The link between money and value has been well established by the field of economics. But correlation of money and personal value as a function of self-esteem and self-worth has largely remained unexplored. In North America, one of the leading capitalist society in the world, economic and financial values are tied to the worth of an individual, despite the multitude of qualities that person may possess. Since the late 1900’s, the American economic expansion has resulted in the current system, where accumulation of wealth is synonymous with process and growth.1 If history has shown us anything, it is that rendering humans to a series of numbers is anything but good. By understanding how money can be used judiciously, we can begin to reassociate the pricelessness of individuality to human value. This can help us understand that financial independence can be achieved without having countless streams of incomes, or having the status of a billionaire. We can contextualize what financial independence means by looking at the aspects of money that relate to each of our unique experiences. In other words, how much is enough for each of us, individually.

Financial independence can mean one has enough wealth to live comfortably without working for the rest of their life.2 That is the meaning of independence from a purely wealth-based point of view; how much money one has accumulated. However, it can also represent one’s ability to manage their money well, allowing them to live a relatively comfortable life. This psychological perspective takes into account one’s spending habits, cultural narrative, socio-economic factors, and many more layers, demonstrating that independence can be achieved without tons of money. We will be focusing on the latter standpoint of financial independence.

Spending and earning are the baselines of managing one’s finances. As people start working, they understand the value of money by earning independently as well as spending a set amount on their needs and wants. Establishing a healthy financial habit does not only encompass the significance of earning, but it also emphasizes how keeping spending under control is a preventative measure for looming financial trauma. Financial well-being does not have to revolve around a minimalist lifestyle. It is a balance to be established around your necessities, as well as one’s physical and emotional health. Therefore, one’s financial independence is unique to each person’s situation. For instance, when comparing a student to an entrepreneur, financial independence will look different for each, seeing that their priorities and financial status are unalike to say the least. While the mentality of success might be present in both cases, spending money on traditional education, in this case, is a cost that an entrepreneur would not think of. Conversely, the student is not burdened by the need to reinvest into their business even at the expense of one’s own financial independence. The earning capacity of a student varies from what an entrepreneur can earn. Cultural backgrounds and upbringing also affect one’s outlook on their definition of financial success and independence. Knowing that a financially fulfilling and sufficient lifestyle is unique to each individual is crucial in managing their spending.

For many, financial independence as described above is feasible. However, changing certain habits throughout this personal journey can be the most challenging aspect of attaining financial independence. Change in behaviour is quite complex due to the unfamiliarity when implementing a new set of habits.3 Scientifically, once a neuronal pattern of firing has been formed with a set of habits, it is then ingrained in our brain. Difficulty of breaking financial habits comes with psychological pressure we put on ourselves in order to make changes in our behaviour.4 The result is negative emotional experience accompanied by self-judgement, guilt, perfectionism and fear. Moreover, acknowledging and learning how to tackle the obstacles that come our way during this change is also important when trying to improve one’s financial habits.4 When we face a hurdle in this process, our internal critique come out to label these unwanted behaviours as lazy or stubborn.4 However, it is in these exact moments that self-care, self-reflection, and problem-solving skills are required, to get through the impasse. It is not necessarily perfection that can establish a healthy relationship with money, rather starting with small changes in order to create a habit that is conducive to one’s lifestyle.

Overspending and underspending are financial behaviours that many partake in despite its potential damage to one’s financial, mental, and physical health. In many cases, these behaviours mask the true source of these actions, such as stress, psychological pain, or trauma. Adopting a new habit not only tackles the superficial problem of spending too much or too little, but it also addresses the psychological source of the behaviour. Understanding the “why” behind this new habit will make it a lot easier to continue managing and implementing these new actions and not do them mindlessly.

When do you know you are financially independent?

If you are solely looking at the number, it is quite simple to see if you can maintain a comfortable lifestyle with the current saving. However, from a psychological perspective, financial independence is not a moment or a day. It is a continuous action, a lifestyle, to build a healthy relationship with money in ways that you are in control.

– Acknowledging bad financial habits and replacing them with good ones
– Separate money from your worth
– Know what is financially enough for you
– Stop comparing yourself to others

These are a few pointers to start us all on our way to financial independence. Our inclination of using money as a measure of growth and self-worth is embedded in our society. Neglecting the importance and power of money will not do us any good. It’s weight, however, should never exceed one’s worth nor ability to think for oneself.
1. Cook, E. (2017, October 20). How Money Became the Measure of Everything. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/money-measure-everything-pricing-progress/543345/.
2. Probasco, J. (2021, July 1). Declare Your Own Financial Independence Day. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/declare-your-own-financial-independence-day.aspx.
3. Call, M. (n.d.). Why is Behavior Change So Hard? https://accelerate.uofuhealth.utah.edu/resilience/why-is-behavior-change-so-hard.
4. Jaffe, A. (n.d.). Why Is It So Hard to Change Bad Habits?Adi Jaffe Ph.D. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/all-about-addiction/201903/why-is-it-so-hard-change-bad-habits.

Money is quantifiable, humans are not

It has been three months since you have been laid off your job. In the first two or three weeks, you were able to manage to pay all your monthly bills: rent, electricity, food, and so on. However, you are entering month three. It is getting harder and harder to make ends meet and the inadequate income has finally caught up. Now, it is not a question of if you can buy new clothes and afford to go to a nice restaurant once a month, but rather “how am I going to feed myself this month”. The urge to call your friends and family is shadowed by a strong sense of shame and guilt.

While the scenario written above devastating, it is not a rare nor an irregular story. It is something that happens to countless adults for an extended period of time, leading to financial trauma. When an American survey reports that about three quarters of adults experience stress regarding finances, it comes as no surprise that the compounding of stress snowballs into symptoms of PTSD. However, the disconnect between money and our emotions creates a lack of acknowledgement in how these intrapersonal and interpersonal financial issues are dealt with. While the problem might stem simply from money, financial health is not just about quantitative data. It is about having a stable and healthy relationship.

Financial trauma, as Brianna Wiest writes, is caused by the effects of one’s income being insufficient for the expenses for a long period of time.¹ Not only does it affect our emotional state, but it also negatively influences our physicality and our cognitive functions. When we are faced with financial stress, the autonomic nervous system in our body signals the body to react in one of three ways: fight, flight, or freeze. As these responses are not suggestive of a healthy and balanced reaction to prolonged distress, it makes it quite clear that our response to financial stress can lead to grave and alarming emotional responses. Economic hardship as a child or inability to secure a stable income as an adult are one of many situations in which it can lead to financial trauma.²

Similar to PTSD, depression is also commonly seen in those who endured financially traumatic experiences.³ The cyclic nature of depression can stem from the recurring and overbearing thoughts of shame and guilt that is often caused by one’s financial instability. The stigma surrounding money prevents people from acknowledging and addressing their financial worries and issues with professionals and these issues are often kept bottled up. This further pushes people into lethargy and continues the cycle of depression.⁴  Galen Buckwalter, who is an expert in financial trauma, emphasizes that as our stress system was developed way before money become an integral part of our everyday lives, our body’s response to financial stress is not transient like it would have been when we’re chased by a bear, but rather continous.¹ Unlike a sudden stress trigger that is momentary, this consumes our body every second of the day.¹

Additionally, when society establishes a financial hierarchy where the higher you are, the better off you are, many start to associate these different levels with one’s worth. The more money you have, the better you are as a person. In retrospect, we know this is far from the truth and an extremely myopic way of looking at self-esteem. However, the coupling of money and self-worth is a result of social conditioning that is prevalent yet harmful.⁵ The danger of this association is that we start to evaluate ourselves by using a single number (ex. income) and as transient being that is easily replaceable, such as being cut from a job. In times of low financial stability, questioning our self-worth often becomes an additional stress factor that can contributes to the accumulation of distress and damage. When our goal to overcome this chronic stress of finance seems unachievable despite the hard work, this traumatic experience leads to symptoms similar to those of PTSD.

Is there an end to this?

Money is an integral part of our lives but more importantly, it is crucial to understand that they do not define our worth.

A healthy relationship with money is not synonymous with perfection. A recovery from financial trauma is completely possible with addressing the core issues that lead to chronic stress. While budgeting and planning are important aspects of recovery, respecting and acknowledging our emotions is a vital aspect of truly accepting ourselves. When we are more familiar with our feelings, it becomes easier to identify emotions in various financial situations. Some may think pushing our emotions aside and relying on our logic is the only way to go; however, this can lead to both psychological and physical distress, which is something we want to avoid. Some ways of facing chronic financial stress and trauma include:

1. Respecting our emotions and acknowledging them
2. Keeping a budget and trying to aim for transparency for yourself
3. Talking to family, friends, or professionals

Our emotions are a crucial aspect of who we are. It is important to include them in the conversation, even when we’re talking numbers.

1. Wiest, B. (2021, January 7). Financial Trauma Is A Reality For One Third Of Millennials, This Expert Explains How To Recover. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/briannawiest/2019/04/04/financial-trauma-is-a-reality-for-one-third-of-millennials-this-expert-explains-how-to-recover/?sh=7cb2dc38130c.
2. Polizzi , M. (2021, April 29). Growing Up Poor Can Cause Long-Lasting Trauma-Here’s How You Can Overcome It. Health.com. https://www.health.com/money/child-poverty-financial-trauma.
3. Tull, M. (2020, March 27). How to Get Treated for Your PTSD and Depression. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/ptsd-and-depression-2797533.
4. Wehrenberg, M. (n.d.). Shame and Depression. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/depression-management-techniques/201507/shame-and-depression.
5. Gariepy, L. (2020, June 23). Your relationship with self-worth and money: It’s complicatedLaura Gariepy. Financial Best Life. https://financialbestlife.com/your-relationship-with-self-worth-and-money-its-complicated/#:~:text=Research%20shows%20there’s%20a%20powerful,someone%20has%20healthy%20self%2Desteem.

The Pandemic Anniversary: It’s been a year… where do we go from here?

It is mind boggling to believe that it has already been a year since the outbreak of Covid-19. On March 11th 2020, WHO announced that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. In the past year, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 has climbed up to over 2.5 million, and the number of cases is about to reach 125 million. While the possibility of vaccination can make us hope for the return to some semblance of normality, the emotional and financial damage from the past year is not something that can heal immediately or in a passive manner. In a catastrophic and dire event like this where the whole world is affected in one way or another, it is evident that there is not a one-shoe-fits-all solution. From toilet paper and water-bottles emptied from the shelves of supermarkets and streets that used to be filled with people before this pandemic being emptied, to majority of the population getting used to the quarantined lifestyle we have certainty witnessed a great deal of change internally and socially. Over the year, we have learned to adapt to this new way of living through facing and overcoming new challenges when there is a string of hope.

The emotional and financial changes we have witnessed varies across each demographic in the population. Essential workers throughout the world have dedicated their time and energy, risking their own lives to save the rest of the population. However, the workspace that has become beyond nerve-racking also resurfaced, in addition to amplifying, the underlying problems of the workforce that was never entirely addressed: uncertainty, work and family imbalance, and finances.¹ A poll conducted by Eagle Hill in August 2020 reported that 58% of US workers were burnt out in comparison to the 45% that was recorded in April.² This spike can be attributed to many factors, but especially to the stress and anxiety that comes from the uncertainty of the world that surrounds those workers.

On the other hand, many workers were demanded to leave their original workplace and adapt to a new style of labour. This brings in another level of complexity to how we regulate our emotions. A sudden shift in our environment induces extreme isolation and loneliness, especially in the face of precariousness within our media, government, and everyday lives. It leads to extreme financial behaviours reflecting the turbulent external milieu. Additionally, the financial pressure due to the possibility of unemployment acting as the opposing force of emotional exhaustion makes the decision of continuing to work strenuous, leading to financial trauma.

Similarly, the student body as a whole was asked to adopt a new way of learning, which is very different from the traditional way. The conventional educational dogma does not necessarily match all student’s optimal learning methods; however, the so-called “zoom-fatigue” exhausts both the students and the teachers and is not conducive for long-term learning. Moreover, the psychological and physical tiredness are not the only problems. According to the WalletHub’s 2020 College Student Financial survey, ⅔ of the college students express change in how they feel about their financial future.³ Coinciding with the increasing cost of living, the pandemic has aggravated students financial worries.

Within each population, each individual has had a different experience throughout the pandemic. Some may have lost loved ones, while others may have experienced a drastic decline in mental health. Many of us did not have the choice but to persevere and make these tough financial decisions despite the psychological exhaustion this pandemic has caused. A year after the initial shock, many still are unsure about what the future holds. Jefferson Center trauma clinicians, Jamie Schlichenmayer and Joel Smith, discuss the two different types of trauma, direct trauma and vicarious trauma, that are associated with the current pandemic. While direct trauma is our response to the direct exposure to the distilling event, which in this case is our experiences with the pandemic, it can lead to vicarious trauma due to the interconnectivity of all our lives, especially through the use of social media.⁴ Despite all we have in the scientific literature, we cannot know the full emotional and financial impact of COVID-19 on our lives yet. The financial toll and its peak impact may show a couple months, or even years after.

Though it has been a year already, it is still equally important as it was in March 2020 to acknowledge the trauma that we have gone through. It is mentally draining and damaging to have the mentality of “it’s already been a year, I should be fine”, or “why am I still thinking about this”. Emotional regulation does not only apply at the peak of stress, but rather a habit that can help us manage our polarizing emotions in situations like these. In a way, the financial concerns of many individuals are not as urgent nor critical as before.⁵ However, almost half of Americans are spending less compared to a year ago and also 49% of the people who lost wages is still earning less than before.⁵ What does this say about us and our emotions?

1. It is not necessarily that the situation got exponentially better in the past year, but we have adapted.
2. It is important to keep working on emotional regulation because it is about creating a habit, and not a band aid solution.

Unlike a sudden problem that had emerged out of nowhere, finance has always been affected by our emotions as it is such an integral part of our life. Although none of us are certain about the future, it is critical to remember that while we may not be able to control our external variables, we are able to manage how our emotions impact our financial health. Despite all that happened in the past year, we have all survived 100% of the days. Let’s not let our environment dictate our decisions.

References

1. Bruce, J. (2020, April 03). In a Covid-19 WORLD, mental health is workforce health. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/janbruce/2020/04/03/in-a-covid-19-world-mental-health-is-workforce-health/?sh=28b40b072385
2. Employee burnout FROM covid-19 on the rise, with 58% of US workers reporting burnout. (2020, November 19). Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.eaglehillconsulting.com/news/employee-burnout-from-covid-19-on-the-rise-with-58-of-u-s-workers-reporting-burnout/
3. Dickler, J. (2020, August 31). Due to PANDEMIC, more than 13 million college students are worried about their financial future: Study. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/31/majority-of-college-students-are-worried-about-money-due-to-covid-19.html
4. Bruce, J. (2020, April 03). In a Covid-19 WORLD, mental health is workforce health. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/janbruce/2020/04/03/in-a-covid-19-world-mental-health-is-workforce-health/?sh=28b40b072385
5. Horowitz, J., Brown, A., & Minkin, R. (2021, March 05). The COVID-19 Pandemic’s long-term financial impact. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/03/05/a-year-into-the-pandemic-long-term-financial-impact-weighs-heavily-on-many-americans/