Emergency funds, financial professionals, and the perceived debt–financial anxiety relationship

Drawing on the transactional model of stress and coping and information asymmetry theory, this study conceptualizes financial anxiety as a psychological response to the appraisal of perceived indebtedness. The analysis focuses on how two coping resources, emergency fund availability and engagement with a financial professional to reduce information asymmetry, moderate this association. To examine these relationships, ordinary least squares regression was conducted using a stepwise modeling strategy. Results indicate that both emergency fund availability and engagement with a financial professional are linked to lower financial anxiety associated with perceived indebtedness, consistent with their roles as coping resources. Each resource independently weakens the relationship between perceived indebtedness and financial anxiety. When both resources are present, their combined influence is less than strictly additive, indicating that the two resources operate in an overlapping rather than complementary manner. Still, the average marginal effect results indicate that financial anxiety associated with perceived indebtedness is lowest among individuals who report both having an emergency fund and engaging with a financial professional.