if you're burnt out, and you just start to that the the it all starts to slowly unfold. And at that point, you're not just burnt out, you're actually going to start slipping backwards a little bit. And then that, when you do start slipping backwards, can start to create a little bit of guilt. And then the guilt can lead to more burnout. I'm not trying to be negative, I'm not trying to discourage you. In fact, I'm trying to do the opposite. I'm trying to make a point of all the negativity and the bad things that happen because when you lead to more burnout, now it's a cycle that starts over again. And again, I'm trying to make a point of what can happen to hopefully motivate you to not let that happen. So, how do you get out of it? How do you shift your mindset? First of all, stop trying to be perfect. A lot of burnout comes from like you're guilting yourself. Well, I should have had this now. You know, there's videos on YouTube about here's how much money you should have at the age of 35, and it's like $10 million. You know, that's stop, stop, stop. You you got time. You know, you're not, you're not, nothing is ever too late to control your finances. But money isn't something necessarily that you just figure out once and you got the secret. It's something that you manage ongoing forever. The world turns on money. You're always going to spend money. Always. Nothing's free, right? Instead of trying to be perfect, maybe just shift to, well, I'm just trying to be a little bit better. It's the small wins. You're not trying to figure out the entire hack and the secrets to life. It's the small wins. Do a little bit better. That alone can take some pressure off. Second thing is zoom out a little bit. You're not trying to win this month. You're not trying to win this today. You're not trying to win this week. You're not trying to win this month. You're trying to build something over time. Key word. It takes time. Give yourself time. Don't put so much pressure on yourself that you don't give yourself time. When you zoom out, the small progress starts to feel like actual progress again. So if we made this actionable, you know, you're listening, you're like, okay, so what, you know, what do we do? What are we talking about here? If you're feeling burnt out right now, here's what I would recommend that you do. Number one, simplify everything. I've talked about that before. No complex budgets, no crazy spreadsheets, no tracking. Don't even worry about tracking every single penny and every single dollar. Just the bills, the spending, and a small buffer. That's it. Three things bills, spending, small buffer. Lower your bar temporarily as well. And some people would argue that's terrible advice. You should always be raising the bar. Lower it temporarily just a little bit. Instead of saying I need to save $1,000, make it, hey, I'm saving $50 this week. Just a small goal. Lower the bar a little bit. The swallow, the the um, the small wins are gonna matter here. Take a short break from maybe optimizing. You don't need to constantly, quote, fix your money. Just maintaining for a little bit. Just a short break. Nothing, we're just trying to get you out of the burnout. Cut out one stress point. Again, not everything, just one. Cut something out that that makes your situation maybe feel a little bit lighter. We're gonna get you out of the burnout, but it's gonna take time. And then you can slowly start to rebuild. Not all at once, not jumping back in where you're gonna get back into financial burnout. Burnout doesn't go away overnight, it just fades as things start to feel more manageable again. Here's what I would say that I've seen some people get wrong. They think the answer is try harder. And I'm not faulting them for thinking that because that's what you see all over the internet. Try harder, work hard, and you'll have a million dollars. But when you're burnt out, trying harder makes it worse. You need a reset. What you actually need is less pressure, pressure. You need more clarity, you need smaller steps because consistency doesn't come from intensity, it comes from sustainability. And if your system is not sustainable, then you will not stick to it. So, yes, financial burnout is real. And if you're feeling it, you're not alone. It doesn't mean that you're bad with money, it doesn't mean that you're broke, it means you've been carrying the weight of it for too long. So take a step back, simplify a little bit, lower the pressure on yourself and your household, and just start moving forward again slowly. I hope this hits home with some of you and I hope it motivates you. Again, it's not meant to be negative, but if it did hit home with you, maybe send it to someone who's feeling overwhelmed with money lately. Maybe they can send in their financial situation to me and I can talk to it on the show. You or someone you know can do that on the website at money talkforreal.com. Be sure to leave this episode a five star review on your favorite podcast player. And uh let me know what kind of episode you want to talk about next. I'm willing to talk about anything that has to do with money. Thank you so much for listening. This is Money Talk for Real.