You don’t need more advice thrown at you. You need someone who can stay with you.

When everything is changing, you don’t need another expert telling you what to do. You need someone who can stay with you in the uncertainty and help you make decisions without rushing, shaming, or overwhelming you.

In this episode of Home Ec, hosts Nick Ashburn and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Moraya Seeger DeGeare sit down with Josh Dunlop, founder of Even Path, to explore what real financial support looks like during high-stakes life transitions like divorce, retirement, loss, and complex family change.

Josh explains why he prefers the word guidance over advice. Advice creates a power dynamic. Guidance is collaborative. It is someone walking with you when you feel activated, isolated, and unsure what comes first.

We talk about what clients often look like when they arrive: burned out, overwhelmed, and late to asking for help. Josh shares how avoidance compounds stress, and how creating structure and executive support in high-pressure moments can lower anxiety and restore confidence. We also explore what people are really fighting for in divorce and major transitions: not just money, but balance, safety, dignity, and the need to feel whole again.

Josh introduces a concept he is developing called wallet dysmorphia, describing how trauma can distort someone’s perception of their financial reality even when the numbers are stable. Often, the person least able to assess the situation clearly is the one living inside the upheaval.

• Guidance vs advice and why the difference matters in transition
• What being “activated” looks like in divorce and major life change
• Why structure lowers panic and helps people regain footing
• How grief and identity loss shape financial positions
• Wallet dysmorphia and the gap between feelings and facts

Josh Dunlop is a financial advisor and the founder of Even Path, a fee-only practice (no commissions, no product sales). He is a CFP, CDFA, and a board member of the Financial Therapy Association.

Josh is currently accepting new clients:

• Individuals navigating divorce
• Couples preparing for retirement
• Families holding complex transitions and financial dynamics

• Work with Josh: Even Path
• Episode reflections and Our FREE Money Psychology Assessment : homeecpodcast.com

• Instagram : @homeecpod & @Calibrate_app
• TikTok
• Linkedin

Questions or reflections? Email Moraya@personawealth.com

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not financial, legal, or clinical advice, and does not replace working with a qualified financial professional or licensed therapist who understands your individual situation. Listening does not create a therapeutic or advisory relationship.

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Episode Summary

What if your financial history isn’t a knowledge problem or a personal failure, but a nervous system story?

In this episode of HomeEc, we sit down with aspiring Rich Auntie Rachel to unpack a year of emotional, relational, and financial transformation that led to one unexpected move: she submitted her Calibrate Growth Profile alongside her mortgage paperwork.

She got the mortgage.

Financial Therapist Nick Ashburn and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Moraya Seeger DeGeare explore what happens when context meets numbers, when behavior is understood instead of judged, and why “knowing what to do” so often breaks down without safety, regulation, and support.

This episode challenges the idea that financial success is about discipline alone and asks a bigger question: what would change if lenders and advisors understood the human behind the spreadsheet?

What We Cover

• Why knowing better does not automatically lead to doing better
• Emotional spending as regulation, not moral failure
• How strengths become blind spots under stress
• Over-giving as a bid for connection
• Showing up as an adult versus a younger, activated self
• How context changes financial behavior
• What Rachel’s story reveals about credit, care, and trust

Why This Episode Matters

Rachel’s story shows what becomes possible when self-awareness, therapy, and behavioral insight enter real financial systems. This is not a story about perfection. It is a story about being seen, supported, and regulated enough to follow through.

If you have ever felt behind, misunderstood by your numbers, or stuck in patterns you “know better” than to repeat, this episode is for you.

Let’s Calibrate take the FREE 15 minute Assessment

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Disclaimer

This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute mental health, financial, or legal advice. It is not a substitute for guidance from a licensed mental health professional or a qualified financial advisor familiar with your personal circumstances.

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HomeEc Season 2 episode 1

Title: Stir The Pot

Cooking time for this episode is 46 minutes.

We are serving up something hot for humans juggling emotional labor, ambition, and overwhelm who want a clearer, more compassionate way to understand their financial lives and behaviors.

Season two of HomeEc opens with Financial Therapist Nick Ashburn, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Moraya Seeger DeGeare, and the brilliant Chef La Mason exploring where well-being, entrepreneurship, and financial awareness meet. Together they look at what happens when caregiving, creativity, neurodiversity, and money collide. La shares how understanding her nervous system reshaped her life, helped her pay off thousands in debt, and shifted her relationship to work, rest, and self worth.

Key Ingredients

The emotional pressure of caregiving and the sandwich generation, neurodiversity, ADHD, and demand avoidance. Burnout, identity, and redefining success. Emotional spending as nervous system regulation Money as life energy. Calibrate’s behavioral lens on why you do what you do through the free Calibrate assessment

Memorable Quotes

• "I realized I wasn’t paying interest with dollars. I was paying with my time, my sleep, and my kid."
• "I thought I had a money problem. Turns out I had a capacity problem."
• "My nervous system wasn’t avoiding money. It was avoiding shame."
• "When you finally see your pattern, you can’t unsee it."
• "Budget apps kept telling me what to do. Calibrate finally told me why I couldn’t do it."
• "My spending wasn’t impulsive. It was my nervous system begging for relief."

Main Course Topics:

How emotional labor and caregiving shape financial patterns The impact of burnout on spending, planning, and focus Reframing decisions through time, energy, and capacity Why neurodivergent and overwhelmed brains hit avoidance

Taste It:

Experiential Pause before opening a bill or app and notice what your body is doing Choose one well-being area to nurture instead of pushing harder Try La’s time-value reframe to understand the real cost of stress Convert one expense into hours of your life energy Journal prompt: When I emotionally spend, what am I trying to soothe Extra credit: Tell one trusted person the real story of your money week

HomeEc Links:

Let’s Calibrate take the FREE 15 minute Assessment

Checkout La’s delicious food on Instagram La’s website Bon Fete Cuisine

Join the HomeEc conversation on Instagram

HomeEc TikTok

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🎯 Who Should Listen? Investment professionals, business leaders, workplace strategists

📌 Topics Covered: Human capital, employee well-being, workplace culture, investment returns

🔍 Key Themes: Organizational psychology, behavioral economics, AI in business

Welcome to a special episode of HomeEc, where we explore money, relationships, and everything in between. While developing our financial wellness platform, we’re sharing this insightful CFA Society of Philadelphia webinar, moderated by host Nick Ashburn.

Visit PersonaWealth.com to take our free financial psychology assessment and uncover your money blind spots. In future episodes, we’ll dive into user stories and actionable steps to improve financial well-being.

• ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance): This episode focuses on the "S"—how companies treat employees.
• Human Capital Factor: An investment metric showing companies with strong employee sentiment outperforming benchmarks by 3-6% annually.
• Good Job Strategy: A model proving that investing in employees leads to operational and financial success.
• Intrinsic Motivators: Factors like recognition, purpose, and fairness that drive employee engagement beyond pay.

• Nick Ashburn (Host): Founder/CEO of PersonaWealth, former Head of Responsible Investing at PNC Bank, and sustainable investing expert at Wharton.
• Sarah Kalloch: Executive Director, Good Jobs Institute; MIT Sloan lecturer; expert in job quality and business performance.
• Bart Houlahan: Senior Partner, Irrational Capital; Co-founder of B Lab and the B Corp movement.

💡 "Making the invisible visible is a superpower." – Nick Ashburn

💡 "Service jobs are the bedrock of communities—we must make them good jobs." – Sarah Kalloch

💡 "The human capital factor is based on employee sentiment—how they feel about their employer." – Bart Houlahan

✔️ Good Jobs Drive Business Success – Companies with strong employee cultures outperform financially.

✔️ Human Capital as an Investment Factor – Employee sentiment is a leading indicator of business success.

✔️ AI & Workplace Transformation – Companies with strong cultures will navigate AI disruption more effectively.

📚 Learn More:

• Good Jobs Institute
• Irrational Capital
• B Lab & B Corp Certification
• MIT Living Wage Calculator

📲 Follow Us: Instagram/TikTok @homeecpod

🌐 Websites: PersonaWealth.com | HomeEcPodcast.com

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Nick and Moraya talk with Dr. David Musto from Wharton about Finiverse, an app designed to help families navigate college financing decisions.

Dr. David K. Musto - Ronald O. Perelman Professor in Finance and Faculty Director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School. Expert in consumer credit, predatory lending, and financial distress.

• $1.7 trillion student loan debt affects 43 million Americans (average $38,000 per borrower)
• Finiverse uses "multiverse" approach to simulate different financial outcomes
• Parents start "pre-suffering" about college when children are still in elementary school
• Children pick up on college financing anxieties even when not directly discussed
• Safe learning environments where students feel represented significantly impact outcomes
• Finding the right educational environment (teaching styles, diversity, culture) is as important as financing

• Research 529 college savings plans in your state for tax advantages
• Look beyond college "sticker prices" to understand actual costs after financial aid
• Understand federal vs. private student loans (federal loans offer more protections)
• Learn about income-driven repayment options for federal student loans
• Consider multiple educational pathways rather than focusing on one option
• Discuss what "psychological safety" in education means for your specific child

• Talk openly about family financial resources and limitations
• Start age-appropriate conversations about education costs earlier
• Create psychological safety for children to ask questions about college
• Explore with your child: "Where do you feel most comfortable learning?"
• Discuss environments where your child feels respected, challenged, and engaged
• Consider how identity, diversity, and belonging impact educational experience
• Observe what settings bring out your child's natural curiosity and strengths

• "You're making this borrowing decision and taking this multiverse approach to thinking about your future." - Dr. Musto
• "The unknown creates so much fear in our brains. Curiosity helps you push past fear." - Moraya
• "Student loans represent a fundamentally complex cost-benefit analysis because the benefit is uncertain." - Dr. Musto
• "You're going to be the only advocate for your kid." - Nick

• Finiverse.org - Interactive college financing simulation app
• Federal student loan income-driven repayment programs
• FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)
• 529 College Savings Plans
• HillmanTok - Digital community where Black educators teach Black history and culture, demonstrating how communities create culturally affirming learning spaces in the present moment

• Website: www.homeecpodcast.com
• Social Media: @homeecpod
• Email: Nick@personawealth.com + Moraya@personawealth.com

Whether you're years away from college decisions or currently navigating them, we welcome you to our ongoing conversation about managing the financial, emotional, and relational aspects of education planning. You are not alone in your presuffering anxieties; we share them, even though two of our combined three children have not yet started kindergarten.

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Nick and Moraya continue their series on the sandwich generation with an insightful conversation featuring Mindy Mozenter from Senior Living Specialists Philadelphia. While the episode provides concrete steps for senior care planning, it goes beyond typical checklists to explore the deeper emotional terrain of aging and family dynamics. Through candid discussion, they surface often-unspoken challenges: gender roles in caregiving, power dynamics, shame, and the beliefs about not deserving a good life as we age. The conversation offers both practical strategies and emotional wisdom for navigating these difficult but essential family discussions.

Mindy Mozenter - Senior Living Specialists (Philadelphia)

• 16 years of experience working with seniors
• Serves on nonprofit boards that align with her purpose, focused on senior care and arts in dementia

Essential Planning Steps 📋

• Establish Power of Attorney (medical and financial)
• Create emergency contacts and "What If" scenarios
• Document passwords and financial information
• Assess home safety and mobility needs

Quality of Life & Purpose ❤️

• Maintain engagement through community involvement and purpose.
• Consider physical and emotional therapy for both health and social connection

A Beautiful Connection: During our conversation about maintaining purpose while aging, we discovered Mindy's connection to Clearwater, the environmental non-profit Moraya's grandparents (Pete and Toshi Seeger) started in the 1960s - a reminder that meaningful connections can emerge even in difficult conversations about aging, the universe will give us a sign, wink, or even a laugh if we are willing to listen. As Mindy shares what a force of nature Toshi was.

From Mindy:

"Be their kid again, not their caregiver. You want to go there and have a conversation, say 'Dad, tell me about where your parents came from in Ireland' [...] Not like, 'Did you bathe today?'"

"How small has your world gotten?"

From Nick: "Beyond checklist goals, we need to understand their 'why' - their higher purpose and identity. It goes to 'I love you, I'm a loving parent, I'm a loving child.' When we start from these internal values, that's where the real conversations begin."

From Moraya: "We need purpose not just in these big career related moments, we need that to age well - engagement, education, and purpose."

• Area Agency on Aging (AAA) - Available in every county
• Penn's Village (Philadelphia area)
• ARTZ Philadelphia (Arts and dementia program)
• Mindy Mozenter: mindy@seniorlivingphilly.com

📱 Join Our Kitchen Table Conversations

• Website: www.homeecpodcast.com
• Social Media: @homeecpod
• Email: Nick@personawealth.com + Moraya@personawealth.com

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