Why we find it so hard to talk about money

This past year we’ve heard a lot of talk about the bailouts that America’s big banks got in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage debacle. And the question keeps coming up: what about the little guy? Who will come in and bail me out?

Beth Kobliner, author of “Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties,” has an answer to that question. YOU are going to bail yourself out. We’re starting a ten-part weekly series on the Do It Yourself Bailout, and begin today by talking about why this is such a hard subject to discuss. Keeping silent may be more comfortable, but it’s not always the best financial strategy.

We’re also joined by Stephen Goldbart, a psychologist and co-director of the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute, who comes to us to explain why we all freeze up and zip up when the subject of our money arises.