I grew up lower middle class and the thing nobody understands is that we didn't budget because we were disciplined. We budgeted because we'd already done the math on what happens when the car breaks down in the same month the insurance is due, and that math never leaves your body even after the numbers change. - Silicon Canals

"People who grew up with enough money think budgeting is a lifestyle choice. People who grew up without it know budgeting is a form of threat detection that happens to involve spreadsheets."

"For people who grew up lower middle class or poor, the careful relationship with money didn't emerge from aspiration. It emerged from dread. And dread, as it turns out, is a much more powerful teacher than any budgeting app ever built."

"Research suggests that chronic stress, including the sustained low-grade kind that comes from financial precarity, triggers a cascade of hormonal responses involving cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine."

Financial scarcity has profound effects on individuals, shaping their relationship with money through stress and dread rather than aspiration. Those who grew up in financial precarity experience budgeting as a form of threat detection. Even with improved financial circumstances, they may still feel anxiety around spending. Chronic financial stress triggers hormonal responses that keep the body in a state of alertness, affecting behaviors and perceptions related to money long after the initial stressors have been alleviated.

Read at Silicon Canals