Your Family and Your Finances

Posted On: 2006-05-25
Length: 14:38

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Hi, this is Joan and this is episode 45 of The Prosperity Show. Thanks for tuning in. Today we're going to talk about your family and your money. But before we talk about that, let me remind you that our main site is prosperityplace.com where you can find lots of free information about improving our relationship with money and yourself. You'll also find information about my book, "Build your Money Muscles-9 Simple Exercises for Improving your Relationship with Money." And I think you'll find some interesting and helpful information in the book.

So let's talk about you, your family and your money, and how they're all related. John Bradshaw often talks about the family. I think one of his books is called "The Family," and delineates within the family various positions. For example, there'll be the family hero, the identified patient, rebellious child, different parts are played by the children within a family. And each position has its own way of acting itself out in later years through the money. For example, a common dynamic would be if you had a brother or sister who was the family hero. And as family hero, that sibling got a lot of adulation and everything he or she did was terrific, and got the best grades, and you were the one in the family who always held a back seat to that family hero, and had a hard time proving yourself and never felt valued as much as the one in your family who was the family hero. That could easily affect how you manifest money in your later years. Now there are two scenarios. If the family hero stays in that one up successful position, then it would be natural for you never to come close to that person financially. In other words, if the family hero goes on to become a success in his or her field, and continues to get the family adulation, and somehow you're the one in the family who's always having problems. You're the one who has to get rescued. There's something wrong with you as far as everybody is concerned, and you're just playing out that family of origin dynamic with the family hero. Another drama that can take place is that in later life the family hero starts having problems financially. Now if you were the family hero, then that could happen because you're having a hard time living up to your reputation, so to speak. The one who gets the adulation has this feeling that they have to keep it up, that they can't afford to make mistakes, or they can't afford to take certain risks, because they don't want to lose their position. So that they work from a fear place. But if the family hero grows up...