The Money Fit Show · Season 2, Episode 17
Money Is Energy
The way people handle money is influenced by more than income and expenses. Michael de Haan joins Todd Christensen to discuss scarcity, financial beliefs, couples who manage money separately, shared goals, intentional planning, and how past experiences can influence present-day financial decisions.
Understanding the beliefs behind financial decisions
Play Season 2, Episode 17 directly through Spotify without leaving Money Fit.
Money habits can carry experiences from much earlier in life
Michael de Haan describes growing up with financial scarcity and developing beliefs about money and success that he says continued to affect him well into adulthood.
His conversation with Todd focuses on identifying those patterns rather than treating every financial problem as a spreadsheet problem. The way someone experienced money growing up can influence spending, saving, risk, communication, expectations, and the amount of financial security that feels comfortable later.
Michael also places strong emphasis on couples developing a shared understanding of their finances. Two people can maintain separate accounts while still understanding the household's complete financial picture, discussing priorities, and participating in decisions about the future.
Topics covered in this episode
- Treating financial life as one part of a larger life rather than separating money from relationships, work, goals, and personal priorities.
- Michael's experience with scarcity and his belief that early messages about money affected his sense of whether financial success was available to him.
- Problems that can develop when partners lead financially parallel lives without enough shared knowledge, planning, or communication.
- Michael's view that feeling comfortable with financial progress can require examining beliefs about worth, success, and what someone thinks they deserve.
- How children can absorb messages about money from conflict between parents or from situations where money becomes tied to approval, affection, or control.
- The risk of moving through adulthood using inherited financial habits without deciding whether those habits fit the life you actually want.
- Why partners benefit from discussing money early and developing enough shared understanding to make major household decisions together.
- Taking time as a couple to picture the future and connect financial choices with the kind of life both people want to build.
- Michael's perspective that people can sometimes spend or dispose of money in ways that repeatedly return them to a financial level that feels familiar.
- Why having substantial assets does not necessarily mean someone feels financially secure or free.
- Michael's framework for examining how beliefs may influence thoughts, habits, choices, and ultimately financial outcomes.
- Looking beyond a specific dollar target and thinking about Michael's five Ls: where you live, what you love doing, what you are learning, what makes you laugh, and the legacy you want to leave.
- His personal-development approach to repeatedly practicing healthier thoughts and behaviors until different choices become more familiar.
- Michael's idea that present habits and circumstances can reveal patterns worth examining rather than assuming they must continue indefinitely.
Know the numbers and talk about what they are for
A household budget is more useful when the people involved understand both the numbers and the goals behind them. Couples can benefit from regularly reviewing income, expenses, debt, savings, and major financial priorities together, even when one person handles more of the day-to-day financial tasks.
Money conversations and financial awareness
Michael de Haan continues his work with Quantum Leap Global around financial well-being, money mindset, relationships, and financial decision-making.
Michael de Haan
Michael de Haan joined Todd Christensen from Quantum Leap Global to discuss the relationship between money, personal beliefs, household communication, and financial well-being.
Quantum Leap Global currently identifies Michael as a Director with more than 25 years of experience involving financial planning and wealth building through property investment, along with work addressing money mindset and financial well-being.
Many of the concepts discussed in this episode, including ideas about subconscious beliefs and the phrase “money is energy,” represent Michael's coaching and personal-development perspective rather than a technical description of how financial markets, credit, or household finance operate.
