Lack of money is a frequent cause of stress.  That's not a surprise.  But do you ever think about how stress could actually cause a lack of money?  Read on for 5 ways in which excess stress can hurt your financial success.

1) Stress is a handicap

While a little bit of stress can add that extra inspiration some of us need to get things done, a lot of stress has the opposite effect.  It will make it next to impossible to perform at our usual level.  And the longer it lasts, the worse it gets.

And guess what low levels of performance can mean?  You may make costly mistakes -- costly either for you if you have your own business, or for your employer.  Either way, they will impact your bottom line, sooner or later.

2) Stress can make you sick

And being sick has two bad effects when it comes to money:  It costs money to take care of yourself and get better again.  And you may lose business because you can't keep up with the work.

3) Stress keeps the good stuff away

If you're familiar with the law of attraction, you may already know that stress is bad news when it comes to vibrations.  Stress means tension. It means focus on negatives.  It means fear, worry, and anticipation of worst-case scenarios.  And if you focus on bad stuff, it tends to appear in your life.

4) Stress robs you of perspective

When we're stressed, our world gets smaller and smaller, and our perspective shrinks to literally what's in front of us, with a steady dose of worry of what horrible things could befall us.  This is not a good place to be in when it comes to making wise decisions.  So you may end up making decisions or taking actions that will come back to haunt you.

5) Stress is a money drain

How could stress be a money drain?  Let me count the ways:  You may have medical bills because you get sick.  You make unwise purchasing decisions because you're desperate.  You're so stressed you don't keep track of your checking account or your bills and you get flooded with late fees and overdraft fees.  And the more stressed you are, the more you have the urge to "treat" yourself, and with reason being at an all-time low, that can get costly too, and easily more costly than you can afford.