A Springtime Show about the Economy that Partly Explains why We’re Ashamed

About this episode

A conversation with a money manager in Scotland about financial confusion and shame.

This is a conversation with a money manager in Scotland who has given a great deal of thought to why many of us feel confused and ashamed about our financial lives. After the What Class are You? shows, I often receive interesting commentary, and I’m always frustrated that this commentary can’t become part of a wider conversation. So after receiving two fascinating comments from EM in Scotland, I asked her if she’d be willing to share some of her thoughts on the economy on the phone. She said yes, and then we had a conversation longer than she ever could have imagined. EM responded primarily to two shows. One featured a woman called Trudy, who worked all kinds of jobs in her life, and toward the end of her working years, she realized that she was not going to have enough money for a comfortable retirement, but she would have a little too much to qualify for services that would make her retirement more comfortable, so she made sure that she retired with little enough money that she could qualify for services. The other story that EM responded to was about Kaye, who talks about how not having money makes her feel like a child, and that all the people with money seem like the adults…

People in this episode

Host: Erica Heilman

Guest: EM

Topics covered

• economy
• financial confusion
• shame
• retirement
• personal finance
• class

Keywords

• economy
• financial lives
• retirement
• shame
• personal finance
• Scotland

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Scotland

More episodes of Rumble Strip

• Life of Kaye: Some kind of a speaker · May 28, 2026 · 11 min
• A Day on the Road with a Visiting Nurse · May 21, 2026 · 19 min
• Ladies' Day at Vermont Quick Lube · May 1, 2026 · 7 min
• A Requiem for Larry Massett · April 30, 2026 · 54 min
• I Eat the Marshmallow · April 9, 2026 · 14 min
• Hold On · March 6, 2026 · 17 min