How financial 'experts' have ruined our relationship with money.

In this edition of Culture Study, a personal finance writer Dana Miranda focuses on the toxicity of budget culture. Particularly on the toxic ideology of money: where it comes from, how we internalize it, and how it haunts us for the rest of our adult lives.

Marni Penning

Anne Helen Petersen is a journalist and author of four books, including the forthcoming "Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home."

Anne Helen Petersen

A weekly newsletter from journalist and author Anne Helen Petersen.

The name “Culture Study” is a modification of “Cultural Studies,” a term used to describe an academic field — and general posture — towards the culture that surrounds us. The scholars of this early field believed that if people found meaning or pleasure in a cultural object, no matter how high or low brow, it was worth thinking about.

Budget culture and the Dave Ramseyfication of money