Money and family, ancestral traditions, transgenerational trauma

Study of attitudes to money as a socio-economic phenomenon through the prism of formed family and clan traditions. Collecting diagnostic data on transgenerational traumas related to money, defining its role in a person’s life.

Forming a database of original pedagogical methods and educational technologies for inculcating financial literacy in the family.

• On the transgenerational trauma associated with money 
• Transgenerational trauma and psychotherapy
• How do family traditions affect our financial habits?
• What is a financial habit?
• Family, money and related problems in Clu Madanes and Claudio Madanes’ book The Secret Meaning of Money 

On the transgenerational trauma associated with money

Finance can be a cause of conflict, tension and stress. What if our financial difficulties and emotional reactions to money are not only related to our personal financial decisions, but also to what happened in our family generations ago?

Transgenerational trauma related to money is an inherited trauma that is passed down from generation to generation within the family and can have an impact on how we relate to money and our financial decisions.

These traumas can come from financial losses, bad investments, poverty, domestic violence or other money-related difficulties in the past generation.

Transgenerational trauma related to money can have a negative impact on our financial lives, attitudes towards money, consumption habits and financial well-being.

Understanding these traumas and their impact on our lives can help us create a healthier attitude towards money and our financial decisions.

Transgenerational trauma and psychotherapy

For transgenerational trauma related to money, psychotherapy is an effective treatment.

Psychotherapy helps people deal with their emotional problems and learn to manage their finances in a way that avoids a recurrence of problems in the future.

Let’s look at several types of psychotherapy that can be helpful for transgenerational trauma related to money:

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This method helps people to get rid of negative thoughts related to money. The goal of CBT is to help people develop healthy strategies for managing their finances.
Psychodynamic therapy. This method helps people to deal with their emotional issues related to money, and to find ways to cope with these issues. In psychodynamic therapy, patients work with a therapist to sort out their underlying motivations and conflicts.
Family therapy. If transgenerational traumas about money are related to certain family dynamics, family therapy can help to deal with these issues. This therapy helps family members to deal with their emotional problems and improve communication within the family.

In this way, psychotherapy helps people to learn how to manage their emotions and money effectively, and to work on eliminating transgenerational trauma related to money.

How do family traditions affect our financial habits?

Family traditions can have a significant impact on our financial habits because they are formed in the family and passed on from generation to generation.

These traditions include ideas about how we should treat money, what values we associate with wealth or poverty, and our behavioural habits that relate to finances.

Let’s analyse the impact of family traditions on our financial habits:

Attitude towards money. Our attitude towards money is often determined by our family traditions. For example, if our parents or grandparents were very frugal and careful with money, we will probably follow the same principles in our lives.
Financial goals. Our financial goals can also be linked to family traditions. If our family has always set high goals for our finances, we may strive to achieve the same goals.
Spending and saving. Our family traditions can also influence how we spend our money and how much we save. If our parents or grandparents were always frugal in their spending and saving, then we might have the same financial behaviour.
Financial investment. Our family traditions can also influence how we invest money. If our family has always had values associated with investing, we may be more likely to adopt this type of behaviour.

Thus, family traditions significantly influence our life and behaviour and approach to financial matters. Understanding these connections can help us manage our finances.

In order to understand how family traditions influence our financial habits, we need to consider that a person’s financial behaviour is shaped not only as an adult, but also as a child. Everything we see and absorb in childhood can be reflected in our financial decisions.

Family traditions play a key role in shaping financial habits, as they include not only the financial situation, but also moral beliefs and ideas about what is right and wrong in the field of finance.

What is a financial habit?

A financial habit is a behavioural pattern that we form in relation to our money.

It can be something that we do automatically, without thinking about it, such as spending money on coffee every morning. It can also be a conscious choice, such as saving a certain amount each month.

Financial habits can be positive. They help us in the process of reaching our financial goals. Negative habits prevent us from achieving our desired results and lead to financial difficulties.

Parental examples (big holiday spending or prudent use of funds) also influence the formation of our financial habits.

If parents don’t know how to manage their finances properly and spend thoughtlessly, this can affect their child and shape their financial behaviour in the future.

Financial habits can be inherited from parents or learned from the environment, but can also be changed if necessary through conscious management of one’s finances.

Family, Money and Related Problems in Clu Madanes and Claudio Madanes’ book The Secret Meaning of Money

Renowned American family therapist Clu Madanes and her brother, economist Claudio Madanes, challenge us to think about the role money can play in family conflicts.

Who among us hasn’t faced money problems? But they are just the tip of the iceberg, under which other, deeper processes take place. This book is about love and envy, about pity and spite, about kindness and power.

Vivid, fascinating and openly it is a conversation on a topic that traditionally was considered indecent. However, the subject of money and the problems associated with it interests everyone, so the work is addressed to a wide range of readers.

In the preface we find interesting thoughts: “On a symbolic level the theme of ‘metal’ contains a lot of energy of passions, fears and illusions. There is perhaps nothing that people talk about so fervently as money, regardless of their personal relationship to it… The eternal theme of money is a real werewolf: when it is talked about, it is not really talked about. And when they are silent… Everyone knows the dark examples of how the lack of a clear agreement on the monetary side of any relationship has undermined them, if not blown them up altogether.

Notable is the idea that “the life of any family is full of examples of how money itself and the subject of money symbolize its problem – that is, to some extent, they are symptoms of the family.”

The authors of this book note that money is firmly woven into our lives: “The poor have very different concerns from the rich, but the family conflicts caused by money are often very similar in different socio-economic strata. For most of us, money is so firmly woven into our lives that the problems associated with it affect our health, our intimate relationships and our relationships with our children and parents…”

Clu Madanes and Claudio Madanes believe that money is the foundation of family life: “…money is the foundation of marital and family life. There are violent quarrels between husband and wife, parents and children, brother and sister because of money. Parents often don’t know how to talk about money with their children, how and when to give them money and when not to, and husbands can’t agree with their wives on how much money each of their children should receive. Many of those who have gone through divorce bitterly discover that marriage is about money…”

The authors stress the versatility of money, for it can be both a symbol of love and a symbol of violence: “Money can be a symbol of love or a symbol of violence – it depends on how it is used. Money can be offered and accepted as a sign of love, it can be withheld or rejected as a sign of violence. It’s a complex issue because violence is not just about physical pain, but also about psychological pressure, suppression, control and domination.”

What is at the heart of this work? Clou Madanes and Claudio Madanes emphasise that “at the heart of this book is the belief that people can solve problems by relying on their own strengths”, and money acts as one of these strengths.

The book The Secret Meaning of Money will help you:

Understand what money and material possessions mean to you and your family.
Talk openly about money.
To understand their ideas about money, to put them in order.

We wish you to find harmony in your family, to solve financial problems, and to realise the multifaceted nature of money with the help of this book!