Has saving affected your mental health.

trickydicky14

DietIrnBru said:

The other unhealthy habit I've seen is people actively chasing interest rates - personally I will open the best regular saver rate I can find once a year -  my savings account I may look at every six months and see if there is a significant gain to be had - I'm not talking a few decimal points. Make the best decisionn you can at a set time - otherwise youre constantly beating yourself up for not getting that rate or that discount.

I disagree, I don’t see how chasing interest rates is unhealthy. So, is it unhealthy for someone to work in finance with the aim of maximising my money for a fee?

The unhealthy bit is amassing large amounts and not putting it to good use, obviously ‘putting to good use’ is open to interpretation.

What affects my mental health is knowing that due to sitting on my butt I just missed out on say £150.

We are all capable of crossing a line and being ‘unhealthy’ but saying, chasing interest rates is unhealthy is a bit of a broad-brush stroke.

MisterMotivated

DietIrnBru said:

The other unhealthy habit I've seen is people actively chasing interest rates - personally I will open the best regular saver rate I can find once a year -  my savings account I may look at every six months and see if there is a significant gain to be had - I'm not talking a few decimal points. Make the best decisionn you can at a set time - otherwise youre constantly beating yourself up for not getting that rate or that discount.

I disagree here; I chase rates, but don't consider it to be unhealthy.  A small number of people may take it to an unhealthy level where it does cause anxiety, etc, but I don't think generalising it as unhealthy is fair.  I've missed out on offers in the past, but have never beaten myself up over it.  I'm happy enough with my Santander 5.20% easy access savings account for the time being, though it wasn't available for long and the current iteration of this account appears to pay 1.70%.  Sitting on my backside for 6 months could have been costly.

Angelica123

This seemed to have sparked a really interesting conversation. As with all things - something isn't a problem until it becomes a problem. Even a healthy habit can become problematic in certain contexts (e.g healthy eating and orthorexia). I think once a saving habit becomes obsessive, or affects your quality of life then it is perhaps becoming problematic. It's a balance between saving for a rainy day/a big purchase, and also living your current life in the meantime in a way that you are happy with. I think it's easy to keep moving the savings goal post to the point that you never feel that you are saving enough and never feel comfortable spending any of it. 

The other thing I have noticed is that it is easy to become obsessive with saving (something that you feel you can control) when you feel out of control in other aspects of your life. 

EnPointe

Albermarle said:

No, I don't think saving affected my mental health, except perhaps improving it since I don't have to worry about money. My mental health perhaps affected my saving habits though.

Maybe getting a bit too deep here, but having a strong saving habit does not mean you have a mental health problem, a term which is probably used a bit too often nowadays.

It is just part of your personality. It only becomes a mental health issue, if it makes you miserable, antisocial ,having strange behaviour and negatively affects many aspects of your life. 

Like with the OP, and a couple of the other posters, but not you I don't think ?

that;s an viewpoint that has merit , but  also some of the  stuff being said  points towards  the stuff that  if it was aobut  an individual's relationship with food and/or exercise people would be much more open to suggestion of  some kind of  psychological input 

VNX

Angelica123 said:

This seemed to have sparked a really interesting conversation. As with all things - something isn't a problem until it becomes a problem.

The other thing I have noticed is that it is easy to become obsessive with saving (something that you feel you can control) when you feel out of control in other aspects of your life. 

Completely agree with this 

EnPointe

masonic said:

B0bbyEwing said:
Right now I have a Galaxy S20 (which I bought in 'Pristine' condition from Music Magpie which replaced my Galaxy S10 - also from Music Magpie (my last NEW phone was an iPhone 6S from Apple on release day)) and I've been looking at the Galaxy S23 because 1) it's newer 2) quicker 3) battery will be better 4) will get updates for longer (mine has stopped getting the latest version - downside of Android) 5) I prefer the screen shape as it doesn't have curved edges like the S20

Yes, it does irk me when I'm upgrading only because the phone has fallen out of support for security updates.

fortunately  Samsung   are now  saying at least 4 years of updates  for phones  now 

VNX

Just checking back in with this thread.

have reflected quite a bit over Christmas and two things that others have mentioned struck me.

firstly I was given some money for Christmas my first thought what’s £x more in the bank and that’s what I’ve done yet I know the people who gave me the money would rather me go out and spend it on myself, similar to someone else said this earlier on the thread 

and secondly echoing what someone else said I think I am so focused on money and savings because it’s one of the few things I have full control over and this covers up other failings in my life but I can look at my finances and have at least something I can say I’ve achieved or have to show for life whereas other areas if my life I can’t 

sorry if I went a bit deep just some reflections 

Macsidia

It's affected my mental health in a way I've had to pretty much sacrifice my entire 30s to get my life back on track from a gambling addiction sparked around the time of the financial crisis of 2009, I lost everything and put myself around £30K in debt in 2012 whilst being unemployed. Took a long time to mentally recover from that and only made minimum payments every month and defaulted on 9 payday loans around the same time and arranged £1 token payments until I was mentally able to return to work in 2014. I haven't got the best job in the world. It doesn't pay too well and it's not enjoyable either but it was stable enough to give me income that helped pay off my debt and now I've got an emergency fund, savings, some Premium Bonds and a Lifetime ISA. I'm 39 now and still have first time buyer status (live with parents) so if circumstances do change like a future relationship I'm ready but if no relationship happens I will continue to keep saving my money further so eventually I can reach 'Barista FIRE'.

Now that things have gotten better I've bought a few things recently over the Black Friday period. (PS5, AWS9, Airpods & Tablet). Might of spent a bit cash but at least these are items that will provide me entertainment, quality of life upgrade and should each last a few years at least thus making a saving over the long term.

As for mobile phones... It's got crazy to think the latest smartphones are £1000+ some are even north of £1500. 20 years ago the latest Nokia around that time was around the £200 mark and you could get it on a 12 month contract for £30 a month. Now it's 24 month contracts from £70 to £100+ a month. I'm a bit guilty of taking out a new deal every 2 years at £70 a month for a iPhone 14 Pro in September 2022 but the cost isn't too high when theres the option of trading it in or selling the phone if I decide to get another in September 2024.

And yeah cost of food lately is madness, I'd say £5 is worth it for a quality burger as pointed out earlier in the thread, but I've gone from a £10 once a week takeaway (inc delivery) to only getting it around once a month since it's now around the £14 mark in the space of a couple years.

Bazzalona13295

The 'control when everything else is out of control' comment has made me think. Very very true in my situation.

ircE

What an incredible thread. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to share uncomfortable experiences and events from your pasts and upbringings.

This thread from a while ago, whilst asking a different question, may also be of interest.

@Brricktop69 would be good to know if this thread has helped you at all and what you make of it all now?