Mind over money: your mind and money, in sync

Everyone finds themselves worrying about money at some point in their lives. When you take into account external factors that can add to your overall anxiety, it can be hard to remember how to keep your stress in check.

The first step in gaining control over stress is understanding the causes behind it. We believe as a bank, we can, and should, take responsibility for reducing the anxiety people feel when it comes to their money matters. So our first step was to understand the causes behind it. To unpack the factors that contribute to financial stress, we’ve teamed up with a renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Jack Lewis, and created a global study that delves deeper into those feelings of stress and anxiety. 

By doing this, we can provide the right tools and knowledge to help you feel in control of your cash. By having a better understanding of what’s going on in the brain through the latest neuroscience research helps keep us informed and inspired about how we can take action to improve our lives. 

The research, carried out among 1000 people in Europe and the US, put people through an implicit testing experiment to determine the hierarchy of stress and anxiety for a series of financial and everyday scenarios. Put plainly, we delved into their brains to see what makes them tick and, more importantly, what makes them worry.

What we found is that a lot of people find financial stresses to be just as concerning as other major life events, such as losing a job (90%), going through a divorce or break up (91%), and having a big argument (92%).

We also found that globally, even though women are more likely to get stressed overall, men were more likely to suffer from stress related to money. Overall, of the countries included within the survey, it was the Italians who had the highest rates of stress, followed by the Spanish. Interestingly, Americans are the least prone to stress compared to their European counterparts.

When it comes to Europe, French people are more likely to stress about checking their bank balance than Germans, who are by far the most relaxed in that respect,  with 44% say checking it is stressful. That's still almost a whopping half of the population that feels stressed at checking their balance though, and something we need to change.

Then, Americans are 20% more likely to stress about a maxed out overdraft than the French. Italians are more likely to stress about a missed mortgage payment than most countries, and when it comes to stressing about requesting refunds, then Germans slide into first place. Clearly, financial worries are a big deal no matter where we’re from—and it’s time to take back control!

When we feel stressed out by all the things weighing on our minds, the last thing we want to do is lose focus. Often, even when we try to relax, we can still end up feeling frustrated that whatever we do to calm ourselves only acts as a temporary salve. We always know the stress is still there in our heads, making it impossible to loosen up. 

This is all a natural part of the chronic stress story, and can only be mastered by prioritizing a proactive approach to stress management in your life so that it becomes a daily practice. 

By practicing various stress management techniques or stress-busting activities like long walks or listening to calming music a few times a day, these things can—and will—become more effective. Only through daily practice, over many weeks, can the brain pathways involved in chronic stress become stronger and more effective in delivering the stress-relieving benefits we all feel when we can finally relax. 

That’s where we come in. We want to show you what can be done to regain control, how to get stressful emotions back in check and give you the science to help you put your mind over money. And that’s what we’ll be doing with our new Mind Over Money blog series over the coming weeks.

At N26, we give you the keys to total financial independence and freedom, giving you back structure and control. Whether it’s using Spaces to put money away for a rainy day, watching your spending habits with Statistics, or controlling your outgoings with Spending Limits—we’ve got you covered. Take away the stress of money on your mind with N26’s dedicated support and tips, to make managing your money as simple and low-stress as possible.