Challenge of the Day: Improve Your Finances with a Memory Exercise
Ready to have a more mature relationship with your money? Kate Levinson, Ph.D., therapist and author of "Emotional Currency," suggests starting the process by writing down some of your early money memories.
"A money memoir … is a simple yet powerful tool for remembering, understanding, healing, and changing your relationship with money," she writes. To get started, ask yourself, "What is my first memory of money from my childhood?" Or, choose one of your parents and write down a few of the exchanges you had concerning money with him or her when you were young. If the exercise strikes a chord with you, keep going. "As you gather snippets and stories, new understanding and patterns will emerge … [that] will help you make new connections with your past, as well as new connections between your past and your current behavior."
For more help with today's challenge, learn more about managing financial stress.
Do you pledge to write down one of your earliest money memories?
Tell us if you're up for this Challenge of the Day after the jump.
Tomorrow's challenge: Up Your Aesthetic Intake
Yesterday's challenge: Give Your Brain a Rest with a Quick Breather
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From: Effie | 10/15/11 at 4:24 pm
My first money memory is from when I was about 7 or 8 years old. My single-mom worked nights and would sleep in the afternoon and I was not allowed to wake her up. I remember one afternoon being hungry and there wasn't anything I could eat at home (I didn't know how to cook then) so I took whatever money I found in my room and went to the grocery store but it wasn't enough for anything and all I managed to buy was a small can of tomato paste... not sure what it tells me about my finances now.