Ep#14 Money Archetypes: Financial Literacy for People of Color with Brunch and Budget

In this episode of Your Story Medicine, I welcome Pamela Capalad and Dyalekt, Founder and Certified Financial Planner of Brunch & Budget, a company that provides the space to have real, open, and vulnerable conversations about finances. As you uncover what you really value and what you truly want your life to look like, they help you put in motion the strategies and tactics that will bring you financial clarity. Brunch & Budget is about sharing and building together on common ground. 

Pamela and Dyalekt speak about why people of color have aversions towards talking about finance and why it’s important for us, especially as people who have deep ancestral trauma regarding money and wealth, to have these conversations and to work to build a healthy relationship with money. They explain the four different money personality types and how they relate to our financial habits, as well as what they’re personally working on releasing and how they plan to ground themselves more in 2021.

What do you get to celebrate right now?

Pamela: Our baby! He was born in October 2019 and his first year would not have looked like this without the pandemic, but we wouldn’t have seen him and spent time with him as much as we have, so the grounding is something to celebrate. 

Dyalekt: I continue to celebrate people who do what is asked of them and what is in their heart, despite what’s happening around them. The will of those people is what keeps me motivated. I’ve also been celebrating lots of artists.

How would you describe your medicine?

Dyalekt: My medicine is rhythm.

Pamela: Food! I have allergies, eczema, and asthma… and there’s many things I’m learning that I can and cannot eat, which I’ve been in denial about. Learning to accept food as something that can heal me and putting the time, energy, and money into letting it heal me is something that’s very important to me. 

What is your ancestral lineage and how has that influenced your path?

Pamela: I’m Filipino and Chinese. I was born in the Philippines and moved here when I was 2. My grandfather took my grandmother’s last name when they got married, as to stay in hiding from his other wife, and so my name is matrilineal. My mom was the bread winner in my family and the women in my family are very strong, so that has influenced the way I show up in the world and how I go about things. I was drawn to money and finance because as women, we were made to feel disempowered around it, and I saw how powerful it was to teach kids about money.

Dyalekt: My background has a direct effect on how I feel about money. My mother is African-American from the south and my father was a Russian Jewish immigrant who came over on a boat as a baby, fleeing t he Nazis. His family was never down with my mother and I and fought to keep any inheritance and possessions away from us after my dad passed. We had very little money and moved in with my aunt who lived in the birthplace of the word racism (Carlisle, PA). I hustled as a teen to take care of my family and when I became an adult, I hated money and it was difficult to move forward in my professional life. As an educator, this messed me up because I had to realize how to guide young people to not only pass their classes, but get the job of their dreams and do much more.

Why are so many people of color averse to insurance or investing or diversifying their income?

We were taught that talking about money is taboo, that it’s rude to talk about it, even with family. It’s very hard to talk about it because enslaved African-American folks were told that they would be killed if they learned how to read, etc… there are a lot of things that marginalized folks have to do to stay alive. The aversion comes from our ancestral trauma.

It’s played out in the industry because people of color have been screwed over by insurance agencies. The industry is built on white supremacy! 

What are the money personality types and how does our money personality type show up in the ways we spend?

Complicators have the tendency to overanalyze, have spreadsheets for our spreadsheets, and like to feel control of money to the point where we never really feel in control. We always think about the worst-case scenarios and make money just in case something happens.  

Contemplators don’t prioritize finances, so their priority ends up being whoever’s knocking the loudest on their door. They’d rather think about anything else, yet thinking about it and not thinking about it stresses them out. 

Paper chasers think ahead with confidence in their abundance. They often think their money needs to go to work and that money will solve their problems. They have issues with long-term planning and benefit from breaking down goals into actionable steps. 

Money Monks don’t know why (or maybe they do), but they have an aversion to having money and judge people’s character based on how they feel about it, and often, how much of it they have. They probably don’t own a lot of things and make just enough to get by, sometimes relying on others’ kindness and flexibility to help them get by.

To read more about the Money Personalities and to find out which one you are, visit: www.brunchandbudget.com/personality 

What would people walk away with if they were to join your container?

We’re going to walk with you, not just do everything for you, and support you in healing from that ancestral trauma around money. Our program works for everyone, but is designed around that ancestral trauma. Our main program, Budge, is a 1:1 12-month financial planning, coaching and advocacy program. We help you with the tasks that are hard for you, like getting on the phone to negotiate with a collections agency or open your IRA for the first time. Nudge, a 3-month financial planning intensive, is comprehensive and very supportive. We also offer a group financial planning community for POC called See Change.

What are you doing to stay grounded and what have you learned or are learning to release?

Dyalekt: I have the tendency to let perfect be the enemy of good and I’m always thinking about the big picture that it causes so much hesitation in the work that I do. I’m learning to let go of that as much as I can. I’m not sure that I am staying grounded…

Pamela: I am actively working on releasing the need to be in control of everything. And I agree, I’m not very grounded, but I have made the goal to take most Wednesdays off, which will give me the space and time to relax, reflect, and figure out what I need to ground myself.

If you could envision yourself as a future ancestor, speaking to your present or younger self, what would you tell them?

Dyalekt: You’re always doing what you’re always doing. Remember that your actions, mistakes, failures, successes, times you got angry and times you got over it are all building blocks for what you’re doing… that is your foundation and you will get what comes from that. It’s not always fair, because fair is about skin color, but it will be yours. 

Pamela: It’s more important to catch any smile that my baby makes than to catch the next dollar. We have enough, we’ve never not had enough!

Conclusion: Regardless of where you’re at with your financial mindset and your actual bank account balance, you are enough and you have enough. There is an abundance of support out there than can lessen the weight that finances and money have on you. Take small steps towards creating a healthy relationship to money and you WILL reach financial freedom. It doesn’t have to be scary. It just takes a little bit of action here and there.

Action Integration: Figure out what your money personality is and think about how that archetype shows up in your relationship with money and your spending/saving habits. Are you satisfied with your relationship to money? What small things can you do to strengthen your mindset around finances?

Learn more about Brunch & Budget:

Visit their website: www.brunchandbudget.com 

Follow him on Instagram: www.instagram.com/brunchandbudget 

Listen to the Brunch & Budget podcast: www.brunchandbudget.buzzsprout.com 

Resources mentioned:

Take the Money Personality Quiz: www.brunchandbudget.com/personality 

Pockets Change: www.pocketschange.com