Financial Therapy: Minding Your Money

4 Things About That Inheritance

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome to your Financial Therapy for the week!
Optimism bias is a psychological phenomenon where people in part believe they are more likely to experience positive outcomes in the future. In personal finance, this can mean overestimating future income, underestimating future expenses, and spending unnecessarily today, without a clear plan for tomorrow.
If you're one of the millions of Americans expecting to receive some of the more than $100 trillion on the line in the "Great Wealth Transfer", optimism bias may be affecting you. If so, the historic, multi-decade transition of assets from Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation to younger generations--primarily Millennials and Gen X--requires some perspective. So today we're highlighting four things about inheritances that you should keep in mind.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

3 Ways to Purge the (Urge to) Splurge

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome to your Financial Therapy for the week!
According to USA Today, impulse buying is up, despite the financial crunch most of us are feeling. Splurging can feel great--it's generally driven by the interactions between emotions, environments, and immediate gratification, says Sining Wang, assistant economics professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. Modern retail environments are designed to encourage quick decisions, instead of rational ones--or those that incorporate long-term financial goals, based on our carefully crafted budgets.
In today's episode, we'll talk about why this is happening--as well as three ways we may be able to keep our splurge spending in check. The goal here is to give us all ways to be more secure and confident in our financial decision-making, and to have a greater sense of well-being overall.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

Breaking Up With Bad Money Habits

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome to Financial Therapy! Today we're talking about how to break away from bad money habits, by rethinking or being more conscious about the money moves we make--or don't make.
Whether trusting ourselves to end financial commitments when circumstances change, or taking a leap of faith once we have a plan in place, breaking bad habits takes practice. By using 6 tips we talk about today, we can acknowledge our emotions around finances, and take them into consideration, without letting them rule our financial decisions.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

5 Places to Find Free Money

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome to Financial Therapy!
Today we're challenging the status quo by talking about 5 places to find free money. Consider making some small changes, because if not, you may be leaving some money on the table, or costing yourself financially.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

Summer Replay: 5 Things The Best Financial Advisors Do For You

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome to Financial Therapy!
Today's replay episode is all about the 5 things the best financial advisors will do for you as their client. Listen in to be more confident making your next financial move. The goal here is to give us all ways to be more secure and confident in our financial decision-making, and to have a greater sense of well-being overall.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
Originally aired: August 19, 2025
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

3 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Financial Wellness

Hey everyone--welcome to your Financial Therapy for the week!
Today we're talking about three common ways we tend to make our financial lives more difficult without even realizing it...and how we can make a change. Being more mindful about how our biases and behaviors can negatively affect our financial -- and emotional -- wellness can free us up to do things differently.
The goal here is to give us all ways to be more secure and confident in our financial decision-making, and to have a greater sense of well-being overall.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

Summer Replay: The Cost of Connection

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome to Financial Therapy, and Happy Summer!
The pandemic, and now the affordability crisis have reset our needs, expectations, and resources available for 'going out'. Now, more people are turning to activities like meet-ups, social clubs, and activity-based apps; these and other ways to establish and maintain relationships can add up financially. In this episode we discuss how we invest in the activities and services that connect us to others.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
Originally aired: July 18, 2025
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

Endless Internships

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome back to your Financial Therapy for the week!
Friend of the show Andi Cobb is back in the studio for today's episode--a commentary on how one parent is dealing with his son's job 'situationships' (4+ unpaid internships after graduate school). Is this just good networking and preparation, or is there a need for some tough love?
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

7 Tips to Invest and Grow Your Resources

Hey everyone, I'm Lena Banks – a Certified Financial Planning professional and small business coach based in Austin, TX. Welcome to your Financial Therapy for the week!
Today we're talking about 7 things to keep in mind to more effectively grow and invest your resources. The goal here is to give us all ways to be more secure and confident in our financial decision-making, and to have a greater sense of well-being overall.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance

Origin Story w/ Andrew Escher

Hi everyone--welcome back to your Financial Therapy for the week! We're back in Season 2, with one of my favorite show formats: origin stories.
Today we'll ask our guest: What's your financial origin story? Were you taught financial literacy? Or did your caregivers rarely discuss money growing up? More often than not, we get our money mindsets passed down to us from our parents, or whoever was most responsible for making the financial decisions.
Whether you were scraping by, or had an abundance of wealth (or whether either is the case right now), those early influences affect how you now view money, how you choose to earn and spend it, and ultimately, your financial health and wellness.
Call or text to submit your feedback and questions for the show: 1-844-4FINPOD (1-844-434-6763)
#budgetsareboundaries #financialtherapy #personalfinance