Kim Palmer

Hi, Sean and Elizabeth.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, money shame is basically feeling badly about the way that you're handling money or decisions that you're making.

It's actually pretty common.

And so I'm glad that we're talking about it because I think it doesn't get enough attention, but it can really guide a lot of the day to day decisions that we're making about money.

And sometimes money shame comes from just how we were taught to think about money growing up.

If you were constantly told that you're wasting money or that you might run out of money, then you could grow up just kind of feeling guilty as an adult about everyday purchases.

So it's not necessarily our parents' fault because they were probably dealing with their own challenges, but that can be a source of why we might feel like that today.

I think it starts with really exploring where it comes from and thinking about your own money story.

So reflecting or even talking with a friend that you trust about where these feelings are coming from can really help.

And then of course, if you want to go deeper, there is a whole field of financial therapists out there that can help you think through this, maybe make adjustments to how you think about money.

And in some cases you're processing really difficult things that happened to you growing up and the way that you were taught about money.

So that can be a really useful resource and not to put you both on the spot, but Sean and Elizabeth, do you have money stories that you had to unlearn?

I do.

For me, it definitely goes back to how my parents talked about money.

They were and are super frugal.

And part of that is because my dad was born right after World War II was ending in England.

He grew up in England and there were rations.

So, you know, limited eggs, milk, cream, all of that.

And so I grew up every time we went to the grocery store or reading dinner, he would tell us these stories.