"The anxiety that you were holding off with your avoidance, it keeps coming up because it has something that it wants to tell you."
When our cash-flow situation looks good, we might be gung ho with our money goals, putting things on autosave or diligently socking away funds for that dream vacay, car upgrade, or what have you. All in all, we feel good about things. But when money is tight and we start to lean too hard on our credit card, or bills start piling up, we might avoid looking at our finances altogether.
To learn more, I talked to Amanda Clayman, a financial therapist and host of Death, Sex & Money's Financial Therapy on WNYC, on how money avoidance can show up, why it's harmful, and what those who suffer from it can do about it:
At its core, money avoidance is when we flat-out ignore our financial situation at all costs. The number-one sign of this is if you ask someone what their money management routine looks like and they have a totally blank response, says Clayman.
Here are some other telltale signs that someone might be money avoidant:
• Not looking at bank or credit card statements
• Putting off any money tasks
• Not having a clue how much money is in the bank
• Overspending
• Being late or missing bills altogether, or needing to catch up on months' worth of bills
• Have problems sticking to a budget or creating one in the first place
• Avoiding talking about money with friends or family
• Not having a clue where outstanding debt has gone
• Not tackling debt that has gone to collections
• Having bills on autopay without having consciousness around their money