Why I Talk Openly About My Money Mistakes

Talking about money is an enduring taboo. It shouldn't be.

By Nicole Spector February 9, 2021

Americans are very good at spending money, but not so good at talking about it. Sure, people will mention being broke or having just gotten paid. But discussing hard truths about money — like the mistakes we’ve made with spending, or the distinct path we’re on to save more in the years ahead — isn’t normal social conversation.

The subject of money isn’t as forbidden as it was in say, the 1950s, thanks to an escalation of awareness around issues such as pay transparency and the gender wage gap. But it’s still not embraced as a regular part of the conversation.  As a March 2020 article in the Atlantic noted, the topic of finances is taboo partly because money (or lack of it) can make us feel bad — and who wants to talk about bad stuff?

To answer that question, financial blog author Peti Morgan wants to talk about money. More specifically, she wants to talk about her money mistakes and the valuable lessons she learned as a result of those mistakes. And Morgan had quite a few money problems not too long ago.

Opening Up About Money Can Be Terrifying at First

As the founder of the Leveraged Mama financial blog, podcaster and online business coach, Morgan discovered that the best way to tackle your financial problems is to treat them like any other problem — starting with admitting you have a problem in the first place. 

A year ago, prior to embarking on her financial blogging journey, Morgan was ashamed of just how deep into debt she’d found herself. She was possibly even more ashamed to talk openly about it.

“I was worried that setting off on this journey so publicly would mean the loss of respect, pride and friends,” she said.  “I knew that by sharing (about my failures), people I knew personally would find out about all the stupid things I had done with my money. I could lose respect. I could lose friends.”

But owning her problems and failures was, for Morgan, the only true way to overcome them.

“I had to stand up and declare to anyone who cared to read about me that I had failed,” she said. “I knew that I needed to be honest about how much debt I was in, and how I got into that much debt.”

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