In Denial About Your Finances? 8 Steps to Face Reality — Painlessly
Are your finances like the dirt and dust underneath your refrigerator? You know it’s ugly, but if you don’t actually look down there, it’s all good, right?
In both cases — your finances and your fridge — no, it’s not.
It’s time to take a deep breath, push past your financial denial and make some money moves that will make you proud of how your finances look. Here are nine ways to do that.
1. See Where You Stand
Like it or not, it’s time to open your eyes and take a look at your finances. How do you compare?
You don’t want to do as well as your friends and family financially… you want to do better. Status Money can help you see how you compare and help you create a plan to take your status from average to superstar.
Status Money is an app that allows you to anonymously compare your financial situation with your peers’ without asking those awkward, prying questions. Link an account to tap into this database, and you’ll be able to compare your income, debt, interest rates, credit score, spending… you name it.
By reviewing the information you provide, Status can help you find ways to reduce your interest rates for credit cards or loans. These and other financial tips can help you improve your status — fast.
By seeing how you stack up to others, you can see what you need to work on — why keep up with the Joneses when you can leave them in the dust?
2. Get to Know Your Credit Score
It’s time to get to know your credit score. Gulp! If you’ve been in denial and avoiding that three-digit number because, well, you might not want to know it, it’s time to step up.
Your credit score is important. The better your score, the better deal you’ll get on a mortgage, car loan or credit card. We’re talking big money, here. That’s why you need to quit ignoring it.
Even if you’re not buying a house anytime soon, a lousy credit score means you’ll get hit with a high security deposit whenever you rent a car or move into a new apartment.
But did you know your credit score could be inaccurate? One out of five credit reports have an error, according to a study by the Federal Trade Commission.
To keep a closer eye on your credit, get your credit score and a “credit report card” for free from Credit Sesame. It breaks down exactly what’s on your credit report in layman’s terms, how it affects your score and how to address it.
See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?
3. Give Your Retirement Savings a Little TLC
If you’re in denial about your current finances, your retirement savings are probably all but forgotten. If you’re saving for your retirement with a 401(k), awesome.
But when’s the last time you truly checked in on your account, adjusted your allocations, addressed any fees and all that other fun stuff? Come on. Step up and take a look.
Try using a robo-adviser to make sure your 401(k) is on track with your retirement goals. Blooom is an SEC-registered investment advisory firm that’ll optimize and monitor your 401(k) for you.
Your initial account checkup is free, and you can do it online in less than five minutes. This will help you get to know your account a little more intimately. Find out if you’re paying too many investment fees or if you have the appropriate amount of money invested in stocks versus bonds.
If you’re satisfied with the outcome of your initial check up, great! If not, you can enroll in Blooom for $10 a month (Penny Hoarders get one month free). It’ll automatically adjust your 401(k) to best fit your needs all the way up to retirement.
If you don’t have a 401k, it’s time to start saving for retirement right now.
4. Address Those High-Interest Credit Cards
Every month, you make payments toward your credit card debt. But you never seem to make a dent. It’s because of those sky-high interest rates — as much as 24% interest. It can feel impossible to get ahead.
But MoneyLion could help you find offers to cut your interest rate by 70% as soon as tomorrow.
Here’s how it works: MoneyLion can match you with new loan offers at a lower interest rate — as low as 5.20% APR*. That’s 70%* lower than the average credit card interest rate. And it’s the key to finally getting ahead.
You can use this new loan to pay off all your existing credit card debt, leaving you with one (cheaper) monthly payment that will help you get out of debt faster.
If you have a credit score of at least 620, you could get up to $50,000. With no collateral. And terms go up to 144 months.
Worried you won’t qualify? Take two minutes to check online and see if you could cut your credit card interest rate by 70%.
*Based on creditworthiness. Average credit card interest rate is 24.72% as of 8/14/24, according to Forbes Advisor’s weekly credit card rates report.
5. Create a Budget
Budget. There. We said it, and it wasn’t so bad, was it? OK, we know. Budgets are scary. Why? Because they make it hard, if not impossible, to stay in denial about your finances.
That’s actually a good thing. You can do this.
The first step is to find out how you’re doing now. Luckily, you can have a financial assistant right in your pocket to help you out.
The Empower app is a powerful budgeting tool that can help you figure out how you’re spending your money and develop a budgeting plan to keep you on track.
Link the app to your bank accounts, and it will track your spending. It will also categorize your spending so you can see exactly where you are overdoing it. That’s right: It will show you just how many times you went out for dinner because you didn’t want to do the dishes.
Set a monthly spending limit and the app will show you a graph that can tell you in one snapshot just how you’re doing for the month. Are you over the line or under it? It’s that simple to see how you’re doing so you can adjust your spending accordingly.
Sometimes a little accountability is all you need. Quit tweeting, and use your phone for something better, like finally learning how to budget.
6. Get Your Bills Under Control
Your bills are your bills, right? There’s no denying that. But what if your bills don’t have to be as big as they are? Ugh.
No one wants to spend a whole afternoon on the phone with the cable company. That’s enough to make anyone crawl up into the fetal position on the couch. We found a better way to knock your bills down to size.
Download TrueBill, an app that’ll negotiate your bills, cancel unwanted subscriptions and refund your bank fees.
After downloading the app, create an account and link your bank account and/or credit cards. Turn on the bill negotiation and outage protection features. Boom. TrueBill is already searching for potential refunds — it might get you a refund even when you didn’t know an outage occurred.
On average, Truebill says it helps customers save more than $700 a year by lowering their bills, canceling necessary subscriptions and getting refunds.
The app will also remind you of all those sneaky subscriptions you’ve signed up for through the years, so you can cancel what you don’t use and reclaim your monthly budget.
7. Start an Emergency Fund
You car breaking down? You don’t want to think about it. Emergency medical or dental bills? Nope. You’d rather assume the best than prepare for the worst.
This kind of financial denial can really put your finances in a bind, for the short term and for years to come. You may not want to think about financial emergencies, but they happen. It’s time you started preparing for it with a simple emergency savings account.
An iOS app called Varo Money combines traditional banking tools with modern technology to help its customers become financially healthy.
Here’s the best part: Pair your Bank Account with a Varo Savings Account where you’ll earn 1.75% Annual Percentage Yield. That’s nearly 30 times — repeat, 30 times — the average savings account, based on a 0.06% average reported by CNN Money.
Now, just make sure you save enough to survive a financial emergency. That’s the point, right?
8. Get a Banking App That Keeps You on Your Game
If seeing your checking account statement each month is a horror story of forgotten debit card charges, we found the app that refuses to let you neglect your finances.
Chime® is an online-only banking app that offers some unique features other banks haven’t caught on to yet. It sends you instant transaction alerts that tell you how much you just spent and your new balance.
No need to log in just to see where your account stands. App notifications let you know with every swipe of the card or automatic withdrawal.
Plus, Chime doesn’t charge overdraft fees, monthly maintenance fees, foreign transaction fees or minimum balance fees. Its mobile app boasts more than 2,000 five-star reviews, making managing money super accessible via iPhone or Android.
Opening an account is free and only takes about five minutes.
Breathe Easier
There. You did it. One quick afternoon and your finances are in a much, much better place.
Denial is an ugly thing that makes the things we fear appear even worse than they actually are. Step up, face your finances and get ready for a better future.
Now, go clean under your refrigerator. Seriously. Yuck!
Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. He was in deep financial denial for years, though he’s now in denial about that. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.
Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC. The Chime Visa® Debit Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A. pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. The secured Chime Visa® Credit Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A. pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be used everywhere Visa credit cards are accepted. Please see the back of your Card for its issuing bank.
MyPay® line of credit provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A. MyPay services provided by Chime Capital, LLC (NMLS ID 2316451).
Chime is recommended by more of its users in the 2024 Qualtrics® NPS study when compared to top national banks and select fintechs. THE #1 MOST LOVED BANKING APP is a Registered Trademark of Chime Financial, Inc.
* Terms apply. Limited time only, must open the new account and complete qualifying activities to earn 3 individual rewards, up to a max of $350.00, as described at https://www.chime.com/policies/newmemberofferv3.
1 Early access to direct deposit funds depends on the timing of the submission of the payment file from the payer. We generally make these funds available on the day the payment file is received, which may be up to 2 days earlier than the scheduled payment date.
2 Out-of-network ATM withdrawal and over the counter advance fees may apply except at FCTI® ATMs in a 7-Eleven® or Speedway, or any Allpoint® or Visa® Plus Alliance ATM participating in the Allpoint network.
3 SpotMe® on Credit is an optional, no interest/no fee overdraft line of credit tied to the Secured Deposit Account. SpotMe on Debit is an optional, no fee service attached to your Chime Checking Account (individually or collectively, “SpotMe”). Eligibility for SpotMe requires $200 or more in qualifying direct deposits to your Chime Checking Account each month.
Qualifying members will be allowed to overdraw their Chime Checking Account and/or their Secured Deposit Account up to $20 in total, but may be later eligible for a higher combined limit of up to $200 or more based on member’s Chime account history, direct deposit frequency and amount, spending activity and other risk-based factors. Your SpotMe Limit will be displayed to you within the Chime mobile app. You will receive notice of any changes to your SpotMe Limit. SpotMe for Credit and SpotMe on Debit share a single SpotMe limit. Your SpotMe Limit may change at any time, at Chime or its banking partners’ discretion. Although there are no overdraft fees, there may be out-of-network or third-party fees associated with ATM transactions or OTC cash withdrawal fees at retailers. SpotMe won’t cover non-card transactions, including ACH transfers, Pay Anyone transfers, or Chime Checkbook transactions. SpotMe Terms and Conditions.
4 With a qualifying direct deposit, earn 1.5% cash back on eligible secured Chime Visa® Credit Card purchases. Please refer to the Secured Chime Visa® Credit Card – Cash Rewards Program Addendum for details and more information on rotating cash back categories.
5 On-time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Late payment may negatively impact your credit score. Chime will report your activities to Transunion®, Experian®, and Equifax®. Impact on your credit may vary, as Credit scores are independently determined by credit bureaus based on a number of factors including the financial decisions you make with other financial services organizations.
6 Out-of-network ATM withdrawal and OTC advance fees may apply. View The Bancorp agreement or Stride agreement for details; see back of card for issuer.
7 Money added to Chime Card™ will be held in a secured deposit account as collateral for your Chime Card, and you can spend up to this amount. You can use money deposited in your Secured Deposit Account to pay off your charges at the end of every month.
8 You must notify your financial institution immediately of any unauthorized use. For specific restrictions, limitations and other details, please consult your issuer.
9 To be eligible for Chime+™ status, you must receive a qualifying direct deposit to your Chime Checking Account in the preceding 34 days. Certain products marketed as Chime+ benefits have additional eligibility requirements. While some Chime+ benefits may have associated fees, none of these fees are mandatory to access Chime+ benefits or to maintain Chime+ status. See Chime+ Terms and Conditions for details.
10 To be eligible for MyPay, you must receive qualifying direct deposits to your Chime Checking Account in the preceding 36 days as set forth in the MyPay Agreement. A qualifying direct deposit is a deposit from an employer, payroll provider, gig economy payer, government benefits payer, or other permitted source of income by Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) or Original Credit Transaction (“OCT”). Your MyPay Credit Limit and Maximum Available Advance may change at any time. MyPay is a line of credit and available limits are based on estimated income and risk-based criteria. Eligible members may be offered a $20 – $500 Credit Limit per pay period. Your Credit Limit and Maximum Available Advance will be displayed to you within the Chime app. MyPay is currently only available to eligible Chime members in certain states. Other restrictions may apply. See Bancorp MyPay Agreement or Stride MyPay Agreement for details.
11 Top three national bank ranking according to the Federal Reserve Statistical Release based on domestic assets; number of ATMs self-reported by Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo – June 2025.
12 To apply for a Chime Card, you must also open a Chime Checking Account.
13 Chime Visa® Credit Card holders – Deposits and debit refunds go to your Checking Account, then transfer to your Chime Card Secured Deposit Account – other than Chime Card cash deposits at retailers, which go to your Chime Card Account, then transfer to your Secured Deposit Account. Funds are moved from your Secured Deposit Account to your Checking Account to facilitate outbound transfers and debit purchases. Your Available balance is the money you can spend with your Chime Card or Checking Account. See account agreements and statements for details.
14 Chime will report the following activities, as applicable, to TransUnion®, Experian®, and Equifax®: amount past due; payment status of the last paid-off balance; how long you’ve had your card; current statement balance; last balance payment date; and highest balance before paying it off.
