For San Jose State psychology sophomore Anabel Foster, finding ways to resist spending money when it’s available has become a source of her anxiety.
“If you do waver over to wanting to be with your friends and just wanting to spend [money] because you got that paycheck and you want to spend it, but then at the end of the month you get hit with that big stressor of ‘I don’t have enough money to afford my basic things that I need, my food, my water and utilities, rent, all of it,’ ” Foster said.
She said money’s role in meeting one’s basic needs can create an obligation to keep enough money to live a comfortable life.
“Financial stress has to do heavily with your well-being and being able to supply yourself with proper resources to be healthy and happy,” Foster said.
SJSU psychology professor Lesther Papa said not having your basic needs met can pose an array of threats to someone’s mental health.
“When we’re talking about financial insecurity, what we’re talking about is this discomfort associated with your finances not being able to cover your needs,” Papa said. “The needs that we’re talking about in our case are going to be your basic needs, food, shelter, clothing, anytime that you are not getting your needs met, it puts you at risk for mental health challenges.”
Papa said people with preexisting mental illnesses may have a harder time dealing with financial stress.
“Let’s say [someone has] an anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, we tend to worry a lot,” he said. “They will have coping skills to be able to handle everyday kind of worries that is trademark for that particular disorder, incorporating financial distress on top of that then tends to stretch their coping abilities beyond the brink of what they normally have to do.”
Foster said tipping culture in the United States adds another layer of psychological struggle when it comes to saving that extra dollar.
She said the flipping of the point of sale system, paired with the intimidating gaze of restaurant workers patiently awaiting your choice of tip has caused her some stress before.
“The worst is when [workers] are there and they’re looking at you and watching you pay for the tip,” she said. “Because then you feel that pressure.”
SJSU economics professor Ninh Nguyen said in a world where convenience is at the forefront of many business models, extracting money from the general population has been made easier.
A primary demographic those models target is Gen Z, people born between 1997 and 2013, who have grown up alongside the internet.
“I suspect because the younger generation has grown up with that convenience, the younger generation are now relying on that convenience,” Nguyen said. “Me going to McDonald's to pick up a Big Mac might cost me $4 . . . but if I UberEats it, it might cost $10, so I’m paying double for that convenience.”
Nguyen said this prevalence of convenience can act as an inhibitor to saving money.
He said along with susceptibility to spending money, SJSU students are at an even bigger disadvantage, as many of them live in and around the Bay Area.
In San Jose, housing costs are 142% higher than the national average, according to a Payscale webpage.
“The cost of living here is too high,” Nguyen said. “And since the jobs are here and the talent pool is here, they compete to be close to proximity of their job.”
Foster, who moved from her hometown of San Diego in January, said in-state tuition has helped mitigate exorbitant financial costs, but housing continues to be her dominant money drainer.
She said having to rely on other people and outside sources of financial support including loans, adds extraneous issues that have a negative impact on her mental health.
“I do have to rely on family members and loans to try and be able to pay for [housing] and it sucks because when you’re in this age, you want to start being able to transition to being independent,” Foster said. “And the fact that you have this tie where you can’t pay for your own basic housing, it’s really hard to be able to feel like you have a sense of who you are.”
SJSU Cares, a division of Student Affairs, says it helps students facing “unforeseen circumstances” by providing support and refers students to various resources to meet their needs.
According to the SJSU Cares 2021-22 Summary Statistics, about 64.5% of requested assistance revolved around resources regarding housing insecurity.
The summary also stated that students are highly unlikely to accept temporary emergency housing because they are typically already housed. It’s the anxiety of not being able to pay rent that is causing students to reach out for help.
Around 70% of college students are stressed by their financial situations, according to an article by Mental Health America, a website that aims to promote mental health as a key component to overall wellness.
SJSU psychology lecturer My Ngoc Nguyen said finding a job and committing time to bettering one’s monetary circumstances can lead to quicker burnout.
“A student who is facing housing instability, financial instability, they have no choice but to go find a job,” she said. “So it’s definitely harder for some students who might be going through financial [or] housing instability to focus on academics when this is like survival mode.”
Foster said she experiences and sees in her peers that the struggle to budget hinders financial stability.
The idea of budgeting money is not a common discipline taught in earlier stages of life, making the act of saving money a harsh lesson to learn, according to a Sept. 7, 2022 article by Education Loan Finance, a student-loan refinancing website that offers tips for college students on how to prevent potential financial stressors.
“It gets really hard especially at this age, a lot of people are still learning how to budget their income,” Foster said. “So people will get a paycheck and they get excited because this is money coming in, but they need to realize that you kind of have to allocate that cost because at the end of the month you have this huge money suck.”
