Considerable.com
"Don't lead with 'Here's where we're going to take you.' ... Most issues can be resolved with expectation management." (12/7/19 - Title: The No. 1 Secret to Getting Along on Family Vacations: Don't let your pocketbook become extra baggage)
Chicago Sun-Times
Susan Zimmerman, a Minnesota marriage and financial counselor sees three times more couples who are grappling with money issues...You start with one little secret, and if you get away with it, it turns into a strategy, she said. (10/8/10)
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
The best cure is to start to get those secrets out on the table. Once that awareness is opened up, especially if there haven't been too many years of anger build-up, just seeing it and finding a better way to communicate can solve the existing issues. The money secrets became a method of protection that [the deceiver] justifies because they've learned a certain distrust. (Title: Financial Infidelity: 'Til Debt Do Us Part, 10/7/10)
St. Paul Pioneer Press:
Susan Zimmerman, a financial planner and marriage therapist from Apple Valley, said couples aren't just arguing about who ran up the credit card bill. They're now arguing about why the investment portfolio wasn't more diversified. (2/14/09)
Chicago Tribune:
According to Susan Zimmerman...there is yet another source of money conflicts. "I'm amazed at how often people's problems with money go back to the Great Depression...feelings get passed on to their children. Some children grow up with a fear that they'll run out of money. Others will be the opposite; they'll be spendthrifts."
Bankrate.com:
You need to see (your monthly statements) and watch them grow to be able to embrace what that's doing for you now and see that you have some positives in your financial life...It's an absolute psychological benefit.
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
The best way to gauge a person's financial 411 is just to ask, experts say. "Investigating someone without even talking to that person first is not the best way to start off a relationship that is supposed to be based on trust," said Susan Zimmerman, a Minneapolis-based marriage and family therapist and a chartered financial consultant.
Growing Wealth Magazine:
"The trick to knowing when to let [emotions] lead the way is to look for distortions , all-or-nothing thoughts. If the belief behind the emotion stems from a thought that contains words such as never or always, then it is probably too extreme."
AVENUE, NY:
In fact, Zimmerman decided to get her therapist's license after a psychiatrist started sending her couples who warred so dramatically over money that their therapists gave up. "If there are established ground rules," she says, "then conflicts can be avoided."
Cape Cod Times:
These tests force you to think about what you want out of money, the importance you assign it and how best to achieve your goals.
Investment News:
NEW YORK - Few financial planners deny that their service to clients, especially querulous couples, involves some sort of therapy...The key to success when working with couples, according to the Zimmerman's, is to respect both partners' different approaches to money and then find out if they really want help in changing their contrasting styles to work more harmoniously together.
St. Paul Pioneer Press:
Susan Zimmerman, who along with her credentials as a financial planner is a licensed family and marriage therapist, has identified eight personality traits called "money rascals" to help figure out how people think about money..."The trick is to get them balanced and not have one dominate at any one time," said Susan Zimmerman...it's simply helped us to know what deeper questions to ask - and to help put couples at ease. I was never ok with it just being about the numbers."
CBSmarketwatch.com:
Men and women often bring unrealistic career and financial expectations to the union without realizing the damage they can wreak, said Susan Zimmerman, a chartered financial consultant and licensed marriage counselor in Minneapolis. "When it isn't what they expected, all they know is they're displeased and unsure of how to chisel away at that displeasure," she said.