Episode Details

What if we used money like a mirror in order to discover what your spending, saving, or your avoidance of financial matters reveals? What if the way you handle money isn’t about discipline or intelligence—but about what you learned growing up? 

In this episode of Never Perfect, Dr. Beth sits down with Doug Lynam, TEDx speaker, author, former Marine, Benedictine monk, and now money manager. He's been featured in The New York Times, CNBC, Entrepreneur, and The Street. He's guided clients from Main Street to Hollywood and worked with businesses and faith communities across the county.

Doug is the author of two books: From Monk to Money Manager: A Former Monk's Financial Guide To Becoming a Little Bit Wealthy—And Why That's Okay and Taming Your Money Monster: 9 Paths To Money Mastery With The Enneagram.

Doug’s unlikely journey took him from Marine → Benedictine monk (for 20 years) → money manager and financial coach. Along the way, Doug discovered that money is rarely just about numbers. It’s about attachment, fear, shame, control, and the stories we carry from childhood.

Today, Beth and Doug explore how our early experiences shape an anxious or avoidant relationship with money, why some people obsessively control finances while others avoid looking at them altogether, and what it means to develop a healthy attachment to money instead. Doug shares how he uses the Enneagram and attachment theory to help people identify their “money monsters” and align their financial habits with their deepest values.

They also touch on ADHD, people-pleasing, rejection sensitivity, spiritual bypassing, and the way unhealed money trauma gets passed from one generation to the next—unless we choose to face it.

This is a conversation about making peace with money, letting go of shame, and learning to use money as a tool for love, service, and freedom—without needing to be perfect.

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