How do the beliefs we inherit about money shape our approach to wealth—and what happens when we finally decide to examine and rewrite those patterns? The Angel Next Door Podcast’s latest solo episode invites listeners to reflect on the roots of their financial behaviors and unpack how history, culture, and family influence their relationship with money. Host Marcia Dawood draws on her new book, "Unapologetic Wealth: Rewrite Your Money Story from Any Beginning." She shares personal insights, scientific studies, and actionable tools that help listeners understand why so many women feel hesitant or guilty around money, and how these feelings are often passed down across generations without question. In exploring the importance of financial awareness and intentional decision-making, Marcia demonstrates how changing our money story not only builds confidence and clarity for today, but also models healthier financial patterns for the next generation. This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to shift their financial perspective, break free from inherited limitations, and start conversations that can spark lasting change.
How do the beliefs we inherit about money shape our approach to wealth—and what happens when we finally decide to examine and rewrite those patterns? The Angel Next Door Podcast’s latest solo episode invites listeners to reflect on the roots of their financial behaviors and unpack how history, culture, and family influence their relationship with money.
Host Marcia Dawood draws on her new book, "Unapologetic Wealth: Rewrite Your Money Story from Any Beginning." She shares personal insights, scientific studies, and actionable tools that help listeners understand why so many women feel hesitant or guilty around money, and how these feelings are often passed down across generations without question.
In exploring the importance of financial awareness and intentional decision-making, Marcia demonstrates how changing our money story not only builds confidence and clarity for today, but also models healthier financial patterns for the next generation. This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to shift their financial perspective, break free from inherited limitations, and start conversations that can spark lasting change.
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Welcome back to the Angel Next Door podcast.Today is part 2 of 2 solo episodes talking about unapologetic wealth.In last week's episode, we talked about why so many women feel uncomfortable around money and how much of that feeling traces back to the messages and experiences we inherited.We talked about the fact that women couldn't open a credit card in their own name without a male cosigner until nineteen 74, and how that relatively recent history still influences the way many women think about money today.Once you start looking at that timeline, something becomes clear.Many women today are navigating financial opportunities that previous generations simply didn't have access to.That creates an unusual situation where women are expected to step fully into financial decision-making, even though many of the cultural messages we've inherited never encouraged us to do that.So today, I want to talk about what happens once we begin recognizing those patterns and how we can start moving forward in a more intentional way, not just for us right now, but also for the next generation.We are modeling behavior, and whether we think so or not, the next generation is watching.Once you begin to see your money story more clearly, something important happens.You realize that many of the beliefs guiding your financial decisions were formed long before you ever had the chance to question them.They were shaped by family conversations, cultural expectations, early experiences, and sometimes by the absence of conversations about money altogether.When those influences go unexamined, they quietly guide decisions about saving, spending, earning, and investing.But once you begin bringing awareness to them, you gain the ability to decide which beliefs still serve you and which ones no longer fit the life you want to build.These ideas are the foundation of my new book, Unapologetic Wealth: Rewrite Your Money Story From Any Beginning.And I'm going to take a moment here and read a passage from the book that I think is so interesting when it comes to talking about our inherited beliefs.So there's a study that was conducted by researchers at Emory University.In this experiment, mice were exposed to the scent of cherry blossoms while receiving mild electric shocks to their feet.Over time, the mice began to associate the scent of cherry blossoms with pain and fear.Eventually, the shock was no longer necessary.The scent alone triggered anxiety.But here's where it gets interesting.The offspring of those mice who were never shocked themselves also showed signs of fear when exposed to the cherry blossom scent.They had inherited a fear response to something they had never personally experienced, and it didn't stop there.The grandchildren of the original mice, 2 generations removed from the initial trauma, still responded with fear.No shocks, no training, just inherited anxiety triggered by the scent.Whoa.Imagine how this translates to humans.Not only have many women watched their mothers and grandmothers struggle with money, juggling bills, putting others first, or staying silent about financial decisions, but the idea of holding back has been deeply encoded through both lived experiences and, yes, epigenetics, which is what we just heard about with the mice.We inherit more than just memories.We inherit reactions, beliefs, and patterns.The message that money is not something to be bold with, but something to manage quietly and cautiously often allows guilt to creep in.You don't have to be explicitly taught for that message to reside within you.Sometimes it's simply and silently passed down through behavior generation to generation.Now, that phrase from any beginning in the subtitle was very intentional.People come to money from very different starting points.Some grew up in households where money was scarce and every decision had to be made carefully.Others grew up in environments where money was present but rarely discussed openly, which can leave people feeling uncertain about how financial decisions are actually made.Many people learned the importance of saving but were never encouraged to think about investing or building wealth in a broader sense.No matter the starting point, awareness creates the opportunity to move forward with more clarity.One of the first steps is becoming curious about your own financial history.That might mean asking yourself a few simple questions.What did I learn about money growing up?What did financial success look like in my household?How did people talk about money, if they talked about it at all?Those early experiences shape the emotional tone of our financial lives in ways that often go unnoticed.They influence whether we approach money with confidence or hesitation, whether we view financial decisions as empowering or stressful, and whether we see ourselves as capable participants in the financial world.Once you begin to understand those influences, you can start asking a much more empowering question: Do the beliefs I inherited about money actually align with my life and the life that I want to create today?That shift from automatic behavior to intentional decision-making is incredibly powerful.For example, someone might realize that they have been keeping a large portion of their savings in cash because it has always felt like the safest option.At a certain stage in life, holding cash may have been the right decision.It may have provided security during uncertain periods or helped navigate financial transitions.But if that habit continues without being reevaluated, it can quietly limit the ability to grow wealth over time.Inflation erodes purchasing power and opportunities for long-term investment may be missed simply because a decision that once felt protective was never revisited.Intentional financial decision-making means periodically stepping back and asking whether our habits still align with our goals.Another important shift involves expanding how we think about wealth itself.When people hear the word wealth, they often imagine financial statements or investment accounts, and money is certainly an important component, but wealth is much broader than that.True wealth includes time, it includes health, it includes meaningful relationships, and the ability to make choices that reflect your values and priorities.Financial resources become most powerful when they support those other forms of wealth.Money can create the flexibility to spend more time with family, to pursue meaningful work, to support causes that matter, and to invest in ideas that move the world forward.When money is aligned with those values, it becomes far more than a number on a balance sheet.It becomes a tool that supports a life designed with intention.Another important part of moving forward involves participation in financial conversations.For many women, money has long been treated as a private or even uncomfortable topic.But when women begin discussing money more openly, something interesting happens.Conversations that once felt intimidating begin to feel normal.Questions that once felt embarrassing become opportunities to learn.I've seen this repeatedly in rooms full of women who start talking about investing, financial decisions, and long-term planning.The moment someone asks a question out loud or tells their story, several others admit that they were wondering the same thing, and then they want to tell their stories.Those conversations create momentum.Confidence grows, knowledge expands, opportunities become more visible.Perhaps more importantly, those conversations help normalize the idea that women belong fully in financial decision-making.This matters not only for individuals, but for the broader economy.Women influence the majority of household financial decisions, and in the coming decades, women are expected to control a significant portion of global wealth.As that shift unfolds, women will be increasing influence over where capital flows, which businesses grow, and what kind of ideas receive support.That influence has the potential to shape innovation, entrepreneurship, and community development in powerful ways.That possibility is one of the reasons I care so deeply about this topic.When women build wealth, the impact rarely stops with them.Women tend to reinvest resources into families, communities, education, and opportunities for others.The ripple effects of financial confidence can extend far beyond one individual.That is ultimately why I wrote Unapologetic Wealth: Rewrite Your Money Story from Any Beginning.The book explores how our financial beliefs are formed, how those beliefs show up in our daily decisions, and how we can begin reshaping them in ways that align with our values and ambitions.It includes stories, reflections, and exercises designed to help readers understand their financial past while creating a clear and intentional path forward.Because wealth building doesn't begin with spreadsheets and investment strategies, it begins with perspective.It begins with a willingness to look at the beliefs we've inherited, understand how they shaped us, and decide what role we want money to play in the life we are creating.Unapologetic Wealth: Rewrite Your Money Story from Any Beginning was released on March 31, and the book is designed to guide readers through this journey step by step.And perhaps even more importantly, I hope these conversations encourage more women to talk openly about money with each other because awareness grows through conversation, and conversation is often where real change begins.You can find Unapologetic Wealth at all book retailers, and the links are also on my website at marciadawud.com.Thanks for listening.