Rianka spoke with Gretchen Brown from Rewire about feelings of shame about money.
Sydney Walsh would get paid on Friday, and the money would be gone on Saturday.
“I was terrified that if something happened in the two weeks before getting paid, I wouldn’t have money to pay for it,” Walsh said. “I had $2,000 in credit card debt. My student loans were in collections.”
She had a good job, but money was still a huge stressor. And she didn’t really feel like she could talk to her friends about it.
“I think it just feels really private to people,” she said. “Especially our financial struggles. People are quick to say ‘I’m broke!’ but not as quick to talk about the scary stuff.”
Walsh is in good company. Seven in 10 Americans say they’ve become emotional over money, according to a survey from comparecards.com.
But folks in their 20s and 30s are under unique financial stress.
According to the survey, nearly 48 percent of millennials between the ages of 23 and 38 said they’ve cried over money at least once in the past month.
That’s compared to just 20 percent of Baby Boomers ages 55 to 73, and 38 percent of Gen Xers aged 39 to 54.
“We graduated during the financial crisis. So a lot of older millennials are still playing catch up from either being underpaid, or not working in their field and still having to figure out how to pay for student loan debt,” certified financial planner Rianka Dorsainvil said.