Values-Based Spending with Lindsay Bryan-Podvin

This week of financial wellness content is brought to you by Wealthfront. (air whooshes) (computer mouse clicks) (serene music) ♪ Headspace Studios ♪ (tranquil music) Hi, my name is Lindsay, and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Wednesday morning. We're continuing our journey into the emotional side of money by looking at values-based spending. Generic financial advice doesn't always resonate because what matters to each of us can be very different. Today, we'll talk about how to align your spending habits with your own personal values to create lasting change. You need to have six to eight months saved in an emergency fund. If you have any debt, you need to focus on paying that off as soon as possible. Blanket financial advice like this assumes that we have the same everything. We have similar incomes, expenses, lifestyles, and access to different financial products and services, and these blanket personal finance rules are so prescriptive instead of realistic. It's so important for folks to understand that blanket financial rules are that way for a reason. The more generic you can be with your advice, the broader audience you can reach, but then that means that so many of us who do not fit into those particular prescriptive rules, we feel left out, and when we try to adhere to these rules, here's what I see happen all the time. Somebody says to me, "Lindsay, I'm going to start this 30-day no-spend challenge. So and so told me that I have to do it if I want to be good with money," and they come out of the gate very excited, they pull back on all of their extra spending, and then a few days into it, a friend asks them to go to the movies, and then after the movie that they've spent money on, they get into their car and they go home and they are saying, "Oh my gosh. I couldn't even hold back on spending for three or four days. What's wrong with me? I'm so behind. There's no point. Why even bother?" So, it's imperative that when it comes to financial wellbeing and financial rules, that we make the decisions about what we need to do and what works for us to decrease that shame and embarrassment and start taking proactive and realistic action when it comes to our money. Another example that I have when it comes to doing things intentionally instead of following somebody else's guidebook, I was leading a financial wellbeing workshop and we were talking about how to dial down spending on things or in areas that are not aligned with their values, and somebody raised their hand and they shared that they had done one of these, you know, stop all the extra spending challenges, and they said, "Look, I cut out everything, but I realized that something that I really loved, which was going to the movies, not doing it made me miserable. When I stayed home and I tried to stream...