Updated: August 5, 2026
What Financial Stress Is Doing to Your Brain
Everybody has a season when money is tight.
A job changes. A medical bill arrives. The car breaks down. A family transition stretches the budget farther than expected.
But what happens when that season never seems to end?
In this episode of The Catholic Money Show, Amanda and Jonathan look at research connecting persistent financial hardship with lower verbal memory, slower processing speed, and longer-term changes in the brain.
The findings are sobering. But they also point to something hopeful:
One difficult financial year does not define your future. The greater danger is allowing financial instability to remain the permanent backdrop of your life.
When Hard Seasons Stack Up
Amanda and Jonathan know what it feels like to live through several difficult circumstances at once.
Between 2016 and 2019, their family faced:
- A major move and job change
- A surprise adoption
- A month-long, out-of-state NICU stay
- The loss of the job they had moved for
- The launch of a new business
- A difficult season in their marriage
- Another surprise adoption only 18 months later
- The pressure of providing for three children while their business was still new
Any one of those events would have been stressful.
Together, they created a season when Amanda felt as though she could barely think clearly. Their capacity was low, and financial instability intensified nearly every other problem they faced.
Years later, their family entered another difficult season.
This time, they faced a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in Jonathan’s father, frequent travel, caregiving, his father’s death, another surprise adoption, multiple hospitalizations, and a lifelong medical diagnosis for their son.
On paper, the second season may have been even harder.
But it did not affect them in the same way.
The Difference Financial Stability Made
During the later season, Amanda and Jonathan had stronger financial systems underneath them.
They also had a supportive community and a deeper trust in God that had grown through surviving the earlier years.
The circumstances were still painful. Financial stability did not remove grief, illness, caregiving, or uncertainty.
It did, however, keep financial chaos from multiplying every other hardship.
They had more safety nets and established systems. They had people around them and did not have to solve a financial emergency in the middle of every other emergency.
That difference mattered.
Amanda explained that the later season was heavier, but less destructive.
What Persistent Financial Hardship Can Do
The study discussed in the episode used data from a long-running British birth-cohort project that followed thousands of people born in 1946.
Researchers looked at participants who repeatedly reported low household income or financial hardship at different points in adulthood.
Financial hardship included experiences such as:
- Difficulty paying bills
- Going without necessities
- Feeling unable to manage financially
The key issue was not one isolated year of difficulty.
The strongest effects appeared among people whose financial hardship continued across multiple check-ins.
Those experiencing persistent hardship showed lower verbal recall and slower processing speed. The study also examined changes in the brain later in life.
This does not mean that one job loss or difficult year permanently damages your ability to think.
The episode’s central takeaway is that persistent financial pressure can consume cognitive bandwidth over time.
Financial Worry Runs in the Background
Amanda compares financial stress to a screaming baby.
Some noises can fade into the background. You can keep working while music is playing or people are talking nearby.
A crying baby is different.
It cuts through everything else and demands your attention.
Financial worry can work the same way.
Even while you are working, parenting, praying, or trying to rest, part of your mind may still be running through questions:
- How are we going to cover that bill?
- What happens if the car breaks?
- Are we already over budget?
- Can we afford groceries this week?
- What if another emergency happens?
- How long can we keep living this way?
Those questions become background processes your brain cannot easily shut off.
You are not becoming less intelligent. Your brain is simply trying to manage too many urgent problems at once.
Being Broke Costs More Than Money
Persistent financial strain can affect far more than a bank balance.
It can reduce your ability to make thoughtful decisions, create tension in your marriage, affect your health, your work, and your relationships with your children.
It can also reduce your capacity to serve others.
Amanda and Jonathan shared that during their most financially unstable season, they often had very little energy left for anyone beyond their immediate family.
They wanted to be available to their parish and community, but so much of their capacity was consumed by figuring out how to provide, cover the next bill, and keep their new business alive.
As Amanda put it:
Being broke costs you a whole lot more than money.
Financial stewardship is not only about improving your own comfort. Creating stability can give you more freedom to be present to your family, your parish, and the people God places in front of you.
Low Income Is Not the Same as Financial Distress
The episode makes an important distinction.
Having a lower income does not automatically produce this kind of financial stress.
A religious who has taken a vow of poverty may own almost nothing without experiencing constant fear about money. A family may also choose a simple lifestyle and feel peaceful and secure within it.
The deeper issue is the experience of being trapped.
It is the uncertainty, the sleeplessness, the inability to pay bills, and the feeling that there is no clear path forward.
Someone can earn a solid income and still experience persistent financial hardship if their expenses continually exceed what they bring in.
That gap has become especially painful for many families as housing and other essential costs have increased.
Financial stress is not measured only by income. It is also shaped by whether your financial life feels sustainable.
You Can Wander Into Financial Chaos
It is easy to wander into financial trouble.
You stop paying close attention. A few expenses increase. A balance remains on the credit card. Then another balance appears.
Without intentional decisions, financial disorder tends to grow.
But you will probably not wander out of it by accident.
You are unlikely to wake up one day and discover that you have unknowingly:
- Paid off your debt
- Built emergency savings
- Started budgeting consistently
- Improved financial communication in your marriage
- Begun investing for the future
- Created a stable financial foundation
Those results require a plan.
They also require practice, patience, and the willingness to work through your finances in the right order.
Start Building Stability in the Right Order
Amanda and Jonathan outline several early steps from the WalletWin Method.
1. Understand Where Your Money Is Going
Begin with a budget.
You need a clear picture of what is coming in, what is going out, and where the pressure points are.
Avoiding the numbers may temporarily reduce discomfort, but it does not reduce the underlying stress.
Clarity gives you something concrete to work with.
2. Stop Creating New Debt
Before aggressively paying off existing debt, stop adding to it.
Amanda compares this to an overflowing bathtub.
First, turn off the faucet. Then work on draining the water.
That may mean putting away the credit card, delaying a financed purchase, or deciding not to replace a car with another loan.
3. Build Basic Protection
A small emergency fund can keep an unexpected expense from becoming new debt.
Appropriate insurance can also protect your family from risks that would otherwise create major financial instability.
These protections may not feel as exciting as investing, but they form part of the foundation.
4. Get One Month Ahead
Living one month ahead means using money earned previously to cover the current month’s expenses.
This can make budgeting easier and smooth out some of the bumps caused by irregular income, changing expenses, or the timing of bills.
5. Pay Off Debt Intentionally
Once the foundation is in place, begin attacking debt according to a clear plan.
Do not skip earlier steps simply because investing or another financial goal feels more interesting.
The milestones build on and protect one another.
One Does Not Simply Fix Everything Overnight
Amanda uses a Lord of the Rings reference to make the point:
One does not simply flip a switch and create an entirely different financial life.
Even a large tax refund, bonus, inheritance, or other windfall may not permanently change your situation if the habits and systems underneath it remain the same.
Financial peace is built over time.
You may not be able to eliminate every source of financial stress this week. But you can begin reducing the number of unresolved problems running in the background.
Each decision creates a little more space.
You Do Not Have to Carry It Alone
When your mental bandwidth is already overwhelmed, making a financial plan can feel impossible.
That is often when support matters most.
Jonathan points to Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus carry the Cross.
Even Jesus accepted help while carrying His Cross.
You can ask for help too.
That may mean talking honestly with your spouse, asking a trusted friend for accountability, meeting with someone who understands personal finance, or using a structured program that gives you a clear sequence to follow.
You can also become that person for someone else.
A friend or relative experiencing financial hardship may feel too embarrassed to ask. Reaching out, helping with a bill, providing a meal, or connecting that person with parish support may relieve more than a temporary material need.
Your help may shorten a season of hardship before it becomes a decade of financial strain.
A Hard Season Does Not Have to Become Your Permanent Story
You cannot prevent every difficult chapter.
Illness, grief, job loss, family transitions, and unexpected expenses will still happen.
Financial stewardship does not promise a life without suffering.
It can, however, strengthen the ground beneath you before the next storm arrives.
The goal is not to control everything. It is to reduce avoidable chaos so that the crosses you are already called to carry do not become even heavier.
You may be in a difficult financial season now.
That does not mean you will remain there.
Start with the next clear step. Build the right habits in the right order. Accept help where you need it, and keep moving toward greater stability.
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