🟣 Emotions 🟣

🛀 Your 5-minute dose of financial self-care

Hello there 💜

If you receive this message, you're part of a special group…

The very first people to receive Money Feelings.

Welcome on our journey towards financial well-being!

When this budding platform evolves into an empire, be sure your early support will be remembered. 😎

But first, how are you today? What's on your mind?

I ask because our theme for the upcoming month is 🟣 Emotions 🟣, so it's worth checking in with yourself.

Looking forward to exploring this critical topic together!

Here's the complete program:

[Today] Discover ⏱️ 5 minutes — Your first introduction to the intersection of psychology and finance (yay, a fresh perspective on money!). Learn four concepts to outshine the finance bros grow your financial literacy.

[Week 2] Master ⏱️ 18 minutes — I interviewed a financial psychology specialist and an estate planner. Be ready to shift your perspective on emotions and money. You can also listen to them, like a podcast inside a newsletter.

[Week 3] Change ⏱️ 6 minutes — This session is all about you. Discover your money emotions by doing two simple exercises. Choose your next Money Feelings session. Find out this month’s unique gift to your financial self.

🟣 But first, if someone forwarded you this email, Money Feelings is your weekly dose of financial self-care designed to:

• Kiss your negative money mindsets and behaviors goodbye.

• Grow your financial wisdom in style: less jargon, more emotion.

• Increase your financial well-being, one feeling at a time.

If you don’t want to miss one:

You can also make yourself visible by sponsoring the free monthly newsletter or offering discounts on your services/products to Money Feelings readers:

If you want more information about Money Feelings, follow this link.

You can also follow me on Substack or LinkedIn.

Most of the time, we know what we should be doing with our money.

We know we shouldn’t overspend, undersave, blow a bonus, or invest it all in one obscure crypto.

We know we shouldn’t make impulsive purchases, gamble with savings, procrastinate on financial decisions, or hide money moves from our partners.

We know we should plan for the future, organize a will, be financially independent, negotiate our salaries, and end that chronic money conflict.

For most money decisions, we don’t need a Ph.D. in finance to know what we should do.

It’s not that hard.

Two other essential truths in money management:

• We don’t even need to "be good at math" to make good money decisions.

• Thinking we're not good at math is probably just an old belief anyway.

So why do we keep making that wrong decision? Or why haven’t we made that decision yet?

Often, the hard part comes from somewhere else:

Our emotions, beliefs, past experiences, decision-making style, relations to others, instincts, biases…

Everything that forms our psychology around money or, as you’ll see it referred to sometimes, our “Money EQ” [Money Emotional Quotient].

Yes, for some money moves, we must understand some financial concepts.

Yes, growing our financial literacy is not just important; it’s necessary and a superpower.

But, many financial difficulties are not due to a lack of financial knowledge. They're due to a lack of understanding of our emotions and overall psychology around money.

I propose that emotional literacy about money becomes part of every finance crash course.

But before my dream comes true… You have Money Feelings 🙂 💜

Humans don't stop being human in their relationship with money. And it is reflected in the movements of the markets.

I'm sure you've already read similar headlines:

“Market volatility peaks as anxiety over inflation sparks sell-off."

"Bullish momentum continues: Optimism prevails despite economic challenges."

"Market jitters: global uncertainty sparks volatility amid economic concerns."

Like us, the financial markets experience many emotions, from calm and optimism to greed, conviction, hope, anxiety, euphoria, denial, panic, and even depression.

They are emotional and impulsive simply because they mirror our collective emotions.

I love picturing them as hypersensitive beings!

It shows they are not cold, perfectly rational, and disciplined monsters, and it helps me make finance and economics more relatable.

In the finance jargon, this general sentiment of the market is called "market psychology."

It's one of the tools investors use to make sense of market movements and trends.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for proving that our emotions take up much more space than our logical reasoning in financial decision-making.

His research challenged the idea that we can act perfectly rationally.

That's why finance has a branch called behavioral finance which studies how emotions, cognitive biases, and social factors influence people's financial decisions.

That’s why, in 2022, the Psychology of Financial Planning became one of the knowledge topics recognized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) and tested on the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) exam in the US.

Now, there are as many ways emotions impact our finances as there are advantages to developing our emotional intelligence about money!

It can help us curb impulse spending, gain economic independence, negotiate for a raise, bounce back from financial setbacks, enhance our rational thinking, approach stock market risk with composure, manage fear or greed, boost our confidence in economic matters, and much more.

In the end, understanding our feelings about money is one tool for reaching the ultimate goal of financial well-being.

💜 According to the American Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, financial well-being is a state in which a person can fully meet current and ongoing financial obligations, feel secure in their financial future, and make choices that allow them to enjoy life.

A person’s financial well-being is determined by the extent to which they feel that they:

- Have control over day-to-day, month-to-month finances
- Have the capacity to absorb a financial shock
- Are on track to meet his or her financial goals
- Have the financial freedom to make the choices that allow one to enjoy life

Sounds good, right?

Your next sessions of Money Feelings will be dedicated to improving your financial well-being by unveiling one specific instinct, emotion, bias, belief, or mindset related to money.

This month, as a starting point, we’re staying focused on becoming aware of what emotions money triggers for you. Because 👇

But for now, well done on finishing this first week. 👏 👏 👏

In the past five minutes, you learned about four concepts:

✔️ Money EQ

✔️ Market psychology

✔️ Behavioral finance

✔️ Financial wellbeing

You’ll receive two more emails on the topic of 🟣 Emotions 🟣 this month:

[Today] Discover ⏱️ 5 minutes ✅

[Week 2] Master ⏱️ 18 minutes — I interviewed a financial psychology specialist and an estate planner. Be ready to shift your perspective on emotions and money. You can choose to listen to them, like a podcast inside a newsletter.

[Week 3] Change ⏱️ 6 minutes — This session is all about you. Discover your money emotions by doing two simple exercises. Choose your next Money Feelings session. Find out this month’s unique gift to your financial self.

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It means a lot!

Important reminder: I research and write Money Feelings for you 🫡, so never hesitate to share your ideas or ask questions.

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