Post-Holiday Financial Anxiety and Account-Checking Avoidance: A Research Review

Abstract

Dreading the post-holiday balance check is common, and research supports a modest explanation. Holiday debt and money stress are widespread, and investors are documented avoiding bad news. No study shows that a short pre-check routine reduces that dread, and the GROUND routine here is an untested idea, not a treatment.

Many people feel dread about checking their bank balance after the holidays, and some put it off. This review looks at what published research says about holiday debt, money-related stress, avoiding financial information, and the limits of financial education. It also describes a short, optional pre-check routine called GROUND. GROUND is a practical idea from the MyMoneyCoach Research Team. It has not been tested in a study, and nothing here shows that it works.

Where the research is lab-based, small, cross-sectional or contested, the text says so. This is a research review. It is not medical or financial advice.

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Part I: The Post-Holiday Money Picture

1.1 How common holiday debt is

LendingTree's annual holiday debt survey reported that 36% of American consumers took on holiday debt in 2024. The average amount was $1,181, compared with $1,028 in 2023 and $1,549 in 2022.¹ The LendingTree survey is commercial, so it shows how common the pattern is and does not tell us how people felt about it.

1.2 How common money stress is

In the American Psychological Association's Stress in America survey (2014, released 2015), 72% of adults said they felt stressed about money at least some of the time.² The survey is more than a decade old and covers money stress in general. It is not specific to the holidays.

1.3 Is financial anxiety its own thing?

Shapiro and Burchell developed a measure of financial anxiety and reported that it is distinct from depression. They also described avoidance of financial matters as part of the picture.³ Because of that finding, "just a bad mood" is not a good description of what many people feel when they think about their balance.

1.4 Stress and the body

Stress is physical as well as emotional. McEwen (2007), in a narrative review, describes stress as two-way communication between the brain and the cardiovascular, immune and other systems through neural and endocrine mechanisms. The hormones protect the body in the short run, and chronic stress can lead over time to wear and tear on the body, which McEwen calls allostatic load.⁴ McEwen's review covers stress in general. It does not study holiday spending or bank balances, and it does not tell us what happens in a person's body when they open a banking app.

1.5 Stress and psychological distress

A cross-sectional study of U.S. adults aged 18 to 26 (n = 19,821, National Health Interview Survey 2013 to 2018) found that high financial stress was associated with an odds ratio of 6.17 for high psychological distress.⁵ An odds ratio is not a six-fold increase in risk, and a cross-sectional design cannot show which came first. It shows a strong association in one age group.

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Part II: Avoiding the Balance Check

2.1 The ostrich effect

Karlsson, Loewenstein and Seppi (2009) modeled and tested what they called the ostrich effect. In their data, investors monitored their portfolios more often in rising markets than in flat or falling ones.⁶ Their explanation is that paying attention to information can increase its psychological impact, so people sometimes look away from bad news. The Karlsson study was about investment portfolios. It did not study bank balances after the holidays, so applying it here is an analogy.

2.2 Why can avoidance cost something?

Avoiding a bank balance means you do not get the facts. Without facts, many people fill the gap with guesses, and the guesses can be worse than reality or better than it. Avoidance can also mean a missed due date or a fee. These are common-sense points. This review did not find a study that measured them for post-holiday balance checks, so treat them as reasonable ideas to test with your own experience.

2.3 Money worry and thinking

Mani and colleagues (2013) reported in Science that thinking about financial problems reduced cognitive performance among poorer participants but not among better-off participants. In their farmer study, the effect was not explained by differences in time, nutrition, work effort or stress.⁷ A later review found the broader scarcity literature has mixed replication and weaker evidence than first thought.⁸ The finding is a reason to be gentle with yourself when money is tight and you are trying to think clearly. It is not a reason to believe a particular brain mechanism is at work.

2.4 Anxiety and risky choices

In a brain imaging study, Engelmann and colleagues (2015) found that when people were made anxious by something unrelated to the task, their choices stayed the same, but activity in value-coding brain regions changed, and anterior insula activity shifted toward anticipated negative outcomes.⁹ This was a lab task with risky lotteries, not a banking task. Grupe and Nitschke (2013) reviewed the neuroscience of anxiety and proposed that uncertainty about future threat is central to anxiety.¹⁰ These papers support the general idea that uncertainty and anxiety shape how people respond. They do not show what happens in someone's head when they open a banking app.

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Part III: What We Do Not Know

3.1 Brain and body claims

Popular writing about money stress often says specific brain regions "shut down" or that the body responds to a bank balance the way it responds to a predator. This review found no study that tested those statements for checking a bank balance. We do not make them here. What is well supported is the general point in section 1.4: stress involves the body, and chronic stress can wear on it. Claims that trauma is stored in the tissues or that it damages the brain are disputed, and we do not make them.

3.2 Polyvagal theory is contested

The term neuroception comes from Stephen Porges's polyvagal theory.¹¹ Grossman (2023) published a detailed critique concluding that the theory's core premises are not supported by existing physiological and evolutionary evidence.¹² Defenders of the theory dispute this. We treat polyvagal ideas as one way some practitioners describe their work, not as established mechanism, and none of the suggestions below depend on them.

3.3 Information alone has limits

Fernandes, Lynch and Netemeyer (2014) pooled 168 papers covering 201 studies and found that interventions to improve financial literacy explained only 0.1% of the variance in financial behaviors, with weaker effects in low-income samples. They also found the effects of education decayed over time.¹³ That supports the view that knowing what to do is often not enough. It does not show why. This review does not claim that stress makes knowledge "inaccessible".

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Part IV: The GROUND Routine

4.1 What it is and what it is not

GROUND is a short routine of about a minute that you can do before you open a banking app. We designed it from common practice. There is no study of GROUND itself. Parts of it draw on research about related techniques, listed below, but those studies were not about financial anxiety or bank accounts. Do not read this section as evidence that GROUND reduces anxiety. Try it, and keep it if it helps.

4.2 The steps

G, Ground. Put both feet flat on the floor and notice the contact.

R, Respiration. Take three slow breaths, longer on the exhale than the inhale (for example, in for 4, out for 6). In one study of 30 people, slow breathing patterns increased heart rate variability, a commonly used marker of relaxation. In a related experiment, people who did two minutes of deep breathing reported less stress elevation in a business decision task than controls.¹⁴ Both were small, non-financial studies. Research on slow breathing beyond those two is larger. A review and meta-analysis of 223 studies found that voluntary slow breathing increases vagally mediated heart rate variability, a heart signal linked to the calming side of the nervous system.¹⁵ A meta-analysis of 24 studies (484 participants) found that heart rate variability biofeedback was associated with a large reduction in self-reported stress and anxiety (Hedges' g = 0.83), though the authors called for better-controlled studies and the trials were small and self-reported.¹⁶ A later review of 58 randomized trials found a more conservative small-to-moderate effect.¹⁷ None of these studies tested breathing before checking a bank balance, so we say only that many people find a slow breath a useful pause.

O, Open. Unclench your jaw and drop your shoulders. This is a common relaxation step. We did not find a study of it for this situation.

U, Understand. Set a small goal out loud: "I am going to look at a number. That is all." A 2020 financial therapy study of 50 clients found that a 20-minute solution-focused goal-setting session was followed by about a 16% drop in self-reported anxiety overall. It was short-term, self-reported and had no comparison group described in the summary we could access.¹⁸ A one-line goal is much shorter than that session, so we cannot say it does the same thing.

N, Narrative. Say something plain like "This number is information about the past. It does not define me." Naming a feeling has been linked to a smaller amygdala response to emotional pictures in a lab study.¹⁹ That study did not involve money, and it does not show that this sentence works.

D, Deliberate breathing. Keep breathing slowly while you look.

4.3 Making it a habit

A study of 96 volunteers found that it took a median of 66 days for a new daily behavior to reach its plateau of automaticity, with a very wide range, from 18 to 254 days.²⁰ So if you want a routine to feel automatic, expect weeks to months, not days. Earlier versions of this paper said two weeks. That figure was not supported.

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Part V: Practical Ideas Beyond the Routine

The ideas in this part are suggestions, not findings.

• Pick a time. A regular, predictable check-in, such as once a week, can keep a pile of unread information from building up.
• Bring someone along. For some people, doing the first check with a partner or friend makes it easier.
• Automate what you can. Automatic bill payments and savings transfers mean fewer moments of decision. We did not find a study specific to post-holiday anxiety.
• Get help when it is more than worry. If money anxiety is affecting your sleep, relationships or daily life, a licensed mental health professional or a financial therapist can help. Klontz, Britt and Archuleta's Financial Therapy is a reasonable starting point for the field.²¹

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Conclusion

The evidence in this review supports a modest picture. Holiday debt is common. Money stress is common, and it is associated with psychological distress in at least one large survey. Stress is known to involve the body, although that research is about stress in general. People sometimes avoid information that might be bad news, and that tendency has been documented in investors. Education alone has small average effects on behavior. Beyond that, the claims about specific brain circuits and about what a short routine does in the body are not backed by the studies we could find.

If checking your balance feels hard, a short routine, a small goal and a regular time may help, and they cost nothing to try. The goal is to look at the number and then decide what to do next.

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References

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This research review is provided by the MyMoneyCoach Research Team. It is not medical or financial advice. For personal concerns, consult a licensed mental health professional or qualified financial professional.

Footnotes

1. LendingTree annual holiday debt survey (2024), as reported by NBC News: "36% of Americans took on holiday debt this year, averaging $1,181." https://www.nbcnews.com/business/personal-finance/36-americans-took-holiday-debt-year-averaging-1181-survey-finds-tips-c-rcna185492 ↩

2. American Psychological Association. (2015). Stress in America: Paying with our health (survey conducted 2014). https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2014/stress-report.pdf ↩

3. Shapiro, G. K., & Burchell, B. J. (2012). Measuring financial anxiety. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 5(2), 92-103. doi:10.1037/a0027647 ↩

4. McEwen, B. S. (2007). Physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation: central role of the brain. Physiological Reviews, 87(3), 873-904. PMID 17615391. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17615391/ ↩

5. Nasir et al. (2025). Financial stress and psychological distress among young adults. Frontiers in Public Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11752891 ↩

6. Karlsson, N., Loewenstein, G., & Seppi, D. (2009). The ostrich effect: Selective attention to information. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 38, 95-115. doi:10.1007/s11166-009-9060-6 ↩

7. Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., & Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341(6149), 976-980. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1238041 ↩

8. O'Donnell, S. L., et al. (2021). An empirical audit and review of evidentiary value in research on the psychological consequences of scarcity. PNAS, 118(44). ↩

9. Engelmann, J. B., Meyer, F., Fehr, E., & Ruff, C. C. (2015). Anticipatory anxiety disrupts neural valuation during risky choice. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(7), 3085-3099. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25698745 ↩

10. Grupe, D. W., & Nitschke, J. B. (2013). Uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety: an integrated neurobiological and psychological perspective. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(7), 488-501. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4276319/ ↩

11. Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. Norton. ↩

12. Grossman, P. (2023). Fundamental challenges and likely refutations of the five basic premises of the polyvagal theory. Biological Psychology, 180, 108589. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108589 ↩

13. Fernandes, D., Lynch, J. G., Jr., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2014). Financial literacy, financial education, and downstream financial behaviors. Management Science, 60(8), 1861-1883. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2333898 doi:10.1287/mnsc.2013.1849 ↩

14. De Couck, M., et al. (2019). How breathing can help you make better decisions: Two studies on the effects of breathing patterns on heart rate variability and decision-making in business cases. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 139, 1-9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30826382/ ↩

15. Laborde, S., Allen, M. S., Borges, U., et al. (2022). Effects of voluntary slow breathing on heart rate and heart rate variability: a systematic review and a meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 138, 104711. PMID 35623448. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35623448/ ↩

16. Goessl, V. C., Curtiss, J. E., & Hofmann, S. G. (2017). The effect of heart rate variability biofeedback training on stress and anxiety: a meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, 47(15), 2578-2586. PMID 28478782. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28478782/ ↩

17. Lehrer, P., Kaur, K., Sharma, A., et al. (2020). Heart rate variability biofeedback improves emotional and physical health and performance: a systematic review and meta analysis. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 45(3), 109-129. PMID 32385728. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32385728/ ↩

18. Archuleta, K. L., et al. (2020). Solution-focused financial therapy goal-setting session study. Contemporary Family Therapy. Summary: https://news.uga.edu/archuleta-financial-therapy-research/ doi:10.1007/s10591-019-09501-0 ↩

19. Lieberman, M. D., et al. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421-428. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17576282/ ↩

20. Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998-1009. doi:10.1002/ejsp.674 ↩

21. Klontz, B., Britt, S. L., & Archuleta, K. L. (Eds.). (2015). Financial therapy: Theory, research, and practice. Springer. ↩