Money comes, money goes—does stress follow suit? A longitudinal and nonlinear perspective on workers’ financial stress

As economic and employment conditions become more unstable, many people worry about making ends meet and their overall financial situation. Against this backdrop, guided by Conservation of Resources Theory and insights from behavioral economics and cognitive psychology, this study aimed to estimate relationships between financial stress and several predictors, to include income (both annual and weekly), payment schedule, weekly expenses, weekly debt repayment complexity, and weekly overspending. We did so by analyzing data collected from 324 US-based workers across nine weekly occasions (totaling 2,916 weeks) using hierarchical generalized additive models. Results showed that income (both annual and weekly), weekly expenses, weekly debt repayment complexity, and weekly overspending predicted financial stress, but these relationships were, generally, complex and nonlinear. We also found some variability at the occasion level. These findings have key implications for the financial stress literature. First, as money comes and does, so does financial stress; that is, financial stress is an episodic and fluctuating construct for many workers and should be investigated as such. Second, financial predictors (including newer predictors, such as debt repayment complexity and overspending) and financial stress are not related in a linear fashion. Third and lastly, relatively small sums of money seem to have large effects on perceptions of financial stress.