Your Money Story: Linking Money, Philosophy and Psychology
From an early age, I have always been interested in what other people do, just observing their behaviour and trying to understand why people do what they do. The curiosity about human behaviour has not waned over the years, in fact, the older I get the more I want to be able to learn more about why people behave.
My curiosity and innate drive to continually learn from others has led me to wanting to create a series, to talk about money and to peel back the reason why people either spend or save, why people think of the future or think in the now.
Money is linked to every aspect of our lives, from our health, to our ego, to our education, careers and even families/relationship!
However, money is not nearly talked about enough, we seem to have a shame around it, a guilt, as if you bring it up and you will either be shut down because you just shouldn’t talk about money, or people get awkward, as if they don’t want you to see who they really are deep down…
But I have come to learn from previous experience and from watching others, that without it, you cannot do anything. You will start losing everything you ever had, relationships, your house, the ability to buy the bare essentials to keep you healthy and sometimes your own sanity.
Therefore, I want to talk about money, I want to do a Your Money Series every month as a part of the blog, where I interview people from all walks of life, to talk about money, their current happiness and just their own philosophy on what they think about money.
Are you a spender or saver? A risk taker or conservatist? Do you buy for the sake of buying? Do you get nervous when you see how much debt you are in when you take out a mortgage?
The money series is not going to delve into numbers, not really, but it is going to delve into how you feel around money, how you feel when you buy things you need vs. what you want. The series is going to portray a deeper part about why we do what we do and hopefully shine some light on why some people feel guilty about money and why some don’t.
Money is nothing to feel ashamed about, if there is one thing I have learnt, Money is just an object, a tool, a piece of paper, or better yet a number in your bank account. The history of money can tell us that it is just a mechanism to trade goods and services for, nothing more, nothing less. Of course, I can understand why a stigma around money and talking about money has taken hold of society, probably since the onset of the great depression, passed down generation to generation.
Which is why, I am going to be doing my own interview first, writing to you about my own Money Story, so that I can hopefully break down the barriers surrounding the stigma that is Money and get to the heart of what truly makes us feel attached to this tool we use in our everyday to day lives.
The series is going to evolve as I evolve and as the barrier people have around talking money gets let down, but the aim is going to remain the same, no matter what.
The aim of the series is to give people a platform to talk money, learn a bit more about themselves and to just discuss what that may entail for their lives, their relationships, their education, their career, and hopefully will be able to shine a light on how our lives, our philosophy and our behaviours affects how we use money.
If we can do this, if we can start opening up about money, learn from each other and truly start to understand that money is nothing more than a means to get what we need and what we want, maybe we can all lead a life that offers more fulfilment, more purpose and less stress.
According to the Houston Hospital, the three top causes of stress are money, work and our health, and money is inter-linked with work and health, therefore we can safely assume that the increase in mental/stress related disorders originate from money. [1]
Hence why I truly want to start this Your Money series- TBC, because deep down I truly want to help build a better society and get to the crux of problems that we see in everyday to day life. Of course, I am not a professional psychologist, so don’t expect a session where you are lying down on the couch telling me all of your problems. No, it is going to be a conversation where hopefully we can learn from each other, I can offer some small money hacks where I can that have helped my life significantly, and maybe I can learn some from you.
If this is something you may be interested in, if you feel brave enough to talk about money and want to spend about 45 minutes talking to me about money, life and your view on the world, please email me or send me a message.
You can email me at: jp2901.jp@gmail.com
or
Connect with me via LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram and just send me a message.
The series will be released on the first weekend of every month, and if we can start to tear down the guilt, stigma and shame we may have around money, my hope is that people will then start talking to each other more openly about one of the biggest stressors on our lives.
Until next time,
Take Back Control
_________________________________________________
[1] - https://www.houstonbehavioralhealth.com/blog/top-3-causes-of-stress
