This post is adapted from YNAB's twice-monthly newsletter, Loose Change .

There’s this person that keeps following you around the store. Don’t freak out; it’s not a stranger and they mean you no harm. It’s your past. 👋

“ Oh hey , remember how you majored in philosophy? And made zilch at your first job, then remained incurious about 401(k)s for a long time?

Yeah, cool, just wanted to remind you of all that. Wow, that’s kind of an expensive T-shirt…”

It happens—our past intrudes—when we scroll through houses on Zillow, when we park next to the really nice car. It’s that moment when we bump up against our financial constraints and feel a surge of frustration or disappointment at the doofus we once were.

We ‘inherit’ the choices and circumstances of our past. Whether we like it or not.

I have a family member who declared bankruptcy in his early 60s. What began as a job loss was followed by physical and mental illness, years of unmoored spending, and increasing isolation.…