What is 'money dysmorphia' and how can you learn more about your finances

Money Dysmorphia, being mindful of your money.

Author David Delisle believes you’re never too young to learn about spending money. He joined CTV Morning Live’s Kent Morrison to break down “Money Dysmorphia.”

Kent Morrison: If you're an Instagram user or an internet user at all, you likely have scrolled through pictures and posts of friends and influencers on extravagant vacations, enjoying elegant meals, buying new homes or cars, and you can feel a little jealous and wonder where all your money goes. It can contribute to something called Money Dysmorphia. David Delisle is an author who focuses on money, mindfulness and the endless cycle of chasing more. How do you explain Money Dysmorphia and where it comes from?

David: It's simple. It's just basically your perception of your finances, isn't linked to reality. That's all it is. As you mentioned, it's all these things that we're seeing that are distorting what we think is normal.

Kent: What does it lead to? Does it lead to overspending because you want to kind of keep up with the internet Joneses or maybe not spending it all, because you want to try to accumulate the wealth to do such a thing.

David: It's sort of both. It goes on both ends of the spectrum. Some people will hoard and feel super anxious and feel super poor, even if they have more than the average person. The opposite would be people chasing and thinking, "I need to make money really fast and I got to spend it, because I'll never have enough anyway."

Kent: What's the problem that can kind of spin out of control when you have this sort of dysmorphic view of your own finances?

David: You just start going into bad money habits. Rather than actually knowing what is normal, or what most people might have, you feel like you don't add up. So, you're going to have all the anxiousness, the insecurity, and feel bad about your finances. Like you said, because if people are on vacation, you're thinking, that should be me, why isn't that me? Now you might spend on that vacation, even though you can't afford it. That's not what everyone's doing, but it's what everyone's doing on social media.

Kent: Exactly. Money is a tricky one, because I think a lot of people pretend they understand money more than they actually do. It's a tricky topic to talk about. What are your tips for people to sort of be conscious and mindful about their money?

David: That's why I wrote this graphic novel to teach kids about financial literacy. It doesn't have to be complicated. Your apparently young child, even at that age, just start talking to your kids about money. That's as easy as it has to be. As you buy things, you can let them know how much those things cost. I know your boy is younger, so you'd probably not put it in terms of dollar amounts, but when my boys were younger, I put it in terms of chocolate bars and LEGO sets that they got. It's just understanding like, how much do things cost? How much do I have? How much do I spend? Just having those conversations. That is how we change this.

Kent: It's a tricky one because generationally, you were told "don't ask how much dad makes. Don't ask how much that costs." It was all sort of this societal thing that we don't talk about that, but we need to.

David: We need to. That's what's creating the dysmorphia, because we're getting our information from social media, not from our parents, our friends, or reality. We need to have those conversations. It's tricky because we layer in shame and judgement in it. That's why we're like, "don't talk about it," but you can talk about these things without shame and judgement. You can tell your kids, "I just filled the car up. This is how much it costs. We just went out for dinner. That's how much it costs." Not to make them feel guilty because you took them out for dinner, but so they start becoming aware. Like what do these things actually cost? What is normal?

Kent: I want to talk about this because we seem to live in a time where chasing more isn't always the goal. Success, success, success. Do you have any advice for just being OK with what you have?

David: I talk about this a lot. I talk with awesome stuff. It's just asking, "Is this my awesome stuff?" The concept is, the more you focus on what brings you joy, the more you're going to realize what doesn't. With chasing more, once you start doing that, being mindful, you will realize that most of the things you spend your time and money on, are bringing you joy.