How to Handle Financial Overwhelm
Hello All,
I recently had a consultation with a client who is having trouble navigating her accounting and tax obligations. On top of it all, she recently received a letter from Revenue Quebec advising her that she owed a significant amount of money plus penalties. As a consequence she is feeling overwhelmed and unsure if she can handle the financial aspects of her business. She is bright and intelligent and certainly more than capable of doing so - but it doesn’t take much, especially where it comes to taxes and unpleasant missives from the government, to feel a loss of control.
So what do you do in this situation? Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find help. The natural solution is to find an accountant, but, from what I’ve heard from clients who seek me out is that this is easier said than done. Google searches are great, but finding an accountant requires a certain amount of trust and you might not even know what you are looking for. If your situation seems simple, you might feel embarrassed to discuss this with a professional (which is the same instinct that leads us to clean our houses before the cleaners come in) or you might be reluctant to incur the costs, which can be quite high depending on the accountant.
The other solution is to simply do it yourself. The problem here is that while the internet has reams of information, there are certain pockets of missing information that can make finding a solution to a specific problem difficult. And even when you do find it, your lack of experience (after all most of you are not financial professionals) might make you doubt whether you are doing it correctly.
So, while figuring out how to solve your problem isn’t always going to be easy, there are some actions that help you take back control :
Try and isolate the problem that you are trying to solve to the best of your ability and understand that it isn’t likely as big as you think it is.
If you receive a letter from the government which requires immediate attention, you can often simply call them and ask for an extension. This gives you some breathing room.
If you can’t figure out the problem on your own, then it is time to find an accountant or financial professional . In my experience sometimes you have to go through several pages of search results as top results are often dominated by businesses that are good at search engine optimization but not necessarily the most appropriate person for the job.
Speak to several accountants to find someone who is the right fit. I have included a blog post this week to help you navigate this process.
Talk to someone that you know who might be good with finances or simply has good judgement to get an outside perspective on the issue.
Post something about the issue on Facebook Group (I follow several groups that are specific to my neighborhood) to see if you can get recommendations for an accountant or financial professional.
Join a financial group on Facebook and see if you can pose the question there.
Like with most problems, the remedies aren’t instantaneous. And while anxiety is completely natural, we have to remind ourselves that it usually does nothing to help and mostly just interferes with productive solutions.
See the full newsletter about handling financial stress
