You are someone who goes all in. You rarely say no, you are still thinking about that one file in the evening, and you feel responsible for your team, your clients or your family. For a long time, that feels like energy. Until you notice that you wake up tired, that little things irritate you and that you start work reluctantly. And somewhere at the back of your mind another question is playing: what if I really can’t go on for a while, could we cope with that financially?
Those two worries, exhaustion and money, are often dealt with separately. In practice, they are intertwined. In this article you will read what burnout actually is, why money worries increase the risk and how a few concrete steps can build in more calm, in your head and in your budget.
What burnout is, and what it is not
Since ICD-11 (announced in 2019), the World Health Organization (WHO) has described burnout as an occupational phenomenon: the result of chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. So it is not a character flaw, nor a sign of weakness. The WHO names three characteristics, which go back to the work of psychologist Christina Maslach and colleagues (Maslach Burnout Inventory, 1981):
- Exhaustion: your energy no longer recharges, not even after a weekend.
- Mental distance or cynicism: you feel less and less involved in your work or with your clients.
- A reduced sense of competence: you doubt whether you are still doing your job well.
Important: only a doctor can determine what is going on with you. Symptoms of exhaustion can also have other causes, such as depression or a physical problem. If you have been running on empty for weeks, talk to your GP about it.
Why driven people are especially vulnerable
Drive in itself is healthy. Canadian psychologist Robert Vallerand and colleagues (from 2003) make a useful distinction between harmonious and obsessive passion. With harmonious passion, you freely choose your work and there is still room for rest, relationships and other interests. With obsessive passion, you feel an inner compulsion: you have to keep going, because your self-worth or your security depends on it. Research in this area links mainly that second form to more conflict between work and private life and to more exhaustion.
Money often plays a silent role in this. If you feel there is no margin, you are less likely to dare to slow down. Turning down an extra assignment, working fewer hours or staying at home when ill then feels like a financial risk. In this way, drive partly turns into fear: you work not only because you enjoy it, but also because you are afraid of what will happen if you stop.
How money worries fill your head
In Scarcity (2013), economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir describe how shortages, of money or of time, consume part of our mental “bandwidth”. If you are constantly calculating whether you will make it to the end of the month, you have less room left to plan, to focus and to regulate yourself. For someone who is already tired, that means a double burden: the stress of work and the stress of money compete for the same limited attention.
It works the other way round too. When you are exhausted, you put off paperwork, pay bills late or reach for expensive convenience: having meals delivered, letting subscriptions run on, impulsive rewards. That is understandable, but it makes the money worries bigger, and they in turn feed the stress.
If you are off sick for a longer period, in many countries you no longer receive your full salary after a while, but a benefit that is lower. Rules for the self-employed are often different or more limited. Find out about the rules in your country and what they mean for you, preferably before you need them.
Sofie’s story
Sofie (41) is a nurse and works four-fifths time. She often stands in for colleagues and does most of the caring for her two children at home. When her partner was earning less for a while, she took on extra shifts. “I thought: this is temporary,” she says. After a year she was sleeping badly, felt empty at work and no longer opened her banking app because she was afraid of what she would see.
On her GP’s advice, she took time off to rest. During that period she also started working with a coach on her finances. What relieved her most was not a big plan, but a clear overview: what comes in during illness, which fixed costs keep running, what can temporarily be dropped? “When I saw it in black and white, it was less bad than in my head. That gave me the calm to really recover.”
Five steps to stay driven without burning out
- Notice the signals. For one week, write down each evening in one sentence how your energy was and what drained you. This makes patterns visible. The recovery planner can help you plan moments of rest deliberately.
- Make your “what if” scenario concrete. Put on one sheet your fixed costs, your current income and roughly what you would receive if you were off work for a few months. A vague fear often shrinks as soon as it has a number.
- Build a small buffer, even if it is not much. A buffer is not only a financial safety net, it also gives you the psychological room to say no or to slow down. With the emergency buffer tool you can calculate a target that suits your situation.
- Cut what makes your exhaustion expensive. Look at which expenses mainly come from tiredness (deliveries, forgotten subscriptions, comfort purchases) and find a cheaper way to lighten your load, such as cooking double on Sundays.
- Set boundaries. Choose one concrete boundary for the coming month: no emails after 8 p.m., no more than one extra shift, a fixed free evening. Tell someone about it; that makes it stronger.
Peace of mind as the basis for lasting drive
You can only sustain drive if there is also recovery. Financial self-care is part of that: knowing where you stand, building a buffer and aligning your spending with a life in which you are also allowed to slow down. That does not take away the stress of work, but it does lift a second source of worry off your shoulders. And if you are less afraid of the consequences of rest, you are also more likely to take rest in time.
If you feel low or hopeless, talk to your GP, a helpline in your country or, in an emergency, call the emergency number. For practical questions you can also turn to the social services of your local council. And would you like to get an overview of your finances together with someone, so that you can recover with more peace of mind? Then discover how guidance from a financial well-being coach can help you.