Six Overlooked Reasons why you are struggling with your finances: Reason #3 - Not identifying emotional obstacles

It can be quite challenging for an adult with ADD to deal with the day to day management of money. It often becomes impossible when you are dealing with unidentified emotional obstacles. There are two major areas where emotional obstacles can do severe damage to someone's personal finance. The first and most obvious area to look at is emotional spending. Examples of emotional spending can include shopping at retail stores, drinking and eating out, gambling, beauty treatments, and entertainment. Most people associate emotional spending with lavish purchases, but for many people it involves lots of small purchases to make them feel good.

From time to time everyone spends money to make themselves feel better. There is nothing wrong with indulging yourself every once in a while, but if you find yourself always spending more money than you planned, it could help to identify the reason behind your spending. MP Dunleavey at MSN Money states  several reasons why people emotionally spend money:

Cope with stress.

Cure the blues.

Diffuse feelings of anger or frustration.

Ease boredom.

Feel special.

Soothe ourselves after a bad day (or reward ourselves for a good one.)

Once you have identified the reason, it will be easier to stop yourself from emotional spending. However, in most cases you are going to need to deal with the root cause of why you want to spend money to make yourself feel better. Even if you are able to stop yourself from emotional spending, other bad habits like drinking, smoking, or overeating could replace your emotional spending.

Comments

[Todd]

This seems to be the way I spend money. I am pretty good about being frugal most of the time, then I crack and spend more than I should.