Finally, we had a long conversation with her about what need she was meeting by shopping, and we realized that she did it when she felt lonely. We talked about other ways of dealing with the loneliness and steps she could take when she was experiencing this.
While she didn’t capture complete control over her spending, she found herself binging much less frequently.
We can do much for our clients if we are willing to spend the time on the underlying issue rather than just finding a solution to a problem that we didn’t understand in the first place.
Ross Levin, CFP, is the founder and chief executive officer of Accredited Investors in Edina, Minn. He can be reached at [email protected]