Financial Avoidance.

You prefer to bury your head in the sand when it comes to your finances and hate talking about money – you find it intrusive - and even avoid learning more about your behaviours.  You often spend or behave emotionally rather than rationally, even when you know that one simple act, such as checking your bank balance, could stop you from going in the red. 

Be careful - this could leave your partner, friends and loved ones feeling shut out or like they’re walking on eggshells when bringing up money chat. Remember that money conversations can be as empowering as they can be difficult.

Do you speak Financial Avoidance? Here’s how to communicate with others.

• Money avoidance can come in lots of different forms, from not checking your bank balance, putting things on credit and forgetting about it, or not having a monthly budget. This can be frustrating to others, especially Money Know How and Scarcity Mindset who like to save diligently, or to Acts of Finance who might feel like they have to provide you with extra financial support.

• If your avoidance is becoming a source of frustration to others, it’s important to remind them that it doesn’t always come from a place of irresponsibility. There are all sorts of reasons why you might not check in with your balance or talk about money; you might struggle to make ends meet and genuinely fear your balance, have certain accessibility requirements, or have had this money language instilled within you from a young age by your family or culture.

• If you want to work towards confronting your bank balance and make financial plans, a simple conversation with a loved one is a good place to start - a problem shared is a problem halved. But your bank’s customer service team is also there for you if you’d prefer.

• If, on the other hand, you feel that your loved ones are forcing you to budget and you don’t feel ready, ask them for some breathing space and explain honestly where your avoidant behaviours stem from.

Know someone who speaks this language? Here’s how to communicate with them.

• The language of Financial Avoidance is a difficult one because, in reality, they don’t tend to talk about money at all. See this as an opportunity to help shape their language, rather than a challenge.

• Broaching a conversation is often the trickiest part, so handle this sensitively. Rather than ambushing them with ‘I’ve just paid the electricity bill and you owe me £50’, why not try ‘It would be great to discuss household bills at some point this week. Is there a good time for you to run through everything together?’. Plan your timing here, a money conversation on pay day is likely to go down better than at the end of the month.

• If you’re worried that their money language is getting in the way of future plans, whether that’s saving for a house deposit together or going on a group holiday, you need to stress the importance of confronting their bank balance and making a financial plan. There are lots of resources available online, and they can call their bank’s customer service team if they need more assistance.

How compatible are you?

Financial Avoidance can most often be found with Scarcity Mindset, with the latter taking on financial planning for them both. But a word of warning, people in relationships with Financial Avoidance show above average levels of stress when it comes to joint money management.*

Need a new money habit?

You’ve taken the Let’s Talk Money test, so you’re one step closer towards being open about money. As a next step, you could consider trying Starling’s Spending Insights tool to get a real deep dive on what you spend on coffee or meals out - the results might surprise you.

The article above includes general information and should not be taken as financial advice. If you have questions about your specific circumstances, please speak to an independent financial advisor.

*According to Starling’s research