A New Way to Start the Money Conversation with Judith Stern Peck

How do you talk to your partner about money? How about your kids? Many of us are afraid to discuss our finances, so we avoid the subject altogether. But what if you had a new way to initiate the money conversation with your family?

Judith Stern Peck is the Director of the Money and Family Life Project at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, where she serves as Senior Faculty. She has 40 years of experience as a family therapist and family business consultant, helping people break through the barriers of talking about money. Judith is also the author of Money and Meaning: New Ways to Have Conversations About Money with Your Clients—A Guide for Therapists, Coaches and Other Professionals.

On this episode of Divorce Dialogues, Judith joins Katherine to explain why money is still such a taboo subject for most people and describe why it’s challenging for many divorcing couples to have explicit discussions about their finances. She introduces us to her framework for talking about money, walking us through an exercise for recognizing when your spending contradicts your values. Listen in for Judith’s insight on getting educated around your household finances and learn a new approach to communicating with your family about money.

TOPICS COVERED

How money carries many different subconscious meanings for people

How to communicate money decisions to your children

Why money is still such a taboo subject for most people

The challenge of talking about money when a couple has established the provider-distributor dynamic

Why the shift from an implicit contract to explicit discussions about money feels uncomfortable for divorcing couples

What people can do to start having better conversations around money

Judith’s exercise for aligning your financial decisions with your values

Recognizing when your spending contradicts your values and having a conversation about it

Judith’s advice for people in families where money is used to control or manipulate behavior

Why getting educated about the use of money in your family is the first step toward spending with intention and taking ownership of financial decisions