Stressed Out? Money Might Have Something To Do With It

Ain't life sweet? Of course, everything's all fine and good until the dreaded "F-word" is mentioned--and no, we're not talking about vulgar slang. We're talking about finances. And for many Americans in debt, money is not the most pleasant topic of conversation.

A recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association in August 2014 found that close to 72 percent of Americans said they felt stressed out about money within the past month, while 22 percent said they experienced "extreme stress" within the past 30 days.

The survey looked at over 3,000 Americans who were asked to rate their stress levels based on a 1 to 10 scale. 

Furthermore, researchers found that some groups were more likely to be stressed than others. For instance, women reported being more stressed than men (with scores of 5.2 vs. 4.5 out of 10) while more than half of women (51 percent) said they had actually laid in bed awake at night thinking about financial burden.

Parents also made the list of more stressed out peeps. In fact, parent's stress levels were significantly higher than non-parents (5.7 vs. 4.7 out of 10) and parents were more likely to say their stress levels had increased overall in the past year.

Lastly, more than any other generation, today's youth, otherwise known as Millennials, have notably gained the title of most stressed out, particularly when it comes to funds (5.5 out of 10 vs. 4.5 for boomers and 5.4 for Gen Xers). Maybe the economy has something to do with it, mom and dad?

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