Your bank balance and your value as a person are two different numbers. Don’t let one set the other.

Money measures what you have, not what you are worth to anyone, and the two get confused because one of them is easy to check. A hard season can flatten the balance without touching anything that matters about you. People who link the two tend to feel worthless when they are simply short.

When the number is low, keep the practical problem and the self-judgment separate, since only one of them can be solved with a plan. Work on the money as a logistics question. And be careful who you measure yourself against, because you are seeing their spending, not their accounts.