The Parent's Guide to Rewriting Money Scripts | E51
How do you move from financial survival mode to long-term stability when you're raising kids and navigating constant demands?
In this episode of Beyond Budgets®, Deb Meyer is joined by financial educator Chelsea Williams to explore how our earliest experiences shape our lifelong relationship with money and what parents can do about it.
You’ll learn why financial change is 80% mindset and only 20% technical, and how understanding your money story can unlock new possibilities for your family’s future. Chelsea shares a practical framework that helps families create healthy financial habits by focusing on beliefs, not just budgets.
They also discuss what most people don’t realize: a child’s core values and beliefs about money are largely formed between the ages of 0 and 12. For parents of young kids, this is a critical window. The way we talk about spending, saving, and value can either plant seeds of fear or lay the foundation for confident financial decision-making later in life.
Episode Highlights
(09:05) Why mindset matters more than math when it comes to financial stability
(10:16) How to identify and rewrite the limiting beliefs that may be holding you back
(11:48) What to say (and not say) to your kids about money, especially around spending
(24:04) A realistic way to set spending boundaries that align with your family values
(25:05) Why most wealth is built slowly
Whether you're managing finances solo or as a couple, and whether your kids are toddlers or teens, this conversation offers a hopeful and grounded approach to building financial peace—one decision at a time.
Resources
MoneyMastery.work - Chelsea Williams’ course, upcoming book, and podcast
The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber - A helpful read on raising money-smart kids
Connect with Host Deb Meyer, CFP®
Founder of WorthyNest®, helping faith-driven parents build financial plans that reflect their values.
Download your FREE guide | Follow us on YouTube | Take the Financial Wellness Quiz
Full transcript
Deb Meyer (00:01.376)
All right. I am thrilled to introduce today's guest, Chelsea Williams. She's also known as the money whisperer. Her genius really lies in understanding the financial world, the human condition and how those two coincide. So this can really help parents get unstuck and write new money stories without limits. Chelsea discovered she was pregnant at age 20, and she started her adult financial journey as a single mom. So fast forward to today. She's the chief financial architect at Solutions Group. She's also the creator of Money Mastery, host of the podcast Always and Never About Money, and she'll be releasing her first book soon. Chelsea, thanks so much for coming on Beyond Budgets®!
Chelsea M Williams (00:43.966)
Hey, I'm excited to be here! Thanks for having me.
Deb Meyer (00:47.338)
Yeah, yeah. So take us back a little bit to the beginning of your parenting journey when you first discovered you were pregnant. How did you navigate that financial responsibility that comes with parenthood?
Chelsea M Williams (01:00.468) Yeah, I think it's important to let people know that pre-finding out I was pregnant, I was a completely different person than when I found out that I was pregnant. My life before that moment was headed nowhere. I had no drive, no motivation, no will … if I'm being completely honest. When I found out I was pregnant, like in that moment, I had a complete paradigm shift in like my being of who I was and everything changed for me. And so I had almost instantaneously this drive of like, I'm gonna be this. tiny human's example. Like I'm going to show her what is possible in life and be the story that she then compares to for the rest of her life and into her adult life. And so when I found out I was pregnant, I was living on my own. I've lived on my own since I was 18 and financially independent. My parents love me. My parents also embrace tough love. And for me, worked for me. Tough love was what I needed because I was very stubborn. And so when I found out I was pregnant again, they loved me, but they were willing to allow me to manage that decision and the consequences of that decision, including financially. And so for me, one of the first moves that I made was I got to go to college. You know, I have to educate myself and position myself to be able to get a good paying
Deb Meyer (02:09.676)
Okay, wow.
Chelsea M Williams (02:34.72) job and have a career. And so financially what that looked like for me was working two jobs, being a full-time student, utilizing student loans and grants to not only get through and pay for college, but also to supplement the money that I needed so that we could just survive in the household. And so that's kind of where I started.
Deb Meyer (02:57.724)
I'm so glad you're sharing this because I know, you know, for anyone that would be kind of unplanned pregnancy, age 20, like I just can't imagine the circumstances and what must've been running through your head, even just like choosing life. mean that in and of itself, I'm just, I'm so grateful that was a turning point for you and really helped you, you know, connect with your why of, of, okay, this isn't about me. It's about this tiny human I'm growing. That's really important. And I'm just, I'm sure going back to that kind of timeframe, it probably does leave you in a spot of like, gosh, I mean, I've really grown a lot too in the journey. So I'm curious, like as you've evolved from that and your daughter's now older and I think you have another as well along the way here. Yeah. Two kids. Okay. Okay. Perfect. So now as a parent of two …
Chelsea M Williams (03:53.996)
She's 17 now, and my son is 7.
Deb Meyer (04:00.942)
How have you navigated that financial responsibility as well? I understand you're a single mom now as well. how are you handling that?
Chelsea M Williams (04:13.258)
Yeah, it has been a journey of growth and honestly, one step at a time. I think it can be incredibly overwhelming. Like back then, I had to focus on only the next step, the here and now and the next step. Because if I looked at the whole picture and all this debt that I was accumulating, I would have been completely overwhelmed. And so, and I had a lot of faith that, you know, things were going to work out. I truly believe if you have good intention, and you're open to opportunities, something is going to fall into your lap. And that's exactly what happened to me. I went to college for accounting and I, what seemed like a terrible situation turned into the best opportunity that I could have ever imagined. I found out that my job at the time, the business was gonna be closing. It was at Pearl Vision at the mall selling glasses and they were gonna be closing that location. And so now it was going to be out of my main job. So in that process and looking for a new job, I happened to find an ad in Craigslist. So I don't know if they even do this anymore, if Craigslist is where we go for jobs, but I found an ad in Craigslist and it was a business owner who was like, I started a business. It's blowing up. I moved it out of my garage into a downtown office and I need help. I don't know what kind of help I need. I just need help.
Deb Meyer (05:34.242)
Sure.
Chelsea M Williams (05:37.388) So when I started there, I was just kind of a general office assistant, just picking up things that I knew I could do for him, help with, take off his plate. And then one day his CPA came into the office and this was like that stereotypical image that you see in your head where they're taking like the paper reel boxes and stacking them up on the floor. And they're like, there's all the stuff. There's the receipts. There's the statements. I don't even know what's in there, but there you go. Do your part. What ended up happening was that he didn't hear back from his CPA. He kept calling him and trying to get updates and come to find out this is a very stereotypical position that people deal with with CPAs and bookkeepers where it's just a very reactive process and you have to micromanage it and you have to yell the loudest out of all the clients to get results. And so I stepped in one day after one accounting class, Accounting 101, and I was like, hey, admittedly, I don't know what I'm doing here, but I've taken this class and I got like an A plus.
Chelsea M Williams (06:47.404)
And I think I can, you know, give this a shot. I don't know. And he invested in me. He gave me the chance and I ended up building his bookkeeping software from scratch, all of his accounting systems. Accounting and the functions of accounting was so in alignment with who I was and how my brain worked that I found my passion in that opportunity. And in that opportunity, after a couple years working there,
Deb Meyer (06:50.679)
Sure.
Chelsea M Williams (07:13.396)
I had found a tax and accounting firm here in town, because I still knew I didn't know really what I was doing. I was just calling all these agencies and asking them, I doing this right? Is this report correct? Will you walk me through these numbers? So I had found a local CPA in town to check my work. And about two years into my job there, the CPA looked at me and he's like, I don't even know why you still come here. You know what you're doing. In fact, do you want a job here?
Deb Meyer (07:40.0)
Right? Trying to hire you away.
Chelsea M Williams (07:42.956)
Yes, and that was my first what I would consider good-paying job. It was when I was able to get off of state assistance off of the link card off of state health care assistance. And for me, that was a huge step. That was one of my goals. I want to make enough money to where I don't have to be on state assistance and I can still not just survive, but live fairly comfortably. So that was like, you know, a four or five year process.
Deb Meyer (08:08.206) Mm-hmm.
Chelsea M Williams (08:11.18)
So these things take time and patience and building one brick by one brick day in and day out. Deb Meyer (08:13.538) Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (08:19.938)
Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. It is important to remind people that it's an evolution. mean, it's not, I think I saw some visual while back about, you know, success by the world standards where you see that tip of the iceberg and then there's the 90 % underneath that no one really sees. But there's that 10 % that everyone publicly sees and they think, they just. It all just worked out, right? But it's not the case. There's a lot of hard work that goes into it. Some luck or, you know, intervention, God's intervention, but like there's other things at play and it's not because of lack of effort sometimes. I've worked with plenty of small business owners that, you know, have worked really hard, and they don't have much to show for it with the business and others that have been very financially successful. So just the fact that you kept going in spite of, you know, saying like, okay, this is a long game. All right, so let's talk a little bit about money stories. I'm specifically interested in how you help clients rewrite their money scripts.
Chelsea M Williams (09:30.572)
Yeah, this is an interesting one and it can start in one or two ways. If somebody is familiar with the psychology of money, the fact that it is 80 % technical or 20 % technical skills and 80 % perspective mindset, if they come with that understanding already, we can start right there. Have you ever heard of that saying where it says your thoughts create your beliefs? create your habits, create your character, create your destiny. We kind of follow that sequence if they understand it. And we start with core beliefs and we talk about the imprint period, which is from ages zero to 12, where we are in our subconscious and we are a sponge. And it's also where over 50 % of our core values and beliefs came from that we carry with us into adulthood. Deb Meyer (10:03.086) habits.
Chelsea M Williams (10:25.868)
And so we bring awareness to those because that's the first step to being able to change habits and beliefs is by being aware of them, right? Now on the other hand, and I'm curious how many people you run into and like how many are aware versus how many you kind of have to teach this to. Because on the other hand, what we can do is start with a framework, which is what I offered. It's a personal course on our website, moneymastery.work, personal finance program.
It's a framework that we install into the money. And the beauty of the framework is most people will deviate from it. We expect that from the beginning because again, we're working against our beliefs and our habits. And when we deviate, it creates the opportunity to then use that real life experience and then go back and retrace it to our core beliefs and values. So it either starts at the beginning of that sequence or we start with habits and reverse engineer it to actions, thoughts, beliefs.
Deb Meyer (11:28.27)
Interesting, okay. So it really is a pragmatic approach to it. It's not just saying, okay, let's rewire how we've grown up or had those core beliefs from zero to 12, as you said. It's trying to figure out, we acknowledge those core beliefs, we know what they are, and now we're going to try to create new belief systems that will influence our habits and behaviors and so on. Okay, cool.
Chelsea M Williams (11:55.818)
Yeah, I mean, and just like we talked about, you know, these things take time. We anticipate that it takes time. There is almost zero sustainable overnight wealth appearance. It all comes from laying brick by brick. And so, you know, this process, we expect deviations and we don't feel shame or guilt around them. We use them as an opportunity and every deviation, you start to see it over time and then it just starts to click better and better.
Deb Meyer (12:24.926)
Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, I want to unpack that a little more too, because obviously the listeners here are parents, so we're parenting kids that are in that zero to twelve. I mean, I would guess, like, if there are any behaviors you're seeing now as you're working with adults, are there things that we could be teaching our kids at a young age in that zero to twelve range that would help them later in life rather than hurt them? Are there...
Chelsea M Williams (12:24.928)
with why that's happening.
Deb Meyer (12:52.738) beliefs about money that we should be instilling now?
Chelsea M Williams (12:56.812)
Absolutely. And I'd love to hear yours on this, too, because I love that you work specifically with parents, because that is a prime age of opportunity. And just like money is 20 % technical, 80 % mindset, the mindset is where we can really make a huge difference in this gap from zero to 12 years. And one of the ones that really hits home the most with people is how much is a lot? Like if we go to the store and our kid wants a toy that's $50, if our response is, you know, that's a lot of money. We can't get that toy right now because that's a lot of money. Well, a lot of money is subjective. So even if a lot of money, even if $50 feels like a lot of money to you, do you want your child to feel like that's a lot of money? You know?
Deb Meyer (13:25.582)
Mmm. Yeah, yeah.
Chelsea M Williams (13:50.732)
So how we frame our responses to specifically amounts of money can be a big game changer. I this with my daughter and again, she's 17 years old and like we're in the phase now to where that is kind of backfiring a little bit like we're having to course correct because I did a good job of instilling that money is subjective. How much is subjective? Your earning potential is unlimited. She's not earning anything yet. And so we're like having that balance of like, great, your mindset is awesome. Now how are going to go make that? Also, like you don't make anything right now. And yes, I'm here to help, but I'm not here to enable. So we're working through that right now.
Deb Meyer (14:26.786)
Thank you. Yes. Well, and I find that, especially because I have, you know, three boys of different ages. So I understand too, that they each have a little bit different perspective on money and how they show up with, I mean, yeah, my first one is as soon as he earns it, it's gone. And I'm like. Okay, that's the polar opposite I was growing up as a kid. But just trying to navigate that with a child that's just so different in mindset. But at least for me, kind of thinking back to my childhood and some of the lessons my dad especially instilled in me, was money doesn't grow on trees. That was a big one for us. we always had to like shut off our lights every time we left a room because utilities, you gotta save on utilities. Like those were the things I grew up with and it was a very scarcity driven mindset. So it took me a long time as an adult to finally like open up my eyes and be like, I don't wanna say those same things to my kids. I don't want them to always feel like there's this scarcity around it. Cause as you said, there truly is unlimited earning potential. mean, with like entrepreneurship as an example, like there's opportunity to earn another dollar potentially, right? So I do think it's important to instill some of those positive messages, not the ones that are going to be always scarcity driven, but there is that fine balance where you don't want people to just think, there's this easy supply and as soon as you spend it there will always be more coming because that's not a healthy habit either so it's it's finding that fine line.
Chelsea M Williams (16:26.792)
Yeah, and how old is your oldest?
Deb Meyer (16:29.422)
15, almost 16.
Chelsea M Williams (16:31.54)
Okay, so you might be experiencing this too. I feel like there's, again, it's all about balance and we have to like counteract whatever is happening, right? But I feel like you hear people say that there's this generation of entitlement and I can kind of see that. I can kind of get that. And so, it's one of those things, especially in the workforce and me being an entrepreneur and networking with other business owners, it's like, yeah, this age group, it's hard to hire them and keep them because they don't want to work, but they're coming out of college feeling like this salary is owed to them and anything less is just financial abuse by your employer. Like it's very dramatic. And I see some of those, some kind of yellow flags in my 17-year-old's mindset that's leading me to believe that we have to now focus, it's almost like we always go back to the roots sometimes, right? And like I grew up and my dad instilled in me that you have to work your butt off. You gotta hustle, work long hours, even take a physical toll on your body. And that was something I had to overcome. And I don't want my daughter to go through that, but at the same time, there's a certain degree to which work ethic matters hugely and the value that you contribute matters hugely. Are you kind of seeing the the same types of things with these different age groups?
Deb Meyer (17:58.292)
Yes, I'm seeing it as well. It's hard. We want to have positive images of financial means, but we also don't want to get that sense of enablement. there was a really good book I read several years ago called The Opposite of Spoiled. That was helpful for me just to kind of see, for kids that are in a more privileged family situation financially, how can they foster that sense of responsibility, personal responsibility and financial independence separate from whatever their parents might be doing, right? So I do feel there's definitely that fine line as you're suggesting. All right, so I do wanna switch gears into... talk a little bit more about that money mastery and specifically financial freedom for women. know you're very passionate about that. Could you share a little bit more about how money mastery even came to be and why you're so passionate about it today?
Chelsea M Williams (19:05.833) Yeah, I am passionate about it because nobody's teaching us. It is not a required course in high school, except for last I checked two or three states. I have a finance degree and it did not cover it well enough. And yet I see so much unnecessary, in my opinion, financial suffering. And so I am here to create impact. And for women especially, I have strategies. And I have a program for men, a second book coming for men specifically, because there is definitely an imbalance happening right now. And men need that attention and that guidance and that acknowledgement because the balance is changing. But for women in particular, we have only just entered what I call the financial algorithm. We were kept from financial independence up until 50 years ago, which in the scope of the entire financial algorithm of its existence is 1 % of its life. And so women in particular need empowerment right now because we only have our toenails dipped into the water, our whole toe ain't even in there. And while things like the wage gap exist, where I like to give women hope and a shift in perspective. Yes, there is still a wage gap. But we've only been here for 1 % of the timeline. If you back up, that wage gap is almost nothing. Like we have the potential over the next 10 to 20 years to, that's gonna change. That's gonna change, no doubt about it, right?
Deb Meyer (20:35.394)
Mm-hmm.
Chelsea M Williams (20:51.668)
And so I love working with women because we have a lot of history working against us and not even just financial facts and the fact that we're only even able to have access to this information, this knowledge, this independence. But just like each individual has an imprint period from ages zero to 12, there are generational imprints that are coming through to women, generational mindsets of what we should and should not be doing. what our place is and what is not our place. And so we have to work extra hard because these beliefs are encoded into our DNA. We are working against generations of what our grandmothers taught our mothers and what our great-grandmothers taught our grandmothers. The exciting thing about that is we are the first generation, mine and the one right before me, that are even able to break this for all future generations. So not only do we have to catch up very quickly, which we've already done, by the way, again, 1 % of the timeline, and we are really close to solidifying this wage gap scenario. Not only do we have to catch up, we have to equip ourselves with financial literacy, which is already, whether it's a man, woman, doesn't matter, is lacking on a human level.
And the reason that it's so important now is because we have the greatest wealth exchange in history coming. And a majority of the wealth that's about to get passed down from baby boomers is set to go into the hands of women. And there have been so many studies done that money and leadership in the hands of women benefits everybody, not just her, not just the individual. So it's a really exciting time. I love talking about it.
Deb Meyer (22:48.876)
That's great. Yeah, I'm glad you, especially being a woman yourself. And I'm a woman, obviously, and I do think, as you said, traditionally, women have been in a different role in society. Even thinking back to years ago when my mom was an accountant, she was going through classes and at that time she was, one or two women in the large lecture hall doing accounting, public accounting. Even just at her generation trying to break through and yeah, it's crazy how I guess when you're living in it you don't see how far we've come, but sometimes you do need that historical perspective to really say like, okay, we have come far. It's just there's still more work to do potentially.
Chelsea M Williams (23:43.488)
Yeah, it helps us to give ourselves grace. We need that. We need grace.
Deb Meyer (23:46.254)
So tell me a little bit more about this book that you have coming up. What's the main theme, and when is it expected to release? Chelsea M Williams (23:55.87) Yeah, it will hopefully be done. We've just started it. don't even we haven't even solidified a title yet. But I have some really cool ideas. But we are hoping to wrap it up in Q4 of this year. It's a process I don't want to rush because my goal with this book is to create global impact. And just like I said, this thing is coming. And women need to know x, y and z. This is my guide. This is my tool for women to take where we are at now, understand our history, and give them financial literacy through the lens of being a woman and having all of these generational beliefs working against us. And teaching them the principles of money and how it works. And helping them link that 20% technical of what you need to know and do to that 80% mindset. And for women there are some very specific things holding us back within our formula. call it our formula. Everybody is living under the same exact financial equation. I don't care who you are, what you do, businesses live under it as well. It is money we make minus money we spend equals money we keep to save and invest. And so I break down that equation through the lens of being a woman and I go through everything that's working against us and how we can counteract it so that I can help empower women to take this wealth that is coming our way and do right by it.
Deb Meyer (25:29.966)
Mm-hmm. Well, what a noble cause. Well, I wish you the best of luck as you develop it and, you know, decide on a title and all of that. So, but yeah, when this episode airs, it will likely be in the fall or early winter time frame. So it might be around that time of release.
Chelsea M Williams (25:49.18)
It'll be close. Yeah, go to the website. See if it's out yet.
Deb Meyer (25:55.35)
So let's just go back to your role as a single mom and for single moms today who really are struggling, they're feeling uncertain about their family's future. What kinds of words of encouragement would you offer?
Chelsea M Williams (26:09.196)
It always seems worse right now than it actually is. It feels worse, and it's really easy to feed into that energy of doubt and defeat. But you know, if we look back at any instance in our life where in the moment we felt like it was catastrophic. If we look back on it now, chances are, it really wasn't. And so keep that in mind when you are in the bubble. The bubble of all of the things that are happening now and all of the defeat and grief and whatever other negative emotions come with that. Because the truth of the matter is that if you install a framework and spending boundaries, I don't call it a budget, I call it boundaries. Spending boundaries that protect. The bottom part of that equation, the money that you keep, if you just work the system and you are consistent, there is almost no way that you can live in scarcity for the rest of your life. Almost no way. I read a story about a janitor on the East Coast who was making a salary, a janitor's salary. And when he passed away, there was $5 million in wealth that he had left.
Creating wealth, it's the habits, it's the consistency. Warren Buffett started investing when he was 10 and he didn't realize his wealth until well into his 50s. His secret was time. He's not even the best investor anymore, but he's been doing it the longest, so he's still the wealthiest. So give yourself that grace and that time and be consistent. Invest in yourself and your plan every day.
Deb Meyer (27:51.246)
Sure, sure. Yeah, so for that woman, I do think those are very encouraging words just to get a little bit more specific and tactical for her. Is there an intro point at which she is getting those spending boundaries? Is that the starting point for a woman who's in a pretty precarious financial situation, just not feeling certain about income in the future and and making sure her family, you know, her kids are taken care of?
Chelsea M Williams (28:31.754)
Yeah, I think that's a great place to start, and I think that's where most people start. Control your spending, have boundaries, and be grateful for what you do have. And I know that's easy to say and hard to embrace, but it's very true. You manifest gratitude no matter how much money you make or how much money you have left. But for you, woman who's listening … your attention and time is best spent focusing on the top part of that equation, how much you make. Because the number one thing holding us back from receiving more money is our mentality around it, how much we think we're worth. For example, I would encourage you, we talked about that imprint period and what core beliefs you took from that.
Chelsea M Williams (29:19.956)
How much money is a lot of money to you? That's incredibly telling. Also, how much money is too much money? A lot of us are walking around here thinking that we're evil people if we make more than 150,000 a year. So really ask yourself these prompts and figure out where do your money blocks lie? Because there is way more opportunity out here than we realize. And once we can identify where our mind is telling us we're capped, and we break through those glass ceilings, we see opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. There are breadcrumbs for you to follow, whether that is a trade certificate, college, whether it's a side hustle, being an entrepreneur, there are a lot of ways to make money and enjoy what you're doing to make it.
Deb Meyer (30:08.02)
Mm-hmm. And still being present to kids. mean, that's the other big part of all of this equation, being a single mom. I'm very blessed to have my husband and we work together as a team, but I just, I, you know, I can't put myself directly into those shoes, but I'm trying to say like, okay, to any single moms out there, I applaud you because what you're doing is very, very difficult. Raising tiny humans is difficult and earning an income while you're doing it is even more difficult. Do you feel like entrepreneurship for that reason is probably a good pathway for a lot of women that are single moms? do you have any thoughts? Because you've obviously worked in a lot of different spaces of having two jobs at one time, traditional roles versus the entrepreneurial path. What have you found beneficial?
Chelsea M Williams (31:01.208)
I was born an entrepreneur, so I may be a little biased here. I do think it's a great opportunity. However, you have to do it right. And to do it right means it's going to take time. So don't leave your nine to five and go start something and think that you're going to be able to supplement your income right away. is something that is built over time, for sure. And I think back to what I had to do as a 20-year-old single mother just to survive.
Deb Meyer (31:20.514)
Okay.
Chelsea M Williams (31:26.782) If I was to do that same exact thing today in today's economy, it would not work the same. Honestly, if I was me today, who I had to be 20 years ago, I would find other single mothers and I would create a communal living situation where we could lean on each other and help each other with the kids. it's kind of like that idea of when one ship rises, we all rise because today's economy is completely different.
Deb Meyer (31:57.006)
Sure. Okay. Well, thanks. This has been really helpful. Where can listeners find out more about you online and learn about workshops or your podcast? Where's a good place to connect?
Chelsea M Williams (32:09.578)
Yeah, the best place to go is moneymastery.work and it's got all of our socials. It's got, you can sign up to get notified when the course and the book get released and the podcast is on there too.
Deb Meyer (32:22.09)
Awesome. Okay, thanks so much, Chelsea. Any closing thoughts?
Chelsea M Williams (32:26.284)
This has been fun. This has been exciting. I, again, like if you're a parent right now, you have a lot of power and things are changing very quickly. And so I think this is a great message for your audience.
Deb Meyer (32:34.574)
All right, thanks so much.