Fretting about financial issues uses up valuable brainpower and limits your decision-making ability, raising the risk of mistakes which lead to more debt.

In contrast those with fewer concerns about money have more "mental bandwith" available to focus on getting matters like education, training and time management right.

The "cognitive deficit" suffered by someone with financial problems can be the equivalent of a 13-point loss in IQ or the loss of an entire night's sleep, researchers claimed.

Studies had previously found that people with more finanial problems tended to be worse at some cognitive tasks, wuch as making decisions about money, but the cause and effect of the link were unclear.

Researchers from Harvard University conducted two studies in the USA and India to examine what effect poverty had on people's thinking ability. They published their results in the Science journal.

rest of the article: Financial worries lower thinking ability - Telegraph