45 mins: You’re not bad with money

What you'll learn:

Angela Meyer was terrible at maths, studied theatre, and had a boom-and-bust relationship with money for years. Her dad went bankrupt three times and died owing a million dollars, and it took her until about a decade ago to sort out her own. She’s now a behavioural strategy adviser, TEDx speaker and co-founder of Hi Money.

💡 The road was never built with us walking on it: Adam Smith priced the value of work in the 1700s and left out almost everything women were doing. So things like a cow feeding its calf counts towards a country’s GDP, but a woman breastfeeding her baby doesn’t. Add the pink tax – from hair cuts to razors – and being a woman can cost an extra $250,000 over a lifetime (about the size of the gender retirement gap).

💡 Ask ‘how are you feeling about money?’: It gives people room to answer with an emotion, and most of them want to. Angela’s research found that people were most likely to talk to their mums about money, so our friends are the obvious next place to try.

💡 Try ‘why behind the buy’: Notice your spending and how you felt before and after. Angela worked out she was buying a coffee most afternoons even though she doesn’t like coffee, because what she really wanted was some fresh air. Be kind to yourself with curiosity rather than judgement!

There’s more, including a money beliefs exercise, how to talk money with your partner, and the link between trauma and our financial wellbeing.

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