Perceived financial scarcity is a prominent stress source in society today and one of the behaviours it can lead to is financial avoidance. Generally, avoidant behaviour is often the result of a stress reaction and accompanying negative emotions such as fear and anxiety. On the other hand, a stress reaction can motivate behaviours besides avoidance, such as confronting the stressor. The choice of coping strategy in a stress reaction is dependent on some generalised beliefs such as optimism or sense of control. The goal of this research is to examine the connection between perceived financial scarcity, perceived financial stress, positive and negative affect, optimism, pessimism, mastery and financial avoidance, as well as the role of perceived financial stress and negative affect in the connection between perceived financial scarcity and financial avoidance and the moderating effects of optimism and mastery on the connection between perceived financial stress and financial avoidance. The data was collected with an online questionnaire on a sample of 323 participants with a minimum age of 25. Results show positive relations of financial avoidance with perceived financial scarcity, perceived financial stress, pessimism and negative affect, along negative with optimism, mastery and positive affect. The partial mediating role of perceived financial stress in the connection between perceived financial scarcity and financial avoidance has been confirmed, but the mediating role of negative affect was not. Moderating effects of optimism and mastery in the connection between perceived financial stress and financial avoidance were not confirmed. The results point to the importance of stress as an underlying mechanism in the relation between financial scarcity and financial avoidance and with that, the importance of psychological mechanisms in maintaining poverty.