Money Scripts: Why Do We Make Poor Money Choices?

For years, I believed my money problems stemmed from a lack of financial knowledge. I figured if I just read more, budgeted better, or worked harder, I’d figure it out. If I earned more, it would solve everything. You know the logic—get a bigger shovel and dig yourself out.

Many in the WCI world say, “Lack of net worth is a spending problem, not an earning problem.” What if it’s neither? What if the real problem isn’t what you’re doing with your money, but why?

I want to explore why even financially successful doctors still feel anxious, avoidant, or driven by fear—and how understanding my unconscious beliefs about money completely changed my relationship with it. These unconscious beliefs about money were formed in childhood, shaped by emotional experiences, and left unexamined (in most of us) for decades. They sit dormant in the background of your unconscious mind, influencing all money decisions. They are best defined as our money scripts.

Money scripts help explain why so many of us in medicine—people with six-figure incomes, graduate degrees, and strong analytical skills—still make baffling financial decisions. Earning more doesn't fix our relationship with money. Sometimes it just gives our scripts a bigger budget to wreak havoc.

What Are Money Scripts?

The term “money scripts” was coined by financial psychologist Dr. Brad Klontz and made known by the book Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders That Threaten Our Financial Health. Klontz defined them as unconscious beliefs about money—formed in childhood, passed down generationally, and deeply influenced by our emotional and environmental context.

They show up in our behavior: overspending, over-saving, status-chasing, and financial avoidance. Even for doctors with high salaries and advanced education, these scripts often override financial logic.

Klontz identified four core money script types:

Money Avoidance: Believing money is bad or that you don’t deserve it. Money Worship: Thinking money will solve all problems and bring happiness. Money Status: Equating self-worth with net worth. Money Vigilance: Overemphasizing frugality and financial caution.

These scripts don't just shape our mindset; they impact real outcomes. Three of the four are associated with lower net worth, higher debt, and poorer financial health. Only money vigilance tends to correlate with higher income, but even that one comes with baggage, especially anxiety. Read between the lines of most of the Bogleheads or WCI Forum posts, and you’ll see these scripts repeated.

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My Own Conflicted Financial Story

I grew up straddling two financial worlds.

My mom, sister, and I lived in a 450-square-foot house. I remember dragging my mom’s mattress into the living room so she’d have a place to sleep while my sister and I each had a room. That environment planted deep vigilance in me—money always felt scarce, so I learned to watch every dollar, to be cautious, and to fear not having enough.

Every other weekend, I would stay with my dad. He was financially comfortable, yet only one generation removed from significant poverty and financial instability growing up outside of the US. That contrast was confusing. One house had plenty; the other struggled.

This is where I learned of my financial flashpoints. These are highly stressful, sometimes traumatic experiences relating to finances that shape our money scripts. I vividly recall my first financial flashpoint relating to basketball shoes. I was hesitant to ask my mom for shoes so I could play eighth-grade basketball. The next weekend, I was staying with my dad. I asked about getting basketball shoes, and without much thought, we bought a new pair of Kobe’s full price at Foot Locker. I’m not much of a sneaker guy, but if you were around basketball in the late ’90s, you knew those shoes.

These two worlds modeled vigilance and worship. Vigilance in that money must not be freely tossed around, and worship in that more money will easily solve all my problems.

Later, my avoidance script appeared during a stressful intern year. I ignored my student loans until they totaled over $590,000 between my wife and me. I felt powerless, so I avoided looking. That’s textbook money avoidance. But I’ve also shown classic money vigilance—investing aggressively, driving old cars, stressing over even small expenses despite earning well into the six figures.

And I’m not alone. I’ve talked to doctors earning $400,000 who have no idea what their 401(k) is invested in, and they don't have a clue if they are on track financially. Others chase income like it’s a finish line, only to find there’s no peace there either. We’re running, but we don’t know why. We’re financially successful but emotionally stuck.

How These Scripts Show Up for High-Income Professionals

Here’s how the four money scripts play out in real life, especially among physicians:

#1 Money Avoidance: Ignoring Wealth While Earning It

Many of us avoid money because, deep down, we believe it’s bad or makes us greedy. Do you know colleagues with high incomes who never check their bank accounts or avoid planning entirely? They “leave it to their money person.”

#2 Money Worship: The Endless Chase

More money will fix it all, right? Have you ever picked up extra shifts chasing some arbitrary income milestone—$300,000, $400,000, $500,000—thinking peace will come with the next raise? Yet, it never does. The goal posts just move. How many of us have missed family milestones in place of chasing financial milestones?

#3 Money Status: When Prestige Drives the Spend

This is where net worth becomes self-worth. I know physicians who chose their specialty based entirely on status. They bought the luxury home, the car, and the vacation package—not out of joy but to keep up with peers. Now they’re stuck working overtime to pay for a life they never wanted.

#4 Money Vigilance: Over-Saving and Under-Living

This one hit home for me. It looks responsible on the surface, but it creates anxiety and scarcity, even when you’ve “won.” Think of some of the WCI Forum discussions where the physician is clearly on track financially but overly fearful of SORR or losing their stable paycheck despite an enormous emergency fund. They’re financially independent but emotionally imprisoned by a belief that they can never spend.

The Turning Points in My Financial Mindset

A few moments stand out as emotional flashpoints that shaped my money behavior and my response to the current scenario listed:

Money Fear: In 2008, I liquidated a Roth IRA to help a parent with housing payments during the financial crash. The thought we may lose our home was real, and it rewired how I think about risk. I was in undergrad, and now my yearly Backdoor Roth IRA contribution makes me grateful for the experience. Student Debt Avoidance: I didn’t face my six-figure loans until they ballooned to $593,000. Avoidance turned molehills into mountains. But I've nearly conquered that. Buying a Short-Term Rental Instead of Paying Off Debt: More recently, I chose to invest in a short-term rental rather than pay off my little remaining low-interest student loan debt. It was a shift from pure vigilance to strategic risk-taking. But even that decision had old scripts running underneath despite my progress.

More information here:

Strengthening Your Mental Health

Life’s Detours and Speedbumps (Before Milestones)

How I Started Changing the Narrative

I’m still in the process, but here are three things that helped me begin rewriting my money story.

#1 Read ‘Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders That Threaten Our Financial Health’ by Brad and Ted Klontz

Reading this book finally made my scripts visible. I highly recommend that every high-income earner read this and take their quiz: Taking the KMSI-R (Klontz Money Script Inventory – Revised). It's not an end-all, be-all, but it's a great start in determining how to better understand your money stories. I’m not one for quizzes like this. But it was fun to take after I read the book, and it helped me solidify some of the concepts.

#2 Tracking Emotional Triggers

I started noticing how I felt about money decisions—stress when spending, shame when indulging, fear of losing even small amounts. Just observing these emotions helped me gain insight into my money scripts.

#3 Talking About It

Opening up about money—first with my spouse and then trusted colleagues—was huge. It removed shame and helped me realize I wasn’t alone. Many physicians carry these same hidden scripts. We just don’t talk about them.

You Can't Heal What You Don’t See

For doctors in the US, high compensation is a hard-earned reward for the years of schooling and intense training. It should mean financial security and life autonomy. If we don’t examine the stories we carry from childhood, all the money in the world won’t make us feel secure or satisfied.

Understanding money scripts gave me the language to explain decades of puzzling financial behavior in myself and my family. It helped me see why I delayed, oversaved, stressed, or chased more. And it’s helping me choose differently now—not based on fear but on values.

To my fellow physicians: you’ve worked hard to earn your income. Don’t let outdated beliefs dictate what you do with it. Align your money with your values, and build a financial life that truly fits you.

Financial well-being isn’t just about earning more. It’s about uncovering the beliefs that quietly shape your decisions. No more drifting. Today is the day to stop letting outdated money scripts run the show. Start aligning your spending with your values, and begin building a financial life that truly fits you.

Have you noticed that you have money scripts? What are they? How have they impacted your financial decisions? How have you overcome them?

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