Anxiety about money is horrible to deal with, but not at all uncommon – new research by Moneybox shows that over a quarter of people feel anxious or uncertain when thinking about their finances. It’s a big problem – but a fixable one. A negative money mindset can feel totally insurmountable,, but there’s always a way forward – and I would know
Seven years ago, I found myself in what felt like an insurmountable amount of credit card debt, accrued across several different lenders. It was often taken out in a moment of panic that dulled to a constant feeling of anxiety about what I owed. I rarely thought about the lasting impact that it might have on both my financial and mental health in the future – I was only thinking about how to stay afloat in that moment. As I borrowed more, the worry grew, and started to seep into other areas of my life. I had a constant hum of mental maths going on in the back of my mind, and money was usually the last thing I thought about before falling asleep, descending upon me again the moment that I woke up.
In the spring of 2019, I had a moment of realisation. A call from my bank forced me to tally everything up, and I realised that my total debt – around £27,500 – was equal to my annual pre-tax salary. Something needed to change.
Over the following two years, I gradually worked my way out of the debt by cutting back, negotiating bills and making the most of any new opportunity to earn a bit of extra cash. My son started school, and we were able to put our previous childcare fees towards the debt, which sped things up. As the debt went down, my anxiety started to lift – but not as much as I expected.
Simply having more disposable income or less debt didn’t magically get rid of my anxious feelings, and I’ve spoken to people in all kinds of different financial situations who still felt worried about money. In fact, according to research by Moneybox, 40% of Brits feel anxious or stressed about their finances at least once a month.
I realised that changing the way we feel about money, and learning to be more confident with it, is actually a separate journey, and one that we often have to do consciously. This applies no matter our income, our debt or how much we have in savings.
Training as a financial coach helped me to make sense of it all. I was finally able to take some positive steps to reduce that gnawing anxiety and feel more in control of my finances. And I’d love to share them with you.
Forgive yourself
Coming to terms with mistakes and forgiving yourself for them is such an important step in shifting your money mindset away from anxiety and towards confidence – but it’s often one that is missed. In fact, I think people are sometimes afraid to forgive themselves or offer themselves compassion for fear of ‘letting themselves off the hook’ and falling back into old patterns of behaviour. But really, the opposite is true – you can’t truly move forward if you’re still angry with yourself for your past financial mistakes.
Learn to trust yourself again
Even once I’d forgiven myself, I found myself putting off making financial decisions for fear of getting it all wrong again. I had to learn to trust my own judgement when it came to money, and in my experience, the way to do that is to start with small money moves: setting up a regular savings amount, booking a weekend away, opening a Stocks & Shares ISA. Before long, I found I was able to confidently make bigger financial decisions, eventually having the courage to navigate the house-buying process and trust my judgment on those huge decisions.
Adopt a curiosity mindset
I knew that I’d got into financial difficulty from a place of not really knowing how the world of money worked, and not understanding the consequences of certain decisions. But rather than dwelling on that, I decided that the best way to future-proof my finances was to learn as much as possible about them. Instead of working on assumptions I’d always held, I allowed myself to get curious about how things worked. I read articles, did courses, and used demo accounts to build my knowledge around things like credit scores, investing, mortgages and more. You can find expert tips and content to watch, read, and learn in the Moneybox app or Learn hub, anytime – whether you’ve got five minutes between meetings to check a fact or you want to do a deep dive into a particular topic.
Keep everything super visible
On a practical, day-to-day level, I realised that my anxiety would build if I felt detached from what was going on in my bank account, so I built a folder on my phone with all of the apps and information I might need to check regularly, and made a habit of doing a quick daily round up of how things were going while I had my first coffee of the day. For longer-term things like my pension or investments, I would check less frequently – more like once a month – but always knowing where I stood with my money was crucial to feeling calm about it.
Keep having honest conversations
Moneybox research shows that of those experiencing money anxiety, nearly half (44%) refuse to talk about it with others, which only makes anxiety worse. Conversations about money with my husband used to only happen when we were at crisis point, and would cause me to get so anxious if and when there was something that one of us needed to broach.
Talking about money is now a big part of my job, but I have made a real effort to keep those lines of communication open in my personal life, too. Now, my husband and I have an ongoing dialogue about money that feels natural and calm. I also kept sharing with friends, whether things were going well or not, and I think it helped them to be more open, too.
I accepted the ebb and flow
When I was in debt, I thought that paying it off would mean that I would never have to worry about money again. Of course, I was wrong, but that expectation created a fear of things going wrong that I had to work on. We all need to accept that there will be moments in our lives where things feel more squeezed – following the birth of a child, changing careers, difficult economic periods.And moments where things ease off a little. Accepting that means that we can calmly navigate the more stressful periods, while making the most of the opportunities that arise in easier times.
Moneybox survey of 4,000 UK adults, December 2025.
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