Not even Hollywood’s A-list is immune from financial anxiety.
Dax Shepard is a successful actor with countless credits under his belt, and he’s married to TV and film staple Kristen Bell, of “Frozen” fame.
But despite living in what many would consider the abundant two-income household that such success affords, Shepard admits he, too, experiences extreme financial stress.
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“I am currently in a, like, two-month spiral of just completely out-of-hand financial insecurity,” Shepard recently said on his “Armchair Expert” podcast.
Amid failed negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and members of both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May, Shepard said he has “this new fear of, ‘I’m going to somehow be broke or I’m going to lose everything, podcasting is going to be over, there’s an actors strike and I’m not going to act.'”
Although he acknowledged his intense fears are “preposterous,” they are also hard to shake. “It’s not related to reality; it’s from growing up poor,” Shepard said.
‘We are all worried about money’
“If Dax Shepard can feel financially insecure,” that says a lot about our current climate, said Jason Van de Loo, chief client officer at Edelman Financial Engines. “We are all worried about money.”
“It’s a common experience for people at every socio-economic level,” added Brad Klontz, a Boulder, Colorado-based psychologist and certified financial planner.
These days, fewer Americans, even millionaires, feel confident about their financial standing.
Persistent inflation has made it harder to cover even day-to-day expenses. Households are facing surging childcare costs, ballooning auto loans, high mortgage rates and record rents.
Some 70% of Americans admit to being stressed about finances, according to a CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in March.
And, only 45% of adults said they have an emergency fund. For those who do have emergency savings, about 26% polled said they have less than $5,000 saved, which would not be enough to withstand a prolonged period without pay, such as an extended Hollywood strike.
However, most people will experience some sort of income disruption at some point, said Klontz, who is also managing principal of YMW Advisors and a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
The key, he said, is to “keep things in perspective.” Klontz recommends visualizing the worst-case scenario and how you can overcome it.
“This type of thing happens to a lot of people, there’s a financial tragedy and then they start to rebuild,” he said.