These are possible signs and symptoms of issues with compulsive spending, debting, under-earning, and financial vagueness.
Please read this list and make note of those items that apply to you.
- Uncertainty about the total amount of money you owe
- High tolerance for low pay
- Avoiding getting dental or medical care because you can’t afford it
- Giving away time or working for free
- Difficulty passing up a “good deal”, or feeling a “boost” when making or planning a purchase
- Using one credit card to pay another
- Inadequate savings habits, such as failing to prepare for predictable expenses, for example taxes or retirement
- Living paycheck-to-paycheck and/or “living on the edge”.
- Conversations about money cause you unwarranted amounts of shame or embarrassment
- Excessive volunteering
- Stashing unopened mail
- Forgoing basic needs such as health care or car insurance to purchase items that falsely give the impression of abundance
- Writing checks hoping that the money will appear
- Fantasizing that someone will take care of you, so you don’t have to take care of yourself.
- Unsure of your net worth
- Tending to borrow small items and failing to return them
- Making unrealistic promises to people you owe or to your creditors
- Avoiding asking for a raise or neglecting to raise your fees
- Living in self-imposed deprivation
- Having less than one month’s savings in the bank
- Underestimating the worth of your skills or attributes
- Inordinate fear of checking your bank balance, or rarely if ever doing so
- Having a “live for today” attitude at the expense of your future self
- Justifying what you can afford based on feelings such as “I deserve this!”
- Making rigid promises about spending only to break them in a binge-like way
If one or more of these items apply to you, it could indicate there is a problem now or a potential for problems down the line.
