2023-10-07 08:01:58
Ramón and his wife, Marta, bought a house five years ago, when interest rates were still in negative territory and the payment of your variable mortgage was under control. With two jobs and two salaries, both of them could afford to go on vacation every summer, enroll their two children in summer camp and, why not, go out to dinner once a month.
For more than a year now, with the increase in interest rates, the unstoppable rise of the Euribor, the increase in price of electricity, gasoline, shopping basket and a long etcetera, they have seen how Their purchasing power has been suffering little by little And, although this couple has not been forced to resort to extra credit cards or personal loans to continue maintaining their standard of living, the truth is that they are both beginning to find it difficult to sleep.
IT MAY INTEREST YOU
Prepare between 2,000 and 4,000 euros more per year: the Euribor rises again
E. Sanz
Ramón and Marta reviewed their mortgage last month and received bad news. His monthly fee will go from 650 to 812 euros. That is, they will have to pay 161 euros more per month, something more than 1,900 euros per year. An increase in price that adds to that registered last year. Total, a cumulative increase of more than 4,000 euros in two years. Without a doubt, a significant economic setback for a family that until a couple of years ago was able to go to sleep without fearing for the strength of their family finances.
Symptoms and solution of financial anxiety
Your situation is not isolated. In Spain there is something more four million families with variable rate mortgages who have received a strong shock from the rise in the Euribor and who have been evaluating various options for months to reach the end of the month calmer and be able to sleep peacefully, from the possibility of change your mortgage until you resort to the reunification of your debts. What Ramón and Marta suffer, and what more mortgaged people suffer every day, is what psychologists call Financial Anxiety Syndrome (FAS).
“We have identified in increasing proportion among the people who turn to us to carry out a debt restructuringwhose culmination, logically, ends with the syndrome, its effects and its symptoms,” Luis Javaloyes, CEO of Agencia Negociadora, explains to El Confidencial.
But what is this financial anxiety syndrome, how can it be identified and, most importantly, how can it end? According to psychologist Ana Isabel Gutiérrez Salegui, “it is a generalized state of stress derived from economic stresswhich would fall within the anxiety adjustment disorders or mixed adjustment disorders“.
Financial anxiety is a state of generalized stress derived from economic stress.
“When payment problems arise due to, for example, the inflation and rising interest rates, it is essential to face the situation with serenity and determination. This, which seems obvious, is not so obvious: There is a very big tendency to “put our heads in the sand” and wait for it to clear. This never works. Carrying out a debt restructuring solves the problem in one go, and the best thing is that it does so for the future, it is not a fix,” adds Javaloyes.
In any case, this expert indicates that “it is It is advisable to cut expenses that are not necessary (there is always something) as long as the situation does not change. You can also negotiate with the bank flexibility in payment of installments, or even studying a change in mortgage conditionsto reduce the quota”.
That’s what JCM did. It resorted to debt reunification. At 43 years old and with a permanent contract for more than 20 years, he had a mortgage, a loan and a card for which I paid 845.05 euros every month. She had some delays. On May 22, 2023, she signed an operation on his home for 30 years and Now you pay a single monthly fee of 539.75 euros. This means being able to pay off those debts and have liquidity. In addition to sleep better at night.
You can also negotiate flexibility in installments with the bank, or even study a change in conditions and reduce the installment.
The situations of financial anxiety experienced by Ramón and Marta or JCM are increasingly common among Spaniards, even if they are not in situations of over-indebtedness. And not only has the mortgage payment skyrocketed and the cost of living has become substantially more expensive, but the saving capacity of Spanish families has also been reduced significantly in 2022, and has done so quickly due to the inflationary context of the last year, in such a way that the economic cushion that many households were providing during the pandemic He has been losing weight until he practically disappears.
So much so that the Savings rate has dropped to levels very similar to the pre-pandemic, after two years at levels much higher than normal due to pandemic restrictions. And the forecasts are not optimistic. CaixaBank Research, for example, predicts that by 2023 the household savings rate will decrease again. All of this is causing significant stress in many homes. How to detect it?
Frustration, irritability, headaches, hair loss
“Taking into account that the stressor can be prolonged over time and frequently progressive as the situation tends to worsen while personal resources to cope with stress decrease, Financial anxiety syndrome is a growing stressoruntil reaching a turning point at which the person runs the risk of giving up or suffering more severe psychological consequences“explains Gutiérrez Salegui.
High blood pressure, headaches, digestive problems, palpitations, nervous alopecia, sexual dysfunctions, irritability…
In the opinion of this psychologist, “we would be talking about the difficulty or impossibility maintained over time to face increases in the cost of living with regular work, mortgage increases, rents, household consumption and shopping baskets that often exceed the economic capabilities of families. A situation that, either it has worsened over time or it currently reaches a greater number of households than a few months ago.”
One of the first symptoms, or the first, according to Ana Isabel Gutiérrez Salegui “are the sleep problems that in turn influence our physical state and in our state of mind. At the same time, there appear circular thoughts related to finding solutions, which causes a progressive increase in anxiety levels. The state of mind in that first phase is defined by the frustration, irritability and discomfort that also cause problems and conflicts to appear in the immediate environment”.
“The higher the levels of stress, the greater the increase in symptoms,” warns this psychologist, “appearing psychosomatic symptoms such as high blood pressure, headaches, digestive problems, palpitationschest pains, feeling of tightness in the chest, dermatological problems, Nervous alopecia and sexual dysfunctions. Prolonged stress can lead to a phase of exhaustion in which depressive symptoms will appear and corresponding with the search for increasingly desperate solutions.
IT MAY INTEREST YOU
The Euribor complicates the September cost: how to save on the mortgage payment?
E. Sanz
To mitigate all these effects, this expert proposes that The intervention includes viable solutions for the stressor and, also, “work on irrational cognitions related to our economic situation affecting our social image and our self-image“However, and above all, explains Javaloyes, “The best way to end the problem is to end what causes it. Solving payment problems ends the stress of not being able to pay. Carry out a definitive (not temporary) organization of personal finances or family members is the most direct and effective way to end economic problems and also the stress they can generate.
The debt reunification It is one of the options on the table, but you can also look for alternatives to reduce the mortgage payment. For example, go from variable to fixed or mixed. According to experts, the mortgagee will not be able to pay the installment he paid before the Euribor rise, but it will cushion the rise quite a bit.
You can also extend the repayment periods, thus reducing the amount of the installment, although for some experts this is not particularly advisable, since, in the long run, the only thing you achieve is paying more interest. In addition, you have to have room to extend the repayment period, and with 30-year mortgages, this is not always possible. Although the most important thing, according to experts, is to anticipate problems, for which it is necessary to have some basic notions of financial education to be able to make predictions for the future and avoid scares.
#mortgage #doesnt #sleep #hair #falling #financial #anxiety #syndrome