Women's Money Wisdom

Episode 296: Feel-Good Finance: Healing Your Relationship with Money With Aja Evans, LMHC

• Melissa Joy, CFP® • Season 4 • Episode 296

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What if your money mindset mattered as much as your money habits? 💭

This week, Melissa sits down with Aja Evans, licensed mental health professional, president of the Financial Therapy Association, and author of Feel Good Finance, to explore how emotions, upbringing, and self-worth shape the way we earn, spend, and save.

Together, they unpack how to identify your money story, recognize emotional spending triggers, and find balance between saving, spending, and satisfaction. From “Target trips gone wild” to understanding the dopamine behind shopping, Aja explains why awareness—not shame—is the first step toward financial peace.

You’ll learn how to:
 đŸ’Ą Uncover emotional roots behind your money habits
 đŸ’Ą Reframe guilt or scarcity into confidence and clarity
 đŸ’Ą Recognize when spending is self-care vs. self-sabotage
 đŸ’Ą Build a “feel-good” financial plan rooted in contentment, not comparison

Whether you overspend, underspend, or just want a healthier money mindset, this episode will help you bring a little more feel-good into your finances.

📘 Learn more about Aja’s work:

Connect on IG: @ajaetherapy

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaevans/



The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

SPEAKER_03:

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Pearl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence, and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money, and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. We're going to dive in today to a topic that is new, emerging, and so needed for so many people that I talk to. Our guest, Aja Evans, is a licensed mental health professional and she is a financial therapist. In fact, she is the president of the board of the Financial Therapy Association and also the author of a book called Feel Good Finance, which I think a lot of you, if you get like negative vibes when you think about your own money, will think, I want to know more about this. Um, and so we're gonna try to add some feel good money vibes to this conversation. Um, welcome to the podcast, Asia. Hi, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm excited. Um, and I love how you put that. And I don't think anybody has introduced me that way. Like, let's like feel good about our money vibes, and I could not agree more. Like, that's exactly what I'm trying to help people do. So I'm excited to dive in.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, regular listeners will know that we try to bring the PEP to our step when we talk about money in any conversation, but we also know that um sometimes buried pretty deep are uh negative and insecure feelings about money. But before we dive into your book and its topics and the work that you do, I'd love to just get a lay of the land because it's been a minute since we've had a financial therapist on the podcast for what is financial therapy and maybe like, I don't know, how did you find it? Um, did you grow up wanting to be a financial therapist or is you did you find it along the way?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um that's a great question. I did not grow up wanting to be a financial therapist, but I did grow up wanting to be a therapist. So I had always known, um, I think I was 12 when I kind of made this decision. And who would have thought that it really would have stuck so many years later, but it did. So I did what any person who wants to be a therapist has to do. So you go to a four-year college, you go get your graduate degree, um, minds in counseling psychology, and I worked in mental health and have been working in mental health for about 15 years at this point. But it was probably 10 years ago that I had my own revelation or financial awakening, as I like to call it, around what was going on with my finances. I am a New York City-based therapist. I live outside of New York City, um, in the suburbs with my family. But at that time, it was just me. I was single, living with one of my best friends, and I did not understand where my money was going. I was in my 20s and having a really great time in New York City, but I really just couldn't afford that type of lifestyle. And when I say lifestyle, it wasn't necessarily living in New York, but it was, I was not taking advantage of all the free and amazing or inexpensive things you could do in New York City. I was going out to expensive dinners and hanging out for happy hour and going shopping with my friends and sending my laundry out and just doing these things that felt so New York to me, that felt so glamorous and amazing. And it was, but it was also keeping me broke. And I had to really take a good hard look at what I was doing with my money and then start learning. And in the process of learning about financial education and budgeting, we're just gonna wait for my dog who's making noise. Oh, dog's welcome. That's okay. Okay. Um in the process of learning the budget and how do I pay down my student loan debt and credit cards and compounding interest in the good way and the bad way. Like, what was I doing? And that's really when I fell in love with personal finance. And it was because I had experienced feeling bad about not being able to keep up with my friends, or feeling like my self-esteem was um being chiseled away when I had to say no or felt uncomfortable about splitting the group check. Just all these things that happen with money that we really don't talk about. So as I was diving, right? And as I was diving in deeper, I was like, there is no way I'm the only one. I know other people are feeling this way. And through my research, that's when I found financial therapy. I found the Center for Financial Social Work, I found um the Financial Therapy Association and Trauma of Money, and did a lot of training and certificates and kind of really made this a pillar in my work. And that was about six years ago that that all started.

SPEAKER_03:

Amazing. I mean, what I know as a financial um planner is that money impacts all aspects of your life, of course. And um, we like to change things so you're not um only focused on your money, but your money is focused on your life. But that requires hard work um in terms of having control over your finances and also control over your emotions, emotions, and mentality when it comes to how you think about money. Um, and so I'm so glad that you found this emerging profession because there are a cohort of professionals that are mental health workers who have training in financial therapy, um, which for many people could be really valuable in changing your relationship with money. And in some cases, your relationship and your partnership when it comes to money. Because if you're not on the same page there, money can really um harm relationships, uh, individuals, just you know, so many places.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely. So tell me about um a little bit about your book since it's such a great just thematically, it fits so well with the conversations that we have with our listeners week in, week out. Um, how do you change the scene if you are kind of sitting there with negative feelings when it comes to money?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so I think exactly how you described when we were first getting started. If you are thinking that something is a little bit deeper, or there are a lot of layers above, hey, why do I feel uncomfortable about money? Why do I feel negative? What's going on? That's what I wrote this book for. So this is not the typical kind of feel good finance in the way of like, hey, here's how to budget. There is some of that in there, but there's also going to talk about why it is hard for you to stay on budget? Do you know how you want to budget? Were you taught to budget? How did you see money growing up? And that's really what I wanted to get to, and probably what I needed when I was first starting out on my journey of really understanding where did some of these financial habits and behaviors come from? Why did I have a propensity to want to go out with my friends? Or when I'm like upset or happy, I'm like, let's go get food, let's go hang out. Like, where did a lot of that come from? So, feel good finance really is taking your reader on a journey through understanding your psychological history, how you grew up, how things were modeled for you, what did representation look like? How did you form your own money beliefs? And what does your money story look like? And now, what are the patterns that kind of keep you either stuck or keep you moving forward? And taking the time to really identify where those emotions come from, the root, if you will. So then you can decide, hey, do I really like that I do this behavior? Does it, is it something I even thought about? There are a lot of social norms that come about that we don't always realize really impact how we treat our money. And I wanted to start really getting at the heart of that. So feel good finance is taking people on the journey of understanding themselves and how we all relate to our own individual cultures and our houses, um, our schools, our communities, but then also larger on the macro level of society and then how that kind of intertwines with how we deal with our money.

SPEAKER_03:

I so agree with you. Your money story is, I mean, I think we all have a money personality that, you know, maybe hardwired uh regardless of what household we grew up in. But then there are so many cultural overlays, um, including whether you talked about money in your house or you didn't. Um, and then there's also just the circumstances, especially of your childhood, like you've already described life in your 20s. But um, I know I've shared with listeners in the past that I kind of had two experiences in childhood, um, one with a two-parent family household where we were safe and stable. And then um when my parents divorced, I had, you know, kind of a dichotomy between dad's house where there were kind of adequate funds for the life that we had, and mom's house where um money was much, much tighter. And so, you know, scarcity of money kind of came into play, which I think has impacted um sometimes time horizon for small financial decisions of how I spend money. And I really enjoy spending money sometimes when it comes to shopping and things like that. Um, so I fully acknowledge that and am not, you know, a perfect person when it comes to every financial decision. But would you be willing to share, Asia, a little bit about what you learned through your research about your own personal money story?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, absolutely. And I'll be honest, I talk a lot about myself in the book as well. So I do use some de-identified client stories as well, but I also share about myself because I think sometimes, especially when you're connected to the financial field, people just assume that you never make mistakes with money that you always feel great about your money. I'm like, no, guys, I also don't mind modeling that I can do this work and totally understand it and sometimes really struggle with it too. So for me, one thing um, and that I'm working on and still working on and still sometimes fighting through when I was younger, and I think this is a very common um experience that people have. I, you know, am an elder millennial. So at that time, limited to Abercrombie and Fitch. Um, I can smell the story in the mall as I remember. Right. You know the one, right? You know the feeling. Let's get a pretzel, an orange julius, and let's go find a$10 shirt.

SPEAKER_03:

I wish I could give my kids the mall experience because you know, it's not the same as when you got mom and dad to drop you off, and like three hours later they picked you up, and you just had this little culture of walking around, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it was so good. I actually went to the mall yesterday. I could talk about this all day and felt that nostalgia just being there by myself. Um, I was like, wow, people, we need to bring back malls. Like bring back the community for like teenagers hanging out or however old you are. But that's what I was doing growing up. And I remember certain times where my mom just was not prioritizing buying me the$50 to$70 pair of jeans. And it could have come from any of those stores, but she was just like, absolutely not am I going to spend this much money on a pair of jeans. And at the time, when you're in middle school or when you're in high school, wearing that label, whatever the label is, feels so important to you. It feels like it is gonna solidify how cool you are, that you are fashionable. It just feels so important. So for me, having gone through that and then in my research and writing this book, I realized that there are times when I have the pressure of kind of keeping up. Um, so like keeping up with the Joneses, I need the whole chapter about it. Um, recognize you're like, oh my goodness, my neighbor has a new car. Do I need a new car? I want a new car. What's going on? And I literally tell the story. My car was in the driveway, it was two years old. Like I had a relatively new car, and I still kind of was like, oh, do I need to kind of keep up? So, really taking the time for me to interrogate those feelings, especially because I'm a parent now and I have young kids. So it's really easy for me sometimes to be like, oh, they do need this Patagonia jacket and they need this and they need that. And the fall photo shoot would look so good if we're all. Oh my goodness, they need these boots, all of it. So I have to really interrogate my feelings sometimes and check my own self when I'm like thinking about do I actually really want this? Is this in the budget? Do we need this? How many coats do they actually have? Do they ever wear those boots that I get them? So that can be really difficult for me sometimes. I really don't like it about myself. I'll be honest. Like it's a part of me that I understand where it comes from. I know it's very common, but I wish I was above it all and didn't have to necessarily work through some of those feelings sometimes.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I mean, I think we all maybe wish in all aspects of life we were just like that perfect person, the mother Teresa of whatever our life and lifestyle is. Um but I will tell you too, if if that's what brings you pleasure, and you can tell you push back, tell me what you think based on your research. But if that's what brings you pleasure, and you're also not um, you know, and it fits with your values, whether it comes to sustainability, how you deal with stuff. I mean, there's a lot of layers of consideration that are personal. Um, but if you're not harming yourself financially, then it's more of an exploratory like where is contentment versus anybody else's place to judge. But I know in our, you know, like the mall gave you the signals of what, you know, kind of labels should be on the uh your genes. Um, and nowadays we have Instagram or Facebook that gives you the messages of like, you know, what a young family should look like, whether all the things you need to check off. And um it's funny because my kids are a tween and a teen now, and they don't care about any of those labels at all, even though I would totally be willing to be like, oh, we could have a budget to go on a little shopping trip. And it's like those clothes just sit in the closet unworn, and it's like a random t-shirt that goes to school. So um there's so many interesting layers to explore. And if you don't feel comfortable yourself, then conversations with someone like Asia or myself to say, is this okay? I just assume because you know, one part of society says spin, spin, spin. Another part says, shame on you for even considering that. Um, and somewhere in the middle is probably the right spot for you. You don't have to go to either place if you're not, you know, you know, burning money uh out the window and and not having enough to pay your bills or meet your goals.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I um totally agree with you. So I would say for me personally, it's when that those feelings come up is is this a priority right now? Um, and not like of course, I want to make sure myself, my kids, everybody's clothed, right? Everyone's okay. Like they have enough. But first it's like, hey, is this a priority or do you are you working on a different financial goal right now? Um, I'm a big proponent of leaving space in the budget for those kinds of items. But once the money is spent, the money is spent kind of thing, right? So is this the priority? And then the next part of that is just taking the time of for really thinking about, like you said, contentment and enough. I really, in my research and doing this time and writing the book and sharing about myself, really had to realize I'm like, I really like my life, I'm really happy. Like, there are always hard things, of course. Like, we all like, I don't think you can escape the human condition without hard things happening to you, no matter who you are, how much money you do or don't have. But in general, I am pretty content with my life and I am very clear about what my enough looks like. So while the Instagram, the ads, all of that sometimes give me that twinge of like, ooh, I want more. I do want it. Like, do I want to get this? Um, I have to really decide. I'm like, okay, sometimes the answer is like, yeah, I do really want that. Like, yes, I really do want this new water bottle. Like, literally, I'm thinking about getting a new water bottle. And I'm thinking about it, right? Didn't just buy it. Sometimes the anticipation is a big part of the good part of the process. Yeah. Yeah, that's the dopamine, right? It's the anticipation. People think it's, oh, I got the item. No, it's the anticipation that's really spiking the dopamine that's really exciting about oh, what am I gonna find? Thrifting, right? Perfect example. It's really exciting to go thrifting because the anticipation of what you might find um is really cool and exciting. And that's where you get that dopamine rush. So for people, I agree with you. Like, if it if it's in your budget and you can afford it and it's not harming you in any way, and you're not drowning yourself in too much stuff in your house, then go ahead, go get it. That's amazing. But I do want to make sure people are just taking the time to pause and ask themselves like, what am I looking for at the end of this shopping trip? Or what am I looking for with this water bottle? What am I trying to signal? And you can decide what it is and know, I just want you to be aware. You can still go get it afterwards as long as it's okay for your finances. But I want you to know why you're doing it. And sometimes it's like, hey, I just want to look cool at the gym in my new workout set. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_03:

Totally. And I also think, like, as you're saying that, I love that it's not like a crash course, right? Like everything's incremental about like, why don't you insert the why and assess? Maybe this is bringing you more angst after the purchase than joy and the anticipation. And when you weigh it out, it's like, oh, there's a lot of baggage I get with this behavior. And maybe it's like, no, this is me. I, you know, I want my bookshelf to be full of the TVR at list that I dream of, and that's okay because I'm not harming myself. And maybe my partner doesn't agree with me, but they have their own things that they want to do and we have space for each other or things like that.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, absolutely. And I think that's such a great way to think about it and look at it because if it's bringing you joy and you can afford it, it doesn't mean it has to be no. I just want people to really take the time to understand why they're doing this or why they're buying or what's the motivation behind it. And if you're okay with the motivation, then okay, let's do it.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that. And I think sometimes it's helpful to just look backwards, right? When it comes to spending decisions and assess, hey, over the last 90 days, what was really like a great decision when it came to a yes or a no. And what do you wish you had to do over again? Because that can kind of inform your future behavior as well.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Exactly. And that's I that's I just want people to be aware, you know. I think it's really easy to be on autopilot and just be like, oh, I clicked twice and now it's on the way to my house and I forgot about it. And here it is three days later, and I I totally forgot I did it. So just being aware of what your financial goals are so that you feel good about them, you feel safe and stable. I think what like really frequently happens for people, especially in overspending, is that they blow past their financial boundary that they set for themselves and then they feel awful. They feel bad about themselves, they don't feel safe because they're like, hey, I had a different financial priority and now I'm not gonna meet it, or I'm not gonna meet it the same way because I, you know, had a bad day and wanted to shop.

SPEAKER_03:

Makes sense. I assume, and I'm just asking an open-end question. I don't know the answer to. Do you also work with some people who spending is like cult, they were raised in a household where spending was um an absolute no, either maybe there wasn't any money, or perhaps the family just judged people who spent money and did not choose to spend much discretionary money themselves, where spending um where they're the opposite end of the spectrum. They're not spending too much, they're not spending enough, or they, you know, like are limiting their resources in spite of having adequate funds.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. So um there's a whole chapter dedicated to these folks. I call them money hoarders, um, kindly. And to your point, it could come from anything, right? It could come, there was scarcity growing up. It could have been, hey, I got out of college, I started, I was young, 20 something, I was broke, and that felt really scary. It felt really unsafe. So now I consistently um try to have a huge savings. And when I say like huge, I'm talking like for some people, it could be, oh, it only cost me$2,000 to live, but now I have$30,000 in my savings account just sitting there because I need to see it, I need to feel safe from it. So there are times when that's okay, right? Um,$2,000 cost of living, I mean, that's great. I love that for you. Yes. But you don't need$30,000. And are you investing for your future too, so that your money can grow? So that's when you kind of start having to see, like, is this hurting you? And as much as overspending can hurt you, so can underspending. There are times where people are living way too frugally in fear when they just need to kind of interrogate that fear and kind of work through where that's coming from and do some work of healing so that it's less that it's not to say, oh, I want everybody spending their money or people can't live live frugally by choice. You definitely can. But I also want to make sure that you are growing your money, that you feel good about your lifestyle, that you feel comfortable, that you can still feel safe if you don't have exorbitant amounts of money just kind of sitting there. And I understand because a lot of it is coming from a place of financial trauma or just discomfort, scarcity, not feeling safe. But we're we're all trying to find the middle ground for each of us, and it's going to look different for each person.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that. That's so true. There are so many calculators, there's so many shoulds out there for how you should approach money, uh, the ways you should manage your money, um, and the decisions you should make. And the reality is, um, I think there's a lot of value to some of those rules of thumb because they do help to inform uh us. And we're as a culture don't have as much financial literacy as we think we do. Um but your right place is not based on anybody else's rule of thumb. Um and certainly that's the work that you're doing, Asha, as well as me, you know, to get to the right spot that isn't just a template.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, exactly. And and it takes time. So I want like everybody who's listening to know that uh this is a it's a journey. Like it does take time and it sometimes requires you navigating hard feelings about yourself, about your family, how you grew up, and that can get really, really emotional. And that's okay. Um, and you will make a mistake too, and that's also okay, but it just takes time and you have to be patient with yourself and give yourself grace.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that. It does take time. It's there's not a um, you know, crash course diet that you can go on to change your perceptions of money. Um, but there are so many beautiful rewards when you get to that moment of contentment, um, which may or may not have anything to do with um spending, although um in many cases your your money can help you to attain goals that are per so personally rewarding and fulfilling. Um when you think about your book, is there a favorite chapter that you you know people come back to about or um you think really kind of sums it up?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Um I think the chapter that people find the most that they connect to the most is um about Target. Um so it's called I Need the Expletive Pumpkins. And really what that chapter is just walking you through is what it feels like when you go into the store. The store that I'm really talking about is actually Target. Um when you go in, and now is the season of Target that I was really pinpointing. You got them visceral memories.

SPEAKER_01:

This, like literally, you come in, you smell the cinnamon from Starbucks, it's cool music. You see, magnolia right there. You know it, you know the feeling.

SPEAKER_03:

It's all of us. So it's it's a lifestyle in uh, you know, wife of the card, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Truly, and that's literally what I talk about in that chapter of how quickly you can go from I'm just here to get dish soap and like I mean some leggings for the kid because there's like a whole, and then you've got actually a whole new game plan for the bathroom. A hundred percent. And now you're like, oh, I'm actually redesigning a room today. And I came in here thinking I was going to be spending like$10,$15, and now I just spent$317. And where did I go wrong? Type of thing. So, and that really is just to demonstrate like people walking themselves through the feelings that come about. And I don't, I think it's because we don't really pay attention to our feelings as much. They're so quick and they lead to some big decisions that we can be making without paying attention to them. So I just wanted people to take the time to be like, why are you buying that workout set to our point before? Oh, because I want to feel good, I'm so busy, I want a zen area in my house. There's too much going on, I'm overwhelmed, and how that can really translate into an action of, oh, now I'm redesigning my bathroom because I want Zen, and this is where I'm gonna get it, and I'll feel better about myself if my bathroom looks great, um, which is true, but also you might need some other work to be doing too, some other deeper work. So that chapter I find that people think is the funniest, the most relatable, because I do think in different ways it is all of us or has been all of us in a different, you know, point in our lives.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah. And I especially thinking around the office, my colleagues who have the little kids who are like, oh my God, tonight um the kids are with somebody else and I'm going to Target all by myself. Yeah. For like 90 minutes, like, this is my plan, this is my hobby, this is how I enjoy spending my time, and no judgment. That's that's totally okay. But um, it also can rack up quite a bill.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And I'm like, listen, if you are ready and in a position to spend that 317 at Target, go for it. Like, have a blast. I love this hobby for you. But if in three months you're like, wow, I don't even touch any of this stuff. I feel so overwhelmed by all this stuff in my house. I where's all my money? I'm like, you're you're looking at it. It's in your home.

SPEAKER_03:

You're yeah, and the stuff you don't even have the energy to get like the pumpkins out from wherever you put them in the closet or the basement. Um, because it's like, no, I'm too tired this weekend to do that. I'll just go to I'll go and re-restock, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And again, I want to make sure people know this is not a criticism. It's just I want to snap people out of like mindless consumption, mindless coping. Because a lot of times when we're spending our money, we're really just trying to cope with a different feeling, right? Like we're trying to cope with I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed, I'm tired, I don't want to be dealing with this, I don't want all this responsibility. There's too much going on. What can I do to make myself feel better? And if going to Target is one of it, okay, great. But I also want it to be, oh, I'm gonna call a friend. Oh, I'm gonna go on a walk. Oh, I'm gonna make sure that I laugh because I feel calmer after I laugh. I'm going to regulate my nervous system. I'm going to stop the stress cycle so that I'm not doing anything that could be detrimental to me or my finances because I was upset about, you know, you name it.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, I love that. And I think um I I was gonna wrap up by asking you some of the things that can give you those feel-good vibes, but I feel like you just gave me that list.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, I could go on and on. I'm like coloring my new thing that I just got into, and this was because um, when I went on my uh my family vacation, I brought uh watercolors with me for the kids to just be like, oh, we'll sit at a table, we can be outside, like if we're at dinner or something, just take out the watercolors and they can paint. My kids really love to paint. And I started painting with them. I was like, oh, this is really nice. I'm like, this is fantastic. So I'm really trying to kind of get back to like creating. I'm no artist, but it was fun to just sit and paint. So I got myself a paint with numbers, or I'm utilizing other craft. Crafting supplies. Like, I think sometimes we think we have to go all in on our new hobby and buy all of the things. No, like I got this like little, it is quite literally like the dollar store like paint.

SPEAKER_01:

Love it.

SPEAKER_02:

Palette, right? Perfect. Or spending time with community can help. Gardening can be something that's been really awesome for people too. Reading, of course, can be awesome. So just take the time to look at what you can do. And I know some of those involve spending money, but what can you do that does not involve spending money that's going to make you feel better? It's going to reset the vibe so that you can feel good and be like, oh, I don't always have to be utilizing money to feel good.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And also like there's that stuff factor too. So if you love to watercolor, all you need is like a piece of paper, or there are the books now that have like the lines drawn, but you just kind of fill in and make it your own. Yeah. Make a number. But it's very, you know, you could throw it out the door. Like, you know, when you're done, you don't have to put it on the wall. And then you, you know, just need this little palette of either dollar store or$12, you know, like cakes of color, and you're like set for a while. And I often find when I I've picked up the watercolors and I find like my kids quit doing it before I do, you know, um, in terms of the sitting. And also, since you've said you're an older millennial, I'll say as Gen X, um, gardening, bird watching, like certain hobbies pop up that you're like, why is this happening? Um, but um, maybe it is that age where you're like, ah, another trip to Target just means more stuff. So um, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I I do agree. Listen, the gardening, as I started like getting into my late 30s and on the way towards 40 now, I'm like, hmm, my garden. I really do want to plant seeds. I do want to watch this tomato plant cultivate so I can make a delicious tomato salad.

SPEAKER_03:

So although you're like tulip orders and dahlia orders can um rack up the bills there too. But that's okay. Yeah, we'll pick and choose what our hobbies are doing. What brings you joy? Absolutely. Well, Asia, I so enjoyed the conversation. I felt great vibes um as we discussed. And um, can you tell people where they can find you and the book? Sure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

So you can get feel good finance wherever you get your books. Um, most local book bookstores will be able to order it. It's distributed um by Simon Schuster, so it's you can get it other places. Um, also Amazon has it as well. Uh, you can find me on Instagram at AsiaE Therapy, so AJ A E Therapy, or my website, which is AsiaEvanscounseling.com. I love it.

SPEAKER_03:

So nice to know you, Asia, and thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way that you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to ProPlan.com and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned. This presentation by Pro Planning is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of this presentation serves as a receipt of or substitute for personal investment advice from ProPlanning or any other investment professional of your choosing. Copies of Pro Planning's current rent and disclosure brochure and form CRS discussing our advisory services and fees are available upon request or on our website platform at ProPlan.com. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are Melissa's own and those of her guests. They don't necessarily represent any organizations with which Melissa is affiliated. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at proplan.com

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Melissa Joy, CFP

Host