Money disorders

Now that Christmas is well and truly behind us for another year and the Amex Card bill not too far away in the mail; I was curious to know what Google search volumes are like for both “Money” and “Psychology” See below, the money trend is in red.

To my surprise there indeed is a correlation, a negative correlation in overall trends. Don’t forget this is just Google’s search volume index – not a deeper analysis of money and psychology, for which much has and can be said.

The other thing that caught my eye is the term “Money disorders” which is a persistent pattern of self-destructive and self-limiting financial behaviors. It seems these may result from distorted beliefs about money that we develop from our financial flashpoint experiences.

Financial flashpoints being painful, distressing, and/or dramatic life events associated with money that are so emotionally powerful, they leave an imprint that lasts into adulthood. Financial flashpoints become the foundation of our financial struggles.

And of course we know that money is the no. 1 reason for divorce in the early years of marriage and a common area of conflict for couples. Even before the recession, 3 out of 4 Americans identified money as the no. 1 source of stress in their lives. Financial strain has been found to reduce relationship satisfaction, worsen depression, and lead to emotional problems, health difficulties, and poor work performance.