SUMMARY
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Aja Evans is a board-certified therapist, speaker, and writer who is focused on financial well being. After ten years in a mental health practice, she noticed the emotional impact of how people interact with their money, especially black people. She saw reflections of her own journey to financial literacy and her own reckoning with her relationship with money and sought additional training.

Today, Aja joins the show to share how she has made assisting people at the intersection of mental health and money a pillar of her work.

TAKEAWAYS
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00:58 – Jonathan introduces today’s guest, Aja Evans, who joins the show to discuss her earliest memories of money and entrepreneurship and her path to becoming a financial therapist
09:42 – Accumulating debt versus not saving money
13:56 – Unfortunate financial statistics surrounding the black community
25:34 – Aja speaks to how she works with financial advisors
29:07 – Financial anxiety
32:24 – Money, guilt, shame, and secrecy
35:52 – Generational wealth
39:25 – How Aja works with her clients on their financial stress
43:42 – One piece of financial advice to heed and one thing to completely ignore
47:13 – Aja talks about her upcoming book
47:53 – The last thing Aja changed her mind about and the one question that Aja would want to know the answer to
50:32 – Jonathan thanks Aja for joining the show today and lets listeners know where to connect with her

QUOTES
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“I was going into debt and feeling really awful about myself and awful about my money because I just did not understand how I could be making what I felt like was so much money, and not be able to afford my lifestyle. And that was the first time that I really had to have a financial reckoning with lifestyle versus how much income you have and what does that look like and where does it come from.” (08:04) (Aja)

“I didn’t really have any direction, I think is the best way to put it, in terms of what I was trying to do. It was a lot of looking at how people were paying off debt, whether that was debt snowball or avalanche, it was just the stories of people. So, it wasn’t necessarily, ‘Hey, here are each of the steps.’ It was the stories that people were paying off debt and how interesting that was. And I just realized that people weren’t talking about it and felt really bad about it.” (13:04) (Aja)

“When it comes to the black community, historically there haven't been as many opportunities to create wealth. And, because of that, that means that there isn’t as much wealth to be passed on...” (15:37) (Aja)

ABOUT MINDFUL MONEY
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Do you struggle with money? You’re not alone.
Money is a means, not an end. It’s a necessity of life for sure, but more money does not always guarantee a “good life”. Money enables many aspects of modern life, but as a dominant consideration it becomes destructive.
The paradox is that more time and energy spent on personal finance does NOT create better outcomes. Unlike many other parts of life, we can’t create better outcomes by being smarter, spending more time, or putting in more effort.
Join Mindful Money author and experienced 40-year investor Jonathan DeYoe as he shares stories from artists, authors, entrepreneurs, and other advisors about how they mindfully minimize their need to think about money and get more out of life.
If you aren’t happy with your finances, feel like money takes more time that it should, or want to place your financial decisions into the broader context of your life, this show is for you.
Each episode will draw the line between the “enough” activities that the academics tell us are additive to family outcomes, and those “little bit more” efforts that take time and sap energy, but do NOT improve outcomes.

GUEST RESOURCES
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Aja’s Website: https://ajaevanscounseling.com/
Aja’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajaetherapy/
Aja’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaevans/
Aja’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ajaetherapy
Aja’s Email: aevans@ajaevanscounseling.com
Link to ET the Hip Hop Preacher ‘You Matter’ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDoFVSVVEWE
Books Mentioned:
Strangers in Paradise: https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Paradise-Families-Wealth-Generations/dp/0615894356

MINDFUL MONEY RESOURCES
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Monthly Coaching Membership: https://courses.mindful.money/mindful-money-membership
Jonathan’s Book – https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Money-Practices-Financial-Increasing/dp/1608684369
Website - https://mindful.money/
Jonathan DeYoe on LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/jonathandeyoe
Mindful Money on Twitter - https://twitter.com/MindfulMoney_Ed
Mindful Money on Facebook - http://facebook.com/MindfulMoneyPlan
Mindful Money on Instagram - http://instagram.com/mindfulmoneyplan
Mindful Money on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/MindfulMoney🎙️
Podcast Production by FullCast: https://fullcast.co/sn