The Money Fit Show · Season 2, Episode 22
Being Honest About Money
Money decisions are rarely about numbers alone. Aja Evans joins Todd Christensen to discuss how family history, emotions, confidence, relationships, work, and personal experiences can influence the way people earn, spend, save, and talk about money.
Understanding what sits behind a money decision
Play Season 2, Episode 22 directly through Spotify without leaving Money Fit.
Financial behavior often has a story behind it
Aja Evans works where mental health and money overlap. In her conversation with Todd, she discusses how experiences from childhood, early work, relationships, and previous financial choices can influence the way someone responds to money today.
That does not mean every financial problem can be solved through mindset or therapy. Income, expenses, debt, housing costs, employment, emergencies, and other financial realities still matter. Understanding behavior can help explain why someone repeatedly makes a choice even when they already know the numbers.
Aja also emphasizes honesty. Financial improvement becomes difficult when someone avoids account balances, hides purchases, minimizes debt, or does not communicate openly with a partner. Looking clearly at the situation can be an important first step before deciding what needs to change.
Topics covered in this episode
- Aja's interest in helping clients recognize connections between their personal history and the financial choices they make today.
- The episode's discussion of research suggesting that children begin developing attitudes and habits around money at a young age.
- Building confidence with money through ordinary childhood experiences such as making a purchase and interacting with a cashier.
- Aja's experience working at a grocery store as a teenager and continuing to work while attending college.
- Moving to the city as a young adult and trying to maintain a lifestyle that did not always fit the amount of money available.
- An Easter dinner conversation that caused Aja to take a more serious look at her own finances.
- Becoming a more deliberate consumer of personal finance books, articles, conversations, and other financial education.
- How mental and emotional well-being can influence financial behaviors, decision-making, avoidance, and stress.
- The ways money can become connected to freedom, security, self-worth, success, shame, fear, and other emotions.
- How couples can struggle financially when they have different values, habits, expectations, or approaches to managing money.
- Why communication can be as important as the numbers when two people share financial responsibilities.
- The insecurity that can come from knowing you are missing financial information but not knowing where to find reliable help.
- Resources Aja began reading and following when she became more intentional about learning personal finance.
- Experimenting with different budgeting approaches rather than assuming one system must work for everyone.
- Being honest with yourself about income, spending, debt, savings, and the emotional reactions that can make those numbers difficult to face.
- Giving yourself credit for taking an early step toward greater financial stability instead of dismissing progress because the larger goal is still far away.
Start with the numbers you would rather avoid
Financial honesty does not require judging yourself for past decisions. Start by identifying what is true today: how much comes in, where it goes, what you owe, what you have saved, and which financial issue is creating the most stress. A clear picture gives you something concrete to work from.
Financial therapy and money behavior
Aja Evans continues to specialize in financial therapy, helping individuals and couples explore how emotions, relationships, work, identity, and personal history interact with financial behavior. The Financial Therapy Association also maintains a directory for consumers looking for professionals who work in this area.
Aja Evans
Aja Evans joined Todd Christensen as a therapist specializing in financial therapy, an area that explores the connections between financial behavior, emotions, relationships, mental well-being, and personal history.
Aja continues to operate Aja Evans Counseling and works with individuals and couples around financial stress, work, self-esteem, relationships, and money behavior. She is also active with the Financial Therapy Association.
Her work focuses on helping people become more open about the thoughts and emotions connected to money while also developing healthier ways to respond to financial stress and make decisions.
