Spent: The Money Fight Is Never about the Money

By Jennifer Pfeiffer and Dr. Michael Seiler

Behind every money fight is a part trying to protect you.

Couples often return to the same financial arguments again and again. What appears to be a disagreement over dollars is often a much deeper conflict about safety, fairness, dignity, belonging, and love.

In Spent, Internal Family Systems expert Jenny Pfeiffer and finance expert Dr. Michael J. Seiler offer a groundbreaking and practical framework for understanding why money can become so emotionally charged--and how couples can stop fighting each other and start listening to the parts of themselves that money activates.

Using the language of IFS, Spent shows that many financial conflicts are not failures of math or discipline. They are moments when protective parts take over. A Budget Guardian may scan for danger and insist on control. A Freedom Protector may experience any restriction as a threat. A Treat Seeker may chase relief after stress or loneliness. A Shame Manager may hide purchases, debt, or anxiety to avoid judgment. Each part is trying to prevent pain. But when these protectors run the conversation, partners stop hearing one another and begin defending survival positions.

With warmth, insight, and practical tools, Pfeiffer and Seiler guide readers through the financial situations where couples and individuals most often get stuck: spending, saving, debt, investing, unequal incomes, shared versus separate accounts, supporting parents or adult children, lifestyle upgrades, real estate decisions, career ambition, generosity, boundaries, and the elusive question of what is "enough."

For anyone who has ever thought, "We keep having the same money fight," Spent offers a new way forward--one that replaces blame with curiosity, shame with compassion, and recurring conflict with decisions that feel safer, wiser, and more connected.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0757325696
• ISBN13: 9780757325694
• Release Date: March 2027
• Publisher: Health Communications
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.