Money Scripts: How Unconscious Beliefs Shape Your Financial Behavior
When we talk about a healthy relationship with money, it's not just about managing dollars and cents. Our beliefs, assumptions, and feelings play a substantial role in shaping how we approach and handle finances. These emotional and cognitive elements are part of the psychology of money, which greatly influences financial behaviors.
A helpful way to visualize this psychology is by thinking of an iceberg. The visible part of the iceberg represents financial actions and choices—what we see on the surface. But the much larger, submerged portion represents our beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about money, which shape those visible actions. As with an iceberg, most of what influences our relationship with money lies beneath the surface and often goes unnoticed.
This is where money scripts come in. Money scripts are the unconscious beliefs or “rules” that govern our behavior with money, learned over time and often passed down through generations. These scripts are formed based on early childhood lessons, societal influences, and life experiences. Many of these beliefs are shaped by messages we received growing up, as well as powerful financial events that left emotional imprints. These emotional experiences, or “financial flashpoints,” often create lasting beliefs about money that follow us into adulthood, guiding our financial decisions—often without us even realizing it.The four core money scripts include:
Money Avoidance
Money Focus
Money Status
Money Vigilance
While money scripts may have been useful at a certain point in our lives, many of them no longer serve us. These deeply ingrained scripts can lead to self-sabotaging behaviors, which may hinder long-term financial security. Understanding your money scripts is essential to creating a healthier, more productive relationship with money, as these unconscious beliefs can be transformed with awareness and effort.
In their influential book, Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders That Threaten Our Financial Health, Brad Klontz and Ted Klontz explore how deeply rooted financial behaviors, influenced by our childhood experiences and emotional triggers, can affect our financial decision-making. The authors introduce the concept of "financial flashpoints"—powerful moments in our lives that shape our money scripts and often leave lasting emotional imprints.
Recognizing and understanding your own money scripts can be a first step toward financial self-awareness and positive change. By examining and challenging these scripts, you can shift your financial behaviors and improve your overall financial wellbeing. When we take the time to reflect on how our beliefs influence our financial actions, we empower ourselves to make healthier, more informed decisions.
