About the show

Two perspectives, one curiosity

Emotional Money is an independent Australian podcast about why we feel the way we do about money — and how understanding those feelings can gently change our relationship with it.

Your hosts

Meet David & Emme

David

Co-host

David has spent years quietly fascinated by one thing: why smart, capable people make emotional decisions with money. He kept noticing the same pattern — that knowing what to do and actually doing it are very different things, and the gap between them is almost always emotional, not technical.

He started Emotional Money as a personal project to explore that gap out loud — in plain language, without jargon, and without judgement.

Behavioural curiosityPlain languageLifelong learner

Emme

Co-host

At 25, Emme represents a generation navigating real financial pressure — housing, cost of living, and the anxiety that comes with it. As a psychology student, she brings a fresh, research-informed lens to the emotional side of money that traditional finance tends to ignore.

She isn't afraid to ask the questions her generation is thinking but nobody says out loud. Her curiosity and openness make the harder feelings feel approachable and real.

Psychology studentGen Z lensAsks the real questions

Our approach

An emotion-first approach to money

What unites us is one idea: change how you feel about money first, and steadier choices tend to follow — far more naturally than they ever do through willpower alone. It's an approach grounded in well-recognised psychology.

Drawing on established psychological approaches

Our thinking draws on several well-established approaches — and is informed by Affective Liminal Psychology, a framework for shifting deeply held patterns through feeling rather than force.

CBT

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Noticing and reframing unhelpful thought patterns.

ACT

Acceptance & Commitment Therapy

Acting in line with your values, not your fear.

IFS

Internal Family Systems

Understanding your competing money “parts”.

Attachment theory

How early relationships shape money behaviour.

Our promise

We're not here to tell you what to do with money — you already know that. We're here to help you understand why you're not doing it, and to make that gentler to change.

More about our approach

Why this podcast

How it started

It began with a simple, nagging observation: people who know exactly what they “should” do with money often can't bring themselves to do it. The problem is rarely the plan. It's the feelings — fear, shame, avoidance, self-sabotage — the parts of money nobody seems willing to talk about.

“The problem was never the plan. It was the feelings.”

Then David and Emme started talking. She was studying psychology and open about her own money anxiety; he was fascinated by the emotional patterns underneath financial decisions. In conversation, something clicked — between her emotional awareness and his curiosity about behaviour, they could explore the part of money that usually gets ignored.

As they kept talking, a shared way of working took shape: an emotion-first approach that gave their conversations a structure. Emotional Money is where they think out loud about applying that lens to our relationship with money.

Our philosophy

What we believe

Emotion-first change

Understand how you feel about money first. When the feeling shifts, the behaviour tends to follow — without the constant willpower battle.

No shame, no force

Your money patterns made sense given what you learned. The aim is to update the learning — not to punish yourself for it.

Grounded in psychology

Built on established approaches — CBT, ACT, IFS and attachment theory — rather than guesswork or quick-fix affirmations.

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Weekly notes on the feelings behind money

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