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Author David Delisle explains financial dysmorphia
Financial Dysmorphia, being aware of your money.
Author David Delisle believes you’re never too young to learn about spending money. He joined CTV Morning Live’s Kent Morrison to break down “Money Dysmorphia.”
Kent Morrison: If you’re an Instagrammer or an internet user, you’ve probably scrolled through photos and posts of friends and influencers on extravagant vacations, enjoying fancy meals, buying new homes or cars, and you may feel a little envious and wonder where all their money is going. This can contribute to something called Financial Dysmorphia. David Delisle is an author who focuses on money, mindfulness, and the endless cycle of chasing more. How do you explain Financial Dysmorphia and where does it come from?
David: It’s simple. It’s basically your perception of your finances, it’s not connected to reality. That’s all it is. As you mentioned, it’s all these things that we’re seeing that are distorting what we think is normal.
Kent: What does that lead to? It leads to overspending because you want to kind of keep up with the Joneses of the internet or maybe not spending it all because you want to try to accumulate wealth to do such and such.
David: It’s kind of both. It happens on both ends of the spectrum. Some people hoard and feel super anxious and super poor, even though they have more than the average person. The opposite would be people chasing after it and thinking, “I need to make money really fast and I have to spend it because I’ll never have enough anyway.”
Kent:What is the problem that can get out of control when you have this kind of dysmorphic view of your own finances?
David: You just start to fall into bad financial habits. Instead of really knowing what’s normal, or what most people might have, you feel like it doesn’t make sense. So you’re going to have all the anxiety, the insecurity, and feeling bad about your finances. Like you said, because if people are on vacation, you’re thinking, it should be me, why isn’t it me? Now you can spend on that vacation even though you can’t afford it. It’s not what everyone is doing, but it’s what everyone is doing on social media.
Kent: Exactly. Money is a tricky thing because I think a lot of people pretend to understand more about money than they actually do. It’s a tricky topic to talk about. What are your tips for people to be aware and mindful of their money?
David: That’s why I wrote this comic to teach kids about financial literacy. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Your seemingly young child, even at this age, just starts talking to your kids about money. It’s as easy as it needs to be. As you buy things, you can let them know how much those things cost. I know your child is younger, so you probably wouldn’t put it in terms of dollar amounts, but when my kids were younger, I would put it in terms of candy bars and LEGO sets that they got. It’s just understanding, like, how much do things cost? How much do I have? How much do I spend? Just having those conversations. That’s how we change that.
Kent:It’s tricky because generationally, you were told, “Don’t ask how much dad makes. Don’t ask how much it costs.” It was all kind of a social thing that we don’t talk about, but we need to talk about.
David: We need to. That’s what’s creating the dysmorphia, because we’re getting our information from social media, not from our parents or our friends or from reality. We need to have these conversations. It’s hard because we put shame and judgment on it. That’s why we say, “Don’t talk about it,” but you can talk about these things without shame and judgment. You can say to your kids, “I just filled up the car. This is how much it costs. We just went out to dinner. This is how much it costs.” Not to make them feel guilty because you took them out to dinner, but to start making them aware. Like, how much do these things really cost? What’s normal?
Kent: I want to talk about this because it seems like we live in a time where chasing more isn’t always the goal. Success, success, success. Do you have any advice for just being okay with what you have?
David: I talk about this a lot. I talk about amazing things. Just ask yourself, “Are these my amazing things?” The concept is, the more you focus on what brings you joy, the more you’ll notice what doesn’t. With the pursuit, when you start doing that, being mindful, you’ll realize that most of the things that you spend your time and money on are bringing you joy.