Y11W18WR The money stories you inherited

Observational
The writing prompt

Examine the money scripts you can identify in your own thinking — where they came from, how they show up in your decisions, and which you want to keep.

1Retrieval check

Q1.What are Klontz’s four money scripts?

  • ASaving, spending, investing, debt
  • BAvoidance, worship, status, vigilance
  • CRich, poor, middle-class, elite
  • DFear, greed, wisdom, foolishness

Q2.According to Furnham’s research, what transmits more reliably across generations than financial literacy?

  • AIncome itself
  • BSpecific investment strategies
  • CFinancial attitudes
  • DJob choice
Show answer key

Q1 → B. Avoidance, worship, status, vigilance.These are the four unconscious belief patterns that form in childhood and drive adult financial behaviour beneath conscious awareness.

Q2 → C. Financial attitudes.Financial literacy education alone often fails because it addresses calculation, not the underlying attitudes children absorbed from parents.

2Prompt deconstruction

Command verb
EXAMINE — analyse patterns, not confess circumstances
You pick
at least two of Klontz’s four scripts by name
Goal
work outward from specific to general — specific pattern → specific observation → specific behaviour
Must reference
Klontz’s framework AND at least one developmental mechanism (parental modelling, overheard conflict, experiencing/remembering self)

3Pick nudge

Which inherited money scripts will you examine before you plan?

Most visible script
Avoidance / Worship / Status / Vigilance
Second script
Often a mix of two
Source
Parental modelling, overheard conflict, family story

4Planner — for each of your picks

Script
How it shows up in my decisions now
#1
#2
#3

5Sentence stems

  • I noticed that ___ when ___.
  • The specific moment it stood out was ___.
  • Before paying attention, I had been assuming ___.
  • [Researcher’s] finding that ___ captures what I saw, because ___.
  • The pattern across my cases is ___.
  • What this tells me about [wider topic] is ___.

6Exemplar paragraph (not about this article)

(1) Two scripts I can see in my own thinking: (1-a) Vigilance — I count what I spend to the cent and feel anxious when I can’t, which traces to overhearing my parents reconcile accounts every Sunday evening. (2) It’s useful for not overspending, less useful because it makes small mistakes feel like moral failures. (3) (1-b) Avoidance — I have never checked how much money is in my account before paying for something; I just assume it’s fine. (4) That script came from a family that never talked about money at all. (5) Klontz’s framework fits: both scripts formed by observing, not being taught. I want to keep vigilance calibrated down, and replace avoidance with monthly review.

What this paragraph does, move by move

  1. Names the first money script and traces it to a specific family observation.
  2. Evaluates how the vigilance script helps and hurts.
  3. Names the second money script and describes how it shows up.
  4. Traces the avoidance script to a specific family pattern.
  5. Links the pattern to Klontz’s research and names the change the writer wants.