Could Knowing Your ‘Money Script’ Help Your Finances?

By Charlotte Cowles@charlottecowles  My Two Cents Nov. 5, 2020

One thing I hate about most money advice is that it tells you what you should be doing, as if you didn’t already know. Most of us are aware that we need to spend less, save more, and plan better (thanks for the reminder). To me, the real question is how you actually get yourself to do those things, and what’s making it so hard.

Enter “money scripts,” also known as “money stories,” a concept that has been tossed around by financial therapists for years and more recently edged into mainstream financial planning. Loosely defined, money scripts are “what you learned about money from your upbringing, how you responded or rebelled, and what your current money dynamics and patterns are,” says Bari Tessler, a financial therapist and author of The Art of Money.

To be clear, teasing out your money script won’t solve your financial problems, especially ones that are out of your control (which, at this particular moment, may be a lot of them!). But the process of self-examination will help you notice your behaviors, look at what’s behind them, and — theoretically — recognize and change the ones that aren’t working. As Tessler puts it: “Awareness leads to understanding, and that allows us to dismantle and replace the habits we don’t like.”

If that all sounds a little woo-woo and simplistic, I get it. You can’t sit around blaming your financial woes on your parents or vision-boarding your way to a higher paycheck. But you also shouldn’t ignore the abundance of research showing that certain early life experiences do correlate with destructive financial choices as an adult, and how they can be overcome with specific therapeutic techniques.

In one British study, subjects who’d been raised in households that were secretive about spending were more likely to have compulsive money habits, like hoarding, when they grew up. Another study found that childhood trauma (financial or otherwise) often had a deleterious effect on subjects’ financial decision-making later in life.

On the upside, psychologists have also found that cognitive-behavioral therapy (or CBT) can help people overcome negative financial habits ranging from the very serious (like compulsive overspending) to the more garden-variety (avoiding bills).

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.thecut.com/2020/11/could-understanding-your-money-script-help-your-finances.html