Forget about your 'relationship' with money. It's just a tool.

Ever notice that when times are tough, no one wants to talk numbers? So instead of numbers, we start to hear more from the talking heads about things like our "relationship" with money. And that is a problem, financial advisers say. "The challenge is to resist the emotions, not react out of emotion when it comes to your money," Blayney says. "You need to get back to the numbers." So have relationships with your partner, your kids, your family, even your friends. But not with money. It's just a tool, not something to relate to. "If you look at money simply as a matter of dollar and cents, then you can be more realistic," Maurer says—a dose of realism that was often missing before the crash. While it's true that money matters, and losing it really hurts, he says, your relationships with other human beings matter much more. (See Avoid marital money stress.)