{"id":89183,"date":"2025-10-18T18:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/89183\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T18:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T18:22:08","slug":"americans-spend-nearly-4-hours-per-day-thinking-about-money-5-ways-to-ease-your-mind-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/89183\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Spend Nearly 4 Hours per Day Thinking About Money \u2014 5 Ways To Ease Your Mind About It"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re lucky enough to get eight hours of sleep a night, then chances are you spend about one-quarter of your waking hours thinking about money<\/a>. That\u2019s according to a new Empower survey of more than 2,200 U.S. adults that aimed to gauge some of the reasons people stress over finances.<\/p>\n

Read More: Key Signs Your Credit Card Is Quietly Wrecking Your Finances<\/a><\/p>\n

Find Out: Mark Cuban Tells Americans To Stock Up on Consumables as Trump’s Tariffs Hit — Here’s What To Buy<\/a><\/p>\n

One of its findings is that the average American spends nearly four hours a day thinking about money. If you spend 16 hours awake, then roughly 25% of that time is devoted to financial thoughts. Gen Zers and millennials<\/a> spend even more time than that, at nearly five hours a day.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing necessarily wrong with thinking about money. In fact, it\u2019s a necessary part of building the right financial plan. But it can also go too far.<\/p>\n

If you spend more time than you should thinking about money, here are five ways to ease your mind about it.<\/a><\/p>\n

Use Your Time To Be Proactive<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably impossible to avoid thinking about money, but that doesn\u2019t mean your thoughts should dwell on the negative. Many Americans use the time to come up with proactive solutions to money challenges<\/a> \u2014 which is a positive trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a real shift from passive worry to proactive behavior,\u201d said Rebecca Rickert, head of communications and consumer insights at Empower, in a news release. \u201cPeople are motivated. They\u2019re looking for tools, information, and advice to turn that energy into progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discover Next: I\u2019m a Financial Advisor: My Wealthiest Clients All Do These 3 Things<\/a><\/p>\n

Make a Plan<\/p>\n

Having a financial plan in place gives you a roadmap and checklist to help ease your mind about money. Citizens Bank recommends outlining your financial goals<\/a> and making a budget to help develop a financial game plan. Here are some steps to take:<\/p>\n

Calculate your monthly income \u2014 including salary, side gigs<\/a> and active investments not used for retirement or other savings.<\/p>\n

Calculate your monthly expenses, including living expenses such as rent, mortgage, utilities and groceries, as well as recurring expenses like insurance and healthcare.<\/p>\n

Subtract your expenses from your income and then determine how much room you have for savings. Nothing is better at easing your mind about money than building up savings.<\/a><\/p>\n

Maintain an Emergency Fund<\/p>\n

Having an easily accessible emergency fund <\/a>can \u201csignificantly reduce your financial stress\u201d because it gives you a cushion in case you lose your job or get hit with unforeseen money problems, according to U.S. Bank. Ideally, the fund will have enough money to cover at least six months\u2019 worth of living expenses.<\/p>\n

Get Your Debt Under Control<\/p>\n

Unmanageable debt is one of the main reasons people spend too much time stressing over money, and getting that debt under control<\/a> will go a long way toward easing your mind.<\/p>\n

Prioritizing debt repayment can not only make you feel better about yourself, but you\u2019ll also avoid \u201cracking up interest charges and paying more in the long run,\u201d Citizens Bank noted.<\/p>\n

Automate Your Payments and Savings<\/p>\n

One surefire way to avoid thinking too much about finances is by taking a \u201cset and forget it\u201d approach to paying bills and saving money<\/a>. The best way to do this is to automate your bill payments as well as your savings contributions. Just make sure you have enough money in your account when the auto transactions are scheduled.<\/p>\n

More From GOBankingRates<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com<\/a>: Americans Spend Nearly 4 Hours per Day Thinking About Money \u2014 5 Ways To Ease Your Mind About It<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re lucky enough to get eight hours of sleep a night, then chances are you spend about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,56799,113,56797,61,60,56798],"class_list":{"0":"post-89183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-citizens-bank","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-financial-plan","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-waking-hours"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}