You've never told your best friend what you actually make. Or you have, and you watched their face change. Money might be the last real taboo in friendship, more off-limits than sex, more off-limits than politics, and it's quietly shaping who feels safe going to who for what.

Michelle and Danyelle trace their own money stories back to childhood, growing up feeling scarcity in a wealthy area, absorbing very different lessons about what success and entrepreneurship meant, and carrying those wounds into 26 years of friendship. They get honest about the years their incomes have flip-flopped in both directions, the shame underneath "I can't afford that," and what it means to keep showing up for each other when one person can pay for dinner and the other can't.

In This Episode

• Our first memories of money, scarcity, and what success looked like growing up
• Why money is treated as more taboo than almost anything else in friendship
• The years our incomes flip-flopped, and what that brought up
• The shame behind "I can't afford that" and learning to say it out loud
• Race, privilege, and who gets the runway to build wealth
• Redefining "value" in a friendship beyond who's picking up the check
• The Page of Cups tarot pull on curiosity and bringing lightness to hard conversations

Resources

• Sign up for all TTT workbooks and guides here
• Feel-Good Finance by Aja Evans - Financial therapist, focuses on the psychology and mindset behind money habits, not just budgeting math.
• The Financial Diet by Chelsea Fagan - more mainstream but solid on the emotional-relationship-with-money angle, good crossover pick for a broader audience.
• Unicorn Millionaire Podcast - hosted by Charly Stoever (nonbinary Latinx money coach), explicitly for LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and first-gen folks. Frames wealth-building as identity and grief work, not just numbers. Very on-brand for your audience.
• SAGECents (via SAGE) - free financial literacy platform, originally built for LGBTQ+ elders but genuinely useful material on anyone navigating financial precarity later in life.

Reflection Questions

• Have you ever told a friend what you actually make?
• What would it take to have that conversation?
• Is there an imbalance in one of your friendships that's never been named out loud?

Connect With Us
📸 Instagram: @thethirdthingpod
🌐 Website: TheThirdThingPod.com
🎧 Join our Patreon community for monthly events, deeper conversations, early access, workbooks, and more.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend and leave a rating or review. It helps more people find the show and keeps the conversation going about friendship, growth, and what it means to show up for each other.

Support the show