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Most of us view money as a problem. It comes with a slew of questions we just don’t have the answers for. How do we get more of it? How do we spend less? Where should we invest it? What should we use it for? Will we ever have enough?

Luckily, the onus of solving these financial dilemmas doesn’t rest solely on us. These days, the financial advice market is flooded with experts – on social and IRL – ready and waiting to put their hard-earned knowledge to use in the name of fixing your bottom line. They go by many names – financial planners, debt counselors, money coaches, accountants – and they specialize in different areas, but they all deal in cold hard figures on bank statements that give them a roadmap for fixing your money problems. But what if you need a hand diving into how those problems developed in the first place?

Those wanting to be a bit more proactive when it comes to financial decision-making might need to take a more psychological approach to money matters, and that’s where a fairly new form of financial advising comes in: financial therapy. According to the Financial Therapy Association, financial therapy is “a process informed by both therapeutic and financial competencies that helps people think, feel, communicate, and behave differently with money to improve overall well-being through evidence-based practices and interventions.”

“It’s just changing the way we think, feel, and behave with our money,” Nathan Astle, a Certified Financial Therapist and founder of Relational Money, tells Uproxx.

Astle was finishing his graduate degree in family therapy at Kansas State University when he stumbled into the field. In talking with mentors and his own therapist, he realized money was at the root of a lot of his mental health issues.

“I hated money,” he shares. “Hated talking about it, hated thinking about it, and it was because I associated it with all these negative experiences I had when I was a kid. And then, it affected how I behaved as an adult.” That animosity toward money even carried over into Astle’s relationship when he tried to put a budget together after getting married.

“When I got to school and I was doing all this therapy stuff, I realized, ‘Oh, this goes deeper.’ It’s not just, ‘Do a budget.’ It’s a personal thing.”

What Is Financial Therapy?

The best way to define financial therapy might be to point out how it differs from a more well-known area of money advisement – financial planning. According to Astle, financial planning tends to be focused on long-term numbers.

“They’re trying to get you to retirement or to save for a house, whatever your goal is, but it’s mostly a plan about how we get the numbers where we want them to be,” he explains.

Financial therapy, however, is all about examining how we experience money.

“We might focus on behaviors like shopping or overspending, but the end goal is fundamentally different,” Astle continues. “Where financial planning is focused on a financial outcome, financial therapy focused on overall wellness. Financial planning advice in general has been very narrow and very math-oriented, and money is inherently an emotional experience. We can’t have a math answer to what is often an emotional problem. That’s not going to work forever.”

Who Could Benefit From Financial Therapy?

Now that we’ve better defined financial therapy, the next step is figuring out if it’s the right path for your money needs. Astle may be biased, but he thinks most people can benefit from financial therapy. Those who really need his services though tend to fall into certain categories.

“I would say it’s especially important if you are struggling to make a change,” he says. “If you have maybe some behavior that you’re like, ‘I know I need to do this thing more, but I just can’t. There’s some mental block here that’s keeping me from being able to engage in this thing.’ Or if you’re noticing huge amounts of distress when you think about money, talk about money, and if it’s showing up in ways like, ‘I get so anxious when I think about money that I never open my bank account statements.’ If it’s keeping you from making adult decisions around money, then it would be beneficial.”

Younger generations – the Gen Zs and Millennials of the world – might also be prime candidates for financial therapy. That’s because, according to Astle, we’ve experienced an economy that’s radically different from that of our parents. Because of that, Millennials and Gen Z might be stuck with some nihilistic views when it comes to planning our financial futures.

“I think there’s quite a bit of avoidance because as a generation, they’ve lived through a ton of traumas, and I think they’re kind of disenchanted with a lot of things,” Astle offers. “What that does behaviorally then is it’s less likely they’ll put the effort into making a solid long-term financial plan. They might be more hesitant to invest and invest early, which we know is a huge predictor of long-term wealth, including retirement. I think what happens is a lot of people get discouraged and then they don’t do things that could prevent a lot of heartache in the future and in the present.”

Another emotional issue younger generations struggle with that could affect their bank accounts is shame. We’re constantly being marketed to, being sold what Astle calls “shoulds.”

“We should have this,” or “I should be doing that.” We compare ourselves to our peers, to influencers, to celebrities, and when we don’t measure up, it affects not only how we see ourselves, but how we spend on ourselves too.

“There’s a lot of shame we have collectively around money, about how we’re supposed to have more, how we’re supposed to not have spent it this way, how we’re supposed to have all these things,” Astle says. “Shame is the enemy of change. We don’t beat ourselves up, we beat ourselves down. And so, we have to be able to give ourselves some grace and some compassion and make plans coming from a kinder place to ourselves.”

To do that, Astle gave us a few tips for curbing impulse spending, a common struggle for the over-marketed to millennials and Gen Z crowd.

Tip #1: Name It, Tame It

This is a basic tenant of therapy in general, but it works especially well in your finances. To fix the problem, you need to be able to identify it.

“If you can name it, you can tame it,” Astle says. “So, when you’re like, ‘I want to go shop,’ or, ‘I don’t want to look at my bank account,’ try and name the emotion that you’re feeling. I really like a tool called the Feelings Wheel. It’s just an image, but it’s a really good tool for describing emotions that you’re having.”

“So, that’s a starting point,” Astle continues. “’What am I feeling before, during, and after a financial choice?’”

Why do this? Because finances are an inside job.

“If we’re trying to change the way we approach our finances, it might be math decisions, but a lot of times with our day-to-day stuff, it’s about emotion regulation,” Astle explains. “It’s, ‘How do I deal with an uncomfortable emotion?’ And that can lead to huge retail therapy [binges] or just a little thing here or there that adds up both financially and emotionally.”

Tip #2: Write Down Your Money Story

Again, what therapist doesn’t hype the wonders of journaling? But, instead of jotting down your feelings in the present, Astle wants you to put pen to paper as a way to recap your financial journey thus far.

“We call it your money story,” he explains. “It’s just telling someone your life story by saying, ‘What money messages, experiences, and lessons did my parents teach me and what did I feel? What do I believe because of the experiences that I’ve had?’”

Identifying where some of your biases towards money, or some of your worst habits might have originated from gives you useful insight into how best to correct them. If your parents argued about money constantly, you might view it negatively and avoid it altogether. If finances were tight growing up, it might cause you to stress more when it comes to your own bank account. If your family was constantly buying new – cars, clothes, homes – it might make it difficult for you to understand the concept of saving and budgeting. If you can glean those messages and reject or alter them, you can build a stronger financial foundation.

Tip #3: Take Five

Time fixes all things, even our overspending habits. We live in a very impulse-driven society that thrives on one-click-buying prompts, coupon codes, and influencer-sponsored Amazon storefronts. Before you give any of them your money, take a few minutes, a few hours, or maybe a few days to sit with your future purchase.

“Give yourself time between stimulus and response,” Astle suggests. “If you want to buy that book on Amazon, it’s okay to put it in your cart. We don’t shame ourselves out of financial behavior. You can’t say, ‘Oh, I don’t need that.’ That’s not really a long-term solution.”

Instead, Astle advises that people hold off on checking out for a day or two. “It’s kind of a mindfulness skill. You’re allowing yourself to be in a different emotional state. If you still want the thing after some time, after some thought, and after you’re in a different emotional state, then there’s less guilt there. It’s like, ‘No, I genuinely want this thing,’ and not, ‘I’m having an impulse.’”

While we can’t promise that following these tips will 100% make you feel better about your finances, they’re a great prompt to evaluate your situation and consider whether a financial therapist might be a help.

Sometimes things are things and sometimes, to borrow some poetry from Don Draper, they serve as a time machine, bringing us back to a memory that we want to hold close. Those things are wonderful.

Anthony Marques is a success story – as a small business owner and in the comic book industry where he’s worked for years as a freelance artist and editor who has drawn everything from Batman to Back To The Future and the Ghostbusters – but he can remember a time when none of that seemed assured. Back before he got into the revered Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art as a student, when he was laboring in construction and tending bar, trying to figure out how to make a dream work.

Marques is sitting in his office while talking to me over Zoom more than 15 years later, waxing nostalgic about that more uncertain time, the power of gestures, and an art table that is to his right. “It’s a very basic cheap particle board, put together drawing board from Michael’s, but it means more to me than the fanciest thing you could pick up.”

Anthony hasn’t built his success alone. His wife, Jackie, is his partner in life and business, the two of them juggling work and life, raising two kids together. “I love working with my wife,” Anthony says. “She’s the best business partner you could have. You’re not going to find somebody that has a better drive, is as organized, or as smart as she is. She’s wonderful. You hear that expression, ‘If you’re in a foxhole, who do you want sitting or standing right beside you?’ Her. She will out-think anybody.”

Jackie bought in early, getting that desk and building it for Anthony in that more uncertain time – something that Anthony says signified, “that she believed I could actually do this.”

Anthony and Jackie own and operate The Kubert School now, taking it over in 2019. They also run Dewey’s Comic City, a Madison, New Jersey comic staple founded in 1991 by Dan Veltre. Anthony and Jackie bought Dewey’s in 2017 as Veltre was retiring, expanding into another side of the comic book industry after Anthony spent years as an artist and editor at Dynamite. With both Dewey’s and The Kubert School, they just couldn’t accept the idea that these places might go away. The risk involved with jumping into not one, but two distinct businesses wasn’t a deterrent.

“There’s risk involved in any choice that you make, right? But I think if you overthink it, you’re never going to do it anyway. So you’ve got to jump,” says Anthony, adding, “I think whenever you approach anything, you weigh out stuff but figure it out along the way as well. Don’t be afraid to make the move and then put it together as you’re going forward.” While Anthony is happy with the choice that he and Jackie made, it hasn’t come without challenges.

Six months. That’s the approximate space between when Anthony and Jackie brought The Kubert School into the fold alongside Dewey’s and the start of a pandemic that would shake up every industry and facet of life. By the summer of 2020, the two had made the hard choice to consolidate their operations, moving Dewey’s to the art store within the Kubert School building. While the familiar Madison location would shutter, the plan was always to return Deweys to its hometown. They just had to get through a moment of worldwide economic uncertainty.

Anthony is, from what I can tell after spending about an hour with him, a very happy and engaged guy. When he breaks down his daily schedule for me, it’s impressive for its precision and scope, mixing his work with the school, running a comic book shop, and continuing his art career with family time for him, Jackie, and their two kids. Despite his numerous obligations, he doesn’t seem like a worrier. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been “gut check moments” along the way.

“You can’t panic. If you all of a sudden jump in one direction because of fear, or you get worried that changes the way you make your decisions. I think you can get yourself in trouble,” he says, explaining the steady mindset that helped keep his and Jackie’s business afloat while, at the same time, keeping focus on the bigger picture and keeping his two young children safe.

While the move to the art school (which is about 20 minutes away in Dover, New Jersey) stood as a change, the new location still served the large North Jersey comic book community that Dewey’s had cultivated over the years even during the past worst of the pandemic. Anthony and Jackie were still able to support and be supported by their team, taking out a PPP loan from the government. “We did that. But we did it the right way,” Anthony says. “It was meant to take care of your employees. You had to do things the right way. We made sure we covered all of those bases and treated everyone and kept everybody on payroll as long as we could and kept it going.”

In January of this year, a new Dewey’s Comic City opened up in Madison with the shop in the Kubert School remaining open for overflow and bargain comics and trades. Anthony tells me that the plan took longer than they expected, but they also weren’t going to rush things or wind up in the wrong space. “You don’t want to just be sandwiched in between a dry cleaner and a liquor shop. I don’t think that that sends the right message to people.”

Madison is the dictionary definition of a charming, somewhat upscale suburban village, filled with small shops that are big on character. The new Deweys (located at 6 Green Village Road) is right next to a rare bookstore, within walking distance from both the old location and the train station. “The building is gorgeous. It’s one of my favorite buildings in Madison. It’s in the historic area, wonderful storefront surrounded by great buildings, Anthony tells me before listing the shop’s proximity to local colleges and ice cream parlors. “Everything is right there. It’s a prime location.”

In keeping with Anthony’s diverse portfolio – with the shops, the school, and his career as an artist – the new Dewey’s is similarly rooted in the idea of providing something for everyone, with major comics from DC and Marvel, indies, YA titles, anime, and action figures. There are also art classes. All of this goes a long way toward creating a welcoming environment for comics fans of all ages and interests.

When we discuss the grand opening of the new shop, Anthony talks about the emotion of that moment, seeing faces familiar and new, and about the community. He also talks about fitting in the occasional late night at the shop and at a local diner talking comics with friends and co-workers. Despite all the varied projects he’s involved in, it’s clear how being a part of that community nourishes him – not just as a merchant, but as a champion for comics as a craft, as a hobby, and as one of those things that functions as an escape hatch back into the wonder and glee of childhood. It’s that big-eyed child-like appetite for everything that he identifies with when I wonder if he worries about anything. “You want to keep being a kid forever,” he says when talking about all the many ways he stays tied to the capes and cowls of superheroes. “I just want to do this forever.”

While Anthony surely couldn’t have predicted all the interesting twists and turns of his career(s) when he first sat at that participle board art table that Jackie lovingly constructed all those years ago, it sure sounds like he’s in exactly the right place.

Coachella has once again become the site of hologram-related controversy. However, this time, rather than the unexpected (and borderline creepy) likeness of a deceased performer, the scandal is all about a real performer versus a virtual one — and which of them actually got to appear as the hologram.

During her headlining set Friday night, Lana Del Rey took a seat and let her hologram take over singing for her. However, fans on Twitter (which I will never call X) were less enthused than upset, as another artist whose set preceded Lana’s did NOT get a hologram, but arguably deserved it more.

For the uninitiated and non-weeb among our readers, Hatsune Miku is a virtual performer — something like Gorillaz but with less lore — based on a Vocaloid soundbank with a computer-generated animated avatar modeled after Japanese singing idols. Miku is generally represented via this avatar projected on a specially coated glass screen.

Miku had performed earlier at a different tent using a slightly different method, one that disappointed fans. Funnily enough, the camera operators seemed unsure whether the animated character was the star of the show or not, spending the first song trying to focus on everything but the screen displaying her cartoon dances. Meanwhile, fans catching Lana’s holographic projection of herself — when she was right there, ready and able to do the performing on her own — deluged Twitter with jokes about the seeming discrepancy, tweeting some variation of “how come lana del rey gets to be a hologram but hatsune miku doesnt?”

The short answer is probably that a holographic projection can run up to millions of dollars (for instance, the Tupac hologram from 2012 that kicked off the trend was around $10 million), and while Hatsune Miku is a big enough deal in Japan, she just isn’t well enough known here in the States to justify the cost. By way of comparison, the Mojave tent has a fraction of the capacity of the main stage and wasn’t even full. Miku’s a novelty here in the US, and just not enough of a draw to warrant spending an A24 movie budget for an hour-long set. Yet.

Willow has always refused to make herself small, so why start now? On Friday, April 12, Willow dropped “Big Feelings” (stylized as “b i g f e e l i n g s”) and confirmed that her next album, Empathogen, which was previously billed as “a new musical compilation,” will be released on May 3.

“Big Feelings” arrived with a visualizer that finds Willow cackling and uninhibited while singing, “I have such big feelings / Can’t shut ’em down or let ’em out / I know I’m not fine / But yes, I say I’m fine.”

Questlove commemorated the release by posting a tribute to Willow on Instagram. To say his caption is lengthy would be selling it short. In part, the Grammy- and Oscar-winning icon wrote, “Shout out to @willowsmith for allowing herself to evolve into this artist. Doing all the things artists over the years have told me they wanted to do but were too afraid to because we been told odd time signatures don’t work or @gentlegiantband level prog rock song structure (blink and you missed it codas & bridges coming outta nowhere) might be too much for the ‘average listener’ to consume or to lyrically go to this vulnerable place that we might think will get us ridiculed.”

Willow reposted to her Instagram, and Questlove commented that he “rocked that jawn 30 mins in a row this morn,” so everybody should be excited for the full Empathogen project to drop.

Watch Willow’s “Big Feelings” visualizer above, and check out Willow’s Empathogen tracklist below.

1. “Home” Feat. Jon Batiste
2. “Ancient Girl”
3. “Symptom Of Life”
4. “The Fear Is Not Real”
5. “False Self”
6. “Pain For Fun” Feat. St. Vincent
7. “No Words 1 & 2”
8. “Down”
9. “Run!”
10. “Between I And She”
11. “‘I Know That Face.’”
12. “b i g f e e l i n g s”

Empathogen is out 5/3 via WILLOW/Three Six Zero/Gamma. Find more information here.

Shakira released Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran in late March, but she hasn’t taken her foot off the gas. She put on a pop-up concert at TSX in New York City’s Times Square and visited Hot Ones. She took it up another notch on Friday night, April 12.

The crowd for Bizarrap’s Coachella 2024 set heard the she-wolf howl and knew. Shakira appeared on stage with “LA LOBA SE VIENE,” which translates to “the wolf is coming,” on the screen behind her. Shortly thereafter, Shakira used the same screen to announce her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour.

Specific dates are presumably forthcoming, but Shakira confirmed on stage, “Finally, we are going on tour starting here. Starting here this November. This year in this city! I can’t wait.”

Of course, Shakira couldn’t crash Bizarrap’s set without performing “BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” their January 2023 Billboard Hot 100 top-10 hit.

Shakira told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she’s “probably” done writing songs about Gerard Piqué, her ex-partner of 11ish years with whom she shares two children, after her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran track “Última.” That does not mean Shakira is done with performing existing songs directed toward Piqué, a la “BZRP Music Sessions, Vol. 53,” especially now that she’s going on tour.

Shaboozey was largely introduced to the world as a featured artist alongside Linda Martell on “SPAGHETTII” from Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, a country-centric magnum opus that promptly became Beyoncé’s eighth career No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. The Virginia-born artist is showing his newfound fans why he deserves their attention beyond his affiliation with Queen Bey.

“A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Shaboozey’s new single, is an unfairly catchy country ditty that will have listeners bopping along to the beat and nodding along to relatable lyrics in equal parts. Shaboozey laments his ever-growing list of expenses and wonders aloud, “This 9-to-5 ain’t workin’ / Why the hell do I work so hard? / I can’t worry about my problems / I can’t take ’em when I’m gone.”

Once the chorus hits, Shaboozey seeks a good time to take his mind off his harsh realities at the local bar: “Pour me up a double shot of whiskey / They know me and Jack Daniel’s got a history / There’s a party downtown near 5th Street / Everybody at the bar gettin’ tipsy.” As the song progresses, he swears he “ain’t changin’ for a check” and admits to waking up still drunk at 10 a.m., but that won’t stop him from regrouping to do it all again because it’s too much fun. Who doesn’t love good, clean escapism?

Watch Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” visualizer above.

It’s been quite a while since someone other than the United States won the Olympic gold medal in women’s basketball. After coming in third place during the 1992 Olympics, the team has won every year since, with each of the last seven golds coming back to the United States.

Next up for the Americans is the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where the squad will once again enter with expectations of winning the whole thing. To add to the fun, there’s a chance that Caitlin Clark joins the team — she was invited to a Team USA training camp that took place in April, but could not participate due to the Iowa Hawkeyes making it to the Final Four. And in a recent piece by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Hall of Fame inductee Lisa Leslie made clear that she believes Clark has to wear the red, white, and blue this summer.

“She better be on the Olympic team,” Leslie said. “We should not leave the country without her. She’s a bona fide baller. There’s no doubt she’s already one of the best players in the world.”

It is presumed that Clark is about to become the No. 1 overall pick to the Indiana Fever in the WNBA Draft, which takes place on Monday. This will come on the heels of her second consecutive National Player of the Year campaign at the University of Iowa, which featured a number of NCAA career records getting set and back-to-back appearances in the national championship game.

Last December, Lil Uzi Vert told TMZ that they wanted to at least pause their music career “to make women’s clothes.” Uzi might be using Coachella 2024 for a dry run of their designs. The Philadelphia rapper hasn’t abandoned music entirely, seeing as their main purpose for being at Coachella is to perform this Friday night, April 12, and next Friday night, April 19, but Uzi’s merch is dominating the headlines so far.

Several X accounts (formerly Twitter), including Complex, are circulating photos of Uzi’s merch table at Coachella. A $40 black graphic tee featuring a photo of Uzi above the word “THEMINEM” is for sale. Yes, Lil Uzi Vert turned Eminem’s name into a statement on identity. (Lil Uzi Vert publicly began identifying with they/them pronouns in July 2022.) We should expect nothing less from Uzi, a chronically clever mind.

Eminem should be honored, but at the very least, he can probably appreciate the humor in it. Just last month, Em appeared in a “Dre’s Anatomy” skit on Jimmy Kimmel Live! alongside 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg. He also pulled an April Fools’ Day joke. Not to mention, Eminem posted he’s “looking for Stans” this week as a casting call for his upcoming documentary. Pro tip: Put Uzi in the film.

Peso Pluma is preparing to take the Coachella 2024 stage on Friday night, April 12, and he might have inadvertently dropped a clue about his setlist earlier in the day. Pluma and Arcángel released the video for “PESO COMPLETO,” and its vibe rivals whatever will go down at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California across the next two weekends.

To start, Pluma and Arcángel step into the ring with sumo wrestlers. They’re not planning on wrestling these massive athletes because that would be silly. Instead, they just bop around and rap in the ring in between the action, which is a relatable decision. However, that is pretty much where any relatability ends.

Elsewhere in the video, the Latin superstars throw around thousands of dollars. At one point, Arcángel casually makes it rain while seated on a jacuzzi occupied by a beautiful woman. We then see several more beautiful women in bikinis around Pluma, who raps poolside while holding (yes) a stack of cash. Sadly, nobody ever joins the woman in the jacuzzi, but she’s not totally alone. The video ends with her filing bills into a cash-counting machine and fanning herself with money.

Watch the “PESO COMPLETO” video above.

Future and Metro Boomin are on a heater. We Don’t Trust You, their collaborative studio album that dropped on March 22, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Future and Metro Boomin followed that up with We Still Don’t Trust You, a “completely separate body of work” that’s all but guaranteed to also debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Between the two, Future and Metro Boomin have released 42 songs in three weeks.

Still, Metro Boomin won’t rest.

On Friday evening, April 12, Metro a 65-second visual for “All My Life” featuring Lil Baby — one of 25 tracks from We Still Don’t Trust You. The behind-the-scenes video hits all the appropriate notes for a behind-the-scenes video.

There are various shots of luxurious cars, including but not limited to a Tesla Cybertruck. While someone is lighting up in the studio, Future can’t stop vibing to his own “All My Life” bars about selling out Madison Square Garden while his peers can only sell out Barclays Center, flying to Japan, taking a Xanax (“I’m so f*ckin’ high, I can’t even see straight”), and “Ballin’ on this sh*t like Johnny Manziel.”

Listen to “All My Life” above, and check out the full We Still Don’t Trust You tracklist here.