About a third of Australians are financially stressed with women consistently reporting more anxiety about money, according to the latest snapshot into the mental health system.<\/p>\n
It followed a period where prices have risen by more than 20 per cent in five years<\/a>, and the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates more than a dozen times.<\/p>\n It left Sara Jane Hammond, 45, recalling memories of watching her father go bankrupt before she even started high school.<\/p>\n Facing her own financial anxieties decades later, Ms Hammond began making changes to find the financial stability and independence that has been drummed into her psyche.<\/p>\n Over the course of the past two years, she skipped meals, cancelled her gym membership, moved in with her partner, and sold her home in Brisbane.<\/p>\n “We actually decided that we were going to put my place on the market,” Ms Hammond told the ABC.<\/p>\n “I sold that so that we could pay off my partner’s mortgage and try and be debt-free.”<\/p>\n Inflation has been falling but people still feeling the impact<\/p>\n Since reaching its peak in 2022, inflation has continued to ease. At the moment, headline inflation is at 2.1 per cent.<\/p>\n The “trimmed mean” measure of inflation, which is the Reserve Bank of Australia’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, also declined from 2.9 to 2.7 per cent.<\/p>\n Between 2022 and 2023, the RBA lifted interest rates 13 times.<\/p>\n It coincided with a period where Australians were more financially stressed than they were at any time before or during the pandemic<\/a>, according to an Australian National University survey of about 4,000 people.<\/p>\n The most recent look into Australia’s mental health system<\/a> by the National Mental Health Commission found more people were finding it difficult on their current incomes.<\/p>\n Between 2020 and 2024 financial stress almost doubled from 17.1 per cent in November 2020 to 34.6 per cent by January 2024.<\/p>\n What is financial stress?<\/p>\n Financial stress often occurs when people find it difficult to keep up with living expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n The signs can include:<\/p>\n The report also found more people were delaying or not seeking mental health care because of the cost.<\/p>\n Ms Hammond, who is an osteopath, was not immune. She said she saw her income fall by about $1,200 a month.<\/p>\n Her situation was complicated by being self-employed, and demand for appointments started to wane.<\/p>\n It led to her having to make a decision she did not want to, and forgo her retirement safety net earlier this year.<\/p>\n “As a sole trader trying to prioritise putting money aside for super has been a challenge,” she said.<\/p>\n “At least we will have combined superannuation, but I’m way behind compared to what [my partner’s] at.<\/p>\n “I don’t want to be a multi-property tycoon or anything like that, but it was to be our nest egg.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Cost of living made worse by wage stagnation<\/p>\n Monash University’s Anthony Harris, who runs its Centre of Health Economics, said the cost of living crisis has not been helped by more than a decade of flatling real wages.<\/p>\n The burnt-out millennials who walked away from work<\/a><\/p>\n With burnout at unprecedented levels who doesn’t dream of stepping away from it all and embracing a career break. But can it solve the problem?<\/p>\n “It’s been a period when real wages have been falling for maybe a dozen years. So there has been quite a ratchet down in people’s real income,” Professor Harris said.<\/p>\n\n
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