Financial Anxiety Self-Assessment: 10 Questions to Understand Your Money Stress

This isn’t a diagnosis. I’m not a therapist, and a ten-question quiz on the internet isn’t going to tell you everything about your relationship with money. But it might hold up a mirror you’ve been avoiding.

I built this assessment after recognizing patterns in my own financial anxiety — the avoidance, the midnight bank app checks, the physical tension around money conversations. The same patterns I wrote about in why your brain shuts down when you check your bank account. Turns out, most of us share more of these patterns than we’d like to admit.

Answer honestly. Nobody’s watching. Nobody’s grading you. This is just for you.

How to Take This Assessment

For each question, choose the response that best describes your experience over the past 3 months. Not your best week. Not your worst. Your typical, average reality.

Score each answer:

• A = 0 points (rarely/never)
• B = 1 point (sometimes)
• C = 2 points (often)
• D = 3 points (almost always)

Write down your score for each question. Add them up at the end.

The Questions

1. When you think about checking your bank balance, what happens in your body?

A. Nothing particular. I check it when I need to. B. A slight tightness in my chest, but I check anyway. C. I feel a noticeable wave of anxiety. I often delay checking. D. My heart rate spikes. I avoid checking for days or weeks at a time.

2. When an unexpected expense comes up (car repair, medical bill, home fix), how do you react?

A. I handle it from savings without much stress. B. I feel annoyed but figure out a plan fairly quickly. C. I feel panicky and it dominates my thoughts for days. D. I feel physically sick. Sometimes I ignore the bill entirely.

3. How often do you think about money when you’re trying to fall asleep?

A. Rarely. Money isn’t what keeps me up. B. A few times a month. It passes quickly. C. Multiple times a week. The thoughts loop. D. Almost every night. I calculate, worry, and plan until I’m exhausted.

4. When someone suggests splitting a dinner bill, going on a group trip, or spending money socially, what’s your internal reaction?

A. Fine, sounds fun. B. A quick mental calculation, then I decide based on my budget. C. Immediate stress. I often say yes to avoid the awkward conversation, then regret it. D. I avoid social situations that might involve spending money.

5. How do you feel about opening bills, financial statements, or emails from your bank?

A. Neutral. I open them when they arrive. B. I put it off for a day or two but get to it. C. I let them pile up. Opening them feels like defusing a bomb. D. I have unopened financial mail right now. Some of it is weeks or months old.

6. When you make a purchase — even a small one — how often do you feel guilt or regret afterward?

A. Rarely. If I bought it, I needed it or wanted it. That’s fine. B. Occasionally, for bigger purchases. C. Often, even for small things like coffee or lunch. D. Almost always. I replay purchases in my head and criticize myself.

7. How comfortable are you talking about money with your partner, family, or close friends?

A. Pretty comfortable. We talk about it openly. B. I can do it, but I’d rather not. C. It makes me very uncomfortable. I deflect or change the subject. D. I avoid it completely. Money conversations feel like personal attacks.

8. Do you compare your financial situation to other people’s?

A. Not really. Everyone’s situation is different. B. Sometimes, but I can usually put it in perspective. C. Often. It usually makes me feel worse about myself. D. Constantly. Social media, colleagues, friends — I always feel behind.

9. When you think about your financial future (retirement, emergencies, goals), what do you feel?

A. Cautiously optimistic. I have a rough plan. B. Uncertain, but I try not to dwell on it. C. Anxious. The future feels like a threat I’m not prepared for. D. Hopeless. I can’t even think about the future without spiraling.

10. How does financial stress affect your daily functioning (work, relationships, health)?

A. It doesn’t, really. Money stress stays in its lane. B. It creeps in sometimes — a bad mood, a short temper. C. It regularly affects my sleep, focus, or patience with people I love. D. It dominates my life. Work suffers. Relationships suffer. My health suffers.

Scoring

Add up your points (A=0, B=1, C=2, D=3).

0-7 Points: Low Financial Anxiety

Your relationship with money is relatively healthy. You experience normal stress around finances but it doesn’t control your behavior or well-being. This doesn’t mean everything is perfect — it means your coping mechanisms are working. Keep doing what you’re doing, and stay aware of changes.

8-15 Points: Moderate Financial Anxiety

Financial stress is a real presence in your life. It’s not constant, but it affects your decisions, your sleep, and your emotional state more than you’d probably like. This is the range where most people live — and the range where small, consistent changes make the biggest difference.

What might help:

• Start with awareness, not budgets. Track how you feel about money before tracking where it goes. A feeling-first approach often works better than spreadsheets.
• Build one small financial habit. Just one. Check your balance every Monday morning with a cup of coffee. Make it a ritual, not a punishment.
• Talk to someone about money. Not for advice — just to break the silence. Having money conversations without conflict is a learnable skill.

16-23 Points: High Financial Anxiety

Money is a significant source of distress in your life. The avoidance patterns are strong — unopened mail, skipped bank checks, social situations dodged. This level of anxiety often has roots that go deeper than your current financial situation. Even people with “enough” money can score in this range.

What might help:

• Recognize that this is a nervous system response, not a character flaw. Your brain is treating money as a threat because somewhere along the way, it learned to.
• Consider whether financial avoidance patterns are running the show. Avoidance feels like protection but it compounds the problem.
• Small exposures work. Open one piece of financial mail today. Just one. Sit with the discomfort for 60 seconds. Then close it. That’s enough for today.
• If financial anxiety is significantly affecting your daily life, consider speaking with a therapist who specializes in financial psychology. This is a real, recognized field, and you don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from it.

24-30 Points: Severe Financial Anxiety

Financial stress is severely impacting your quality of life. Daily functioning is affected — sleep, work, relationships, physical health. At this level, self-help resources like this assessment are a starting point, not a solution.

What might help:

• Please take this seriously. You deserve support.
• A financial therapist (look for the Financial Therapy Association directory) can help you work on the emotional roots of financial anxiety.
• If therapy isn’t accessible right now, crisis support lines like 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) are available if financial stress is contributing to feelings of hopelessness.
• Start impossibly small. You don’t need to fix your finances. You need to reduce the suffering. One tiny step at a time.

What This Assessment Doesn’t Tell You

This is a self-reflection tool, not a clinical instrument. It doesn’t measure your financial literacy, your actual financial health, or your worthiness as a human being. Someone with $500,000 in savings can score a 25. Someone with $200 in their account can score a 4. Financial anxiety and financial reality don’t always correlate.

What this assessment does tell you is how much emotional weight money carries in your life right now. And that awareness — just knowing where you stand — is worth more than another budgeting app or savings tip.

Your score isn’t a sentence. It’s a starting point.