How Overworking Yourself Could Be Sabotaging Your Financial Future

More in this category: Discovering Your Financial Character: The Key to Understanding Your Money Habits

Introduction

I’m sure the thought that working too much can have you losing money sounds absurd right?  Of course there are many great things to be said about those that work hard every day.  Hard work, discipline, and working towards a goal are all positives but what are the negatives?  And…do they outweigh the positives?

Once the layers are peeled back at what that work week has for the plus and minus column, then you can analyze if you’re at a sweet spot or if the cons of working too much outweigh the good in the long run.

It’s all a balancing act right? 

Let’s explore further and see if we can help any one person analyze this for themselves.

Defining “Overwork”

What Does It Mean To Work Too Much?

I’ll start off with quoting the actual definition of this via Merriam-Webster.  To overwork means “to cause to work too hard, too long, or to exhaustion [1.]“

An easier way to think about this may be something like the concept of not taking enough time for yourself and taking care of yourself.

Signs of Overworking Yourself

So what are the signs of overworking?  Based on the word of exhaustion in this definition, we can directly correlate this back to fatigue, health, and sleep factors.

Based on previous life experience and being burned out, some other signs can include

• Migraines
• Mood swings
• Being easily irritated
• Waking up and REALLY not wanting to go to work
• Feeling like you’ll never get all your work done
• Constantly feeling overwhelmed
• Not having much of a personal life
• Not eating
• Eating unhealthy foods when eating
• Constantly eating “on the go” type of foods or snacks
• Working through lunch
• Working past typical work hours
• Getting sick more frequently

“When you’re being overworked, the stress hormone cortisol increases in your body, leading to irritability, mood swings, and even detachment from personal relationships [2.]“

Financial Costs of Overworking

For some it is counter-intuitive to believe the longer you work, the less money you make.  But what if overworking is costing you financially?

Other Money Making Activities

If you weren’t overworking, what would you be doing? 

If the answer to this is something like “Investing my time in another money-making activity” and that activity is more financially beneficial than working at your current gig then you’re definitely losing out.

This becomes a double whammy if you are overworking and being paid as a “salaried” employee.  At some point, you are working for free.

Investments

It can be hard to learn how to invest or properly research new or future investments if you are constantly working on something that has nothing to do with the topic.  This one becomes important for future income building to help yourself get out of the current rut you are facing.

A Side Hustle Waiting For Your Attention

So you have a way in your mind to make some extra money but you have no time to dedicate to it.  Sound familiar?

Whatever the idea is at this point there just simply isn’t any room for it.

Passive Income Ventures

Building passive income is a building block many have done to get out of the rat race.  These also take time to setup, execute, and maintain.  The idea is having passive income but there is likely still some work you have to put into it that likely doesn’t work with your burnout work schedule. 

Building a Business

This is a big undertaking.  Depending on what this looks like you could go some time or even years without turning a profit. Surely there is not enough time to dedicate to something like this the way your main gig is going.

Can Be A Negative For Career Advancement

Looking at some of the negative effects stated above, there are some conclusions that can be drawn.

Productivity and Performance

If you are always fatigued, have a lack of concentration, and not feeling very motivated they can impact your overall performance due to a lack of focus, creativity, and sharpness to perform at the level you are expected to produce when targeting the next position.

Lack of Confidence

When you are on your game and you know it, you are more likely to pitch that idea you’ve been thinking about or take a risk you may not normally take.

Not Having Time To Make Moves

When you lack time because you are always working you can easily miss out on opportunities that you may need to advance your career. 

While not everyone likes networking, unfortunately there are times when it does help you jump into the next step to get you where you want to go.  If you don’t have time for that, you may miss out on that step.

Inability To Shadow Another Career Role

If you had some extra time, one of the things you might do is look into spending time with someone in the career field you’re after.  But if every single minute of your life is swallowed up by your current gig and the bare-bones essentials of your personal world, there’s just no space left for it.  In this sense, overworking could be costing you valuable time and positioning for your next career goal.

Health Related Costs

This one seems like it just comes with the territory doesn’t it?

Neglecting Your Health Overall

In general terms you are probably already doing one, some, or many of these:

• You haven’t been to a doctor for a checkup in how long?
• You don’t get enough sleep
• Your posture could be better
• You may not be making the healthiest choices in eating
• You snack more than you have a real meal
• A frequent meal of choice is coffee and lots of it
• You haven’t checked in with your own mental health in a hot minute
• Because you are not moving around as much you may have gained some weight
• Your fitness tracker is wondering what the heck happened to you!
• You don’t take enough breaks from screens

In other words, your priorities are a bit backwards when it comes to your health.

Finding Yourself With All The Symptoms of Stress

We all know being stressed is not a good thing.  And you’ve probably heard stress can lead to other health problems. 

When we are overly stressed our health takes the toll.  There’s really too many to list but there’s a good chance if you look up an illness or health issue stress is often found in a list things that likely made it worse or even caused it.

Neglecting Physical and Mental Health (Long-Term)

Eventually if your health goes unchecked it can lead to various negative health issues. 

Here are some to name a few to give yourself some motivation to keep health a higher priority if able:

• Various Diseases
• Increased risk of suicide
• Poor quality of life
• Decline in expected years of life
• Anxiety
• Obesity/Weight Issues
• Bone Loss
• Liver problems
• Chronic pain and other disorders
• Immune System becomes weakened
• Alcohol and Drug abuse
• Cognitive decline

The Economic Upside and Benefit of Work Life Balance

Focus and Productivity Superpowers

If you’ve recently had a fairly stress free week, great sleep, a well-balanced meal and maybe even throw in some good ole fashion relaxation to even out the week there will be some days where you will have noticed you are sharp, on point, focused, creative, and even productive.  When the height of this happens you’ll likely feel like you have a superpower right?

That’s how we should all feel when we have nicely balanced mental clarity.

Higher Satisfaction and Motivation

Have you ever noticed when you’re at the peak of brain power you may be crafting a magnificent piece of work whether it is solving a work crisis, troubleshooting an error, writing an amazing article, crafting a slam-dunk presentation, of just having a work day of A+. 

Reduced Stress

As you can imagine the obvious upside is a less stress-filled day.  Allowing yourself to take time off, go on vacation, or just go to appointments and direct your focus on your health can be a step into the stress reduction zone.

Employers Implementing Work Life Balance

Companies that keep the employee in the top of mind to prioritize their physical and mental health often have a more much satisfied workforce than the normal company.  Employees will often go out of the their way for their employer when they see how well they are treated.

Here are some examples of this in practice:

• Hybrid or remote work options
• Wellness programs
• Parental leave policies
• Company Culture
• Trust in Employees
• Generous time off policies
• Mental health counseling programs
• Communication priorities to their employees
• On site fitness centers

Real Life Examples That Hit Your Wallet

1. You’re so busy you work through most lunches or better yet have no time to prepare food either for today, tomorrow etc.,  

End result = Ordering food or eating at the next door sandwich shop for lunch.  $10 x 4 – 5 day work week = $50.  Multiplied by 4 = $200. 

2. You’re so tired from working you wind up running out of groceries and don’t go to the grocery store for a week to get the staples you need to make your paper bag lunches.  End result = Refer back to #1.

3. Remember that item you bought that you didn’t really need that you’ve been meaning to return but haven’t had the energy or time to make that happen.  By the time you get around to it the return window has passed and you now realize you’re stuck with it.  How much money did you waste on that?

4. Your brain is fried from working, you get home and all you wanna do is shower, have a quick meal, and go to bed.  Rinse, repeat.  You checked the mail but threw it in the corner for when your brain has time to get to it.  You missed seeing an overdue bill that has now added an extra $35 late fee by the time you review everything.

5. You’re working so much at your desk you’ve developed health issues like neck problems, circulation issues, not exercising enough, etc. and now you’re forced to take time off to see the doctor.  Your Healthcare plan still has a deductible for an office visit and now you have to take prescriptions to circumvent your health issues.  Your office visit cost you $50 and you now have a monthly prescription that is $20 per month.  Could this have been prevented with a prioritization of your own health?

6. You’re working so hard you don’t even have time to watch all those subscription streaming services you have.  Assess what you truly have time to watch and cut the cord on the rest.  Two subscriptions cut can save you anywhere between say $15 – $75.

7. You’re exhausted and cleaning is mostly not happening.  You hire a cleaning service or pay your cousin Ricky to do what they can in the house.  Amount spent = ?

8. Do you sleep in extra time in the morning because you’re tired from working too much? You don’t have time to make coffee or eat so you’re stopping by a local spot on the way to the office and spending say $6 on a quick grub and a coffee.

9. You have to work late often to meet a deadlines so instead of picking your children up at their normal time after school you’ve enrolled them in after school activities to allow you for some extra time in the office prior to their pickup.  What is the cost of these activities?

10. You’re so tired your mind is cluttered and you can’t focus on how to spend less, therefore you spend more.  In other words, it’s easier just to buy the first appealing thing rather than spend time you don’t have researching ways to save or shopping around for cheaper prices.

11. Your boss asked you to stay late again to prepare a presentation for a briefing with top executives.  You want to be the best employee you can so you say yes time and time again.  You realize there’s Healthcare incentives each quarter at work but you can never complete those tasks because you’re too busy with high level tasks that seem to never end.  Rewards =$100 per quarter.  Money Missed =$400 per year (and towards your health.)

12. You need to form a relationship with your coworker on a project so you have coffee or lunch with them to discuss work or personal matters to increase the bond needed when you have your next team assignment.  Unless you made lunch for the both of you or you both brought your lunch, how much money did you spend?

13. Work can be stressful.  There are so many ways we deal with stress.  In this scenario, you just want to let your hair down on Fridays and throw back a few cocktails so you typically celebrate your Friday by going to your local restaurant or bar.  Cocktail x 3 = ?  In this situation, maybe you have more than three drinks and now you have to get a taxi or uber home.  Cost of your ride = $20 plus a tip.  Let’s not forget you may need the same thing tomorrow when you realize you left your car at the restaurant.  Add another $20 plus tip.  Worth it?  This all started because you’re too stressed at work remember?

14. You constantly work and are constantly tired so you need a little extra espresso shot to get through work and the drive home.  This has become a daily habit….Expresso cost x 5 = ?

15. When you’re tired from working and don’t sleep enough guess what?  You’re awake longer right?  When you’re awake longer, that’s longer you need to feed and fuel your body.  A three meal day has now turned into four.  Extra meals or snack = $6 per day and this is being generous.

16. You are a salaried worker so no matter how much you work you’re getting paid the same regardless of hours.  You’re still putting in 60 hours a week and barely have time to focus on a possible second stream of income.  Missed opportunity to help yourself get out of the rat race = priceless.

Real Life Examples That Pad Your Bank Account

1. Liz started an online business during her off time that began giving her recurring income.  She was only able to do this through a job that had set hours and did not require extra time, overtime, or have major deadlines she had to meet.

2. Angelina got off work with a clear head.  She got plenty of sleep the night before and had some extra time at night to research her next financial investments.  She now receives recurring income from these investments on a quarterly basis.

3.  Jesse works remotely.  Since Jesse has now recovered the drive time to work there is an extra two hours in the day to spend more time researching healthier eating, better grocery prices, and has packed lunch for her kids for the entire week already.

4.  Jorge has extra time after work to start mentoring others for a fee since he is a cyber security expert.  He is able to set his own rates and only works when he feels he has the mental clarity to.

5.  Samuel got off work early from completing all his tasks in record time!  He decided to start writing and monetizing his content.  He now has a new passive stream of income and takes the time to expand when he has free time.

6.  Roberta was able to excel at her job because she was able to focus and knock out deadlines quickly.  She decided in her spare time she would become a real estate investor.  She was able to purchase a tiny house and flip it to create a nice piece of extra income.

7.  Johnny is the big shot at a corporate firm.  He was able to negotiate 3 business days off per week to allow time to discover other opportunities to diversify income, but more importantly prevent burnout.  Johnny slowly builds up his wealth and has a peace of mind knowing he will have sufficient time off to decompress physically and mentally from his work week.

8.  Rose is a teacher.  She made digital versions of her lessons and began selling them digitally to add to her income.  She has so many customers digitally, she’s able to scale back the amount of time she has to put into teaching and focus on building continued income.

Ways to Avoid Overworking

Truly you are likely busting your hump for all the right reasons.  You may be a parent with mouths to feed and just see no end in sight.  If there is room in your budget and lifestyle to make some changes to give yourself more time and give your mind/body a break here are some ideas where to start.

Work Hour Boundaries

While a 40 hour work week may not be a big deal to you, what about a 60 hour work week?

Is working 12 hours a day too much?

Is working 80 hours a week too much?

Do you think working 5 days a week is too much?

The International Labour Organization found in 2016 “that working at least 55 hours/week is associated with a higher risk of both ischemic heart disease and stroke, compared to working 35-40 hours a week.” [3]

Set An Alarm and Stick to It

When your workday should end shouldn’t be ever changing.  They say you should keep a consistent sleep schedule so why not a consistent work schedule?

Set an alarm to start your “I’m going to prep to get out of here routine” and stick to it.

Get Your Sleep

In order to be the most productive it may just be a matter of focusing more on getting better sleep.  When you get good sleep you should be sharper, more focused, more productive.  When you’re more productive hopefully it will let you get your work done efficiently and not have to work extra to make up for a lack of not being as productive as you could have been.

Prioritizing Tasks

Is what you’re doing most in your workday going to get you out the door on time?  Perhaps it is time to prioritize your tasks again and look at it from a different angle.  When should you do what activities?  These should all align with the goal of getting your butt out of the door on time!

Avoid Multi-Tasking

Whomever came up with this idea of multi-tasking has some apologizing to do to all of us!  Focusing on one goal or task at a time can be much more efficient than having 9 balls in the air.

Perfectionism

I totally get this.  So hard it is to just let something be for the day without it being 100% absolutely positively perfect!

But this will keep you there many hours past your curfew. 

Ask For Help

Some people are bad at this but it may be necessary to get the task done.  If you find yourself super stuck and have a resource to help you get to the goal quicker that is within reach and doesn’t cause any issue to ask, ask!

Limit distractions

We’re all guilty of being distracted especially with electronics.  If you can truly focus on the task at hand, you are more likely to put a dent in the task instead of focusing on another “thing.”

Prioritize Your Health

If none of the above works, think of what all this overworking is doing to your mind and body.  If you’re able to put work into your body (instead of with actual work) your body will likely reward you with feeling better which should feed into getting your work done in a timely manner in the first place (hopefully.)

Do You Relate?

• Do any of the signs of overworking sound like you?
• Are you working to improve your work/life balance? How so?
• Do you have any tips for other readers? Drop a comment below.

Drop a comment below 👇

References

1 – overwork. (2025). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overwork

2 – Richter, K. (n.d). 10 Warning Signs of Overwork: Recognize and prevent. Wellbeing Strategist. https://wellbeingstrategist.com/10-warning-signs-of-overwork-the-dangerous-effects-of-working-too-much/

3 – Long working hours can increase deaths from heart disease and stroke, say ILO and WHO. (2021, May 17). International Labour Organization. https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/long-working-hours-can-increase-deaths-heart-disease-and-stroke-say-ilo-and

Comments