A friend asks what you'd charge for one of your prints. You hear yourself say, "Oh, I don't know, whatever you think is fair." Later, you see someone with half your skill selling theirs for three times as much, and you feel a mix of envy and something like relief that at least you're not that person.
That reaction usually isn't about the print. It's about a story you carry about money, one you may have picked up long before you had a project to sell.
Money scripts, and where they come from
Financial psychologist Brad Klontz and colleagues developed the Klontz Money Script Inventory to measure common beliefs about money, which they call money scripts. Their research describes four patterns: money avoidance (money is bad, or I don't deserve it), money worship (more money would solve everything), money status (my worth equals my net worth) and money vigilance (money should be saved, watched and not discussed).
In later work summarized in the Journal of Financial Planning in 2012, Klontz and Sonya Britt reported that these scripts were associated with specific financial behaviors. Money avoidance, for example, was linked with things like avoiding bank statements and trying not to think about one's finances. These are associations from survey research, not a diagnosis, and most people recognize a bit of more than one script in themselves.
How a script can shape a creative project
The script rarely announces itself. It shows up as small decisions:
- Avoidance can sound like "I just do this for love," even when you'd like it to pay for itself.
- Vigilance can mean you never spend a cent on the course or the tools that would move the project forward.
- Status can make you hide the project until it looks impressive enough.
- Worship can make every unsold piece feel like proof you've failed.
None of these make you bad with money. They're stories, often inherited from how money was talked about, or not talked about, at home.
Rewrite one line at a time
You don't need to overhaul your relationship with money this week. Try this instead:
1. Notice the sentence. When you price, spend on, or talk about your project, what's the first phrase in your head? 2. Ask where you learned it. A parent, a culture, a bad year? 3. Write the sentence you'd tell a friend. If a friend were pricing her prints, what would you say to her?
Podcasts like Tiger Sisters, where sisters Cherie and Jean Luo talk openly about money, power and love, can help simply by making money talk feel normal. Hearing other people say numbers out loud makes it easier to say your own.
The price you set is partly a story you tell about yourself.
Where an accountability partner fits
Money scripts are hard to see from the inside and easy to see from the outside. An accountability partner can gently point out when you undercharge, avoid a decision, or talk your project down. Agree on one money decision you've been putting off, like setting a price or opening a separate account for the project, and give yourself a date to tell them it's done. Having someone expect the update makes it harder for the old script to quietly win.
This week
Write down the first money sentence that comes to mind about your project. Next to it, write the sentence you'd say to a friend in your position. Then make one small decision using the second sentence.