More Than Math: Dr. Johanna Peetz on Why the Future of Female Finance is Behavioural

“Talk to your girlfriends. Decode the TFSA. Start investing. There is a massive world of financial knowledge out there just waiting to be explored, go claim it.”

⎯ Dr. Johanna Peetz

We are witnessing the absolute pinnacle of the financial era, with the excessively hyperbolized ‘finance-bro’ mindset losing its grip, and paving the way for women to redefine wealth on their own terms. But true financial empowerment goes deeper than math. In our conversation with Dr. Johanna Peetz, a professor with the Department of Psychology at Carleton University, we explored how money is deeply emotional, and far more than just a numbers game.

In a world that treats personal finance like a series of cold, rigid spreadsheets, Dr. Peetz explores the human architecture beneath this formulated system. A native of Berlin, Germany, who completed her graduate studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Dr. Peetz has spent over a decade at Carleton University, establishing herself as a powerhouse behavioural scientist who has remarkably published more peer-reviewed articles than she is years old. Consistently funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), her work explores the fascinating, messy intersection of time perception, relationship maintenance, and financial decision-making.

Dr. Johanna Peetz

With aara’s emphasis on open conversations surrounding finance, interviewing her felt less like a formal conversation, and more like pulling back a heavily systemic curtain.

At aara, we recognize that money isn’t all logic and pragmatics, it is relational and deeply psychological as it affects a huge chunk of our choices. Dr. Peetz’s research doesn’t just analyze numbers, but rather it decodes how our inner circles, our partners, and other societal influences subtly (or not) dictate our financial autonomy.

So inherently, this isn’t just a breakdown of financial economics with graphs personified as words, but a blueprint for women looking to unlearn collective financial anxiety and step into radical self-trust.

Love, Trust, and Joint Accounts

We commenced our conversation where so much of our daily psychological friction nests: at the intersection of love, money, and control. For decades, keeping separate accounts was championed as the ultimate milestone for women’s liberation. However, human relationships are rarely that black and white.

When we asked Dr. Peetz about her 2025 publication on account pooling and communication in the Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, she revealed an unexpected reality. Historically, independence meant protection. Yet, contemporary data reveals a fascinating psychological shift: couples who pool their finances often report higher levels of happiness and a stronger sense of "coupleness.”

Yet, this shift doesn’t (and shouldn’t) fundamentally alter how we make individual decisions; rather, it highlights the delicate dance of power dynamics. In a modern relationship, merging money shouldn't mean compressing your identity. True financial intimacy requires relentless communication so that joint goals never come at the expense of a woman’s underlying independence.

But what does this mean for a modern woman's individual agency?

“Pooling finances makes couples happier,” Dr. Peetz explains to aara, pointing to foundational research by scholars like Jenny Olson and Joe Gladstone. “It changes the psychological framing from me to us, and practically, it unlocks economic benefits, like buying in bulk and collective scaling.”

The dark side of this dynamic, of course, is what happens when the communication breaks down entirely.

Dr. Peetz’s 2024 co-authored study on financial infidelity and financial "snooping" digs into the hidden cracks of romantic partnerships. Hiding assets or concealing spending is easily weaponized by critics as a sign of a dying relationship, but Dr. Peetz pushes past the surface-level judgment.

The primary motives are deeply rooted in individual psychology: financial stress, deep-seated anxiety about money, overwhelming guilt, or an avoidant attachment style. When uncertainty or a stark power imbalance takes over a household, hiding money isn't always an act of malice. For many women historically and globally, keeping a hidden fund is a quiet, necessary survival tactic, which is a way to preserve a baseline of security and autonomy in a system where they feel completely powerless.

De-influencing the Aesthetic

Beyond our romantic partnerships, there is an invisible script being written by the people we surround ourselves with. In an era where ornamenting yourself with aesthetics is the new currency of status and recognition, with meticulously curated travel vlogs to minimalist fashion palettes, spending has turned into an identity marker heavily marketed towards women.

While there is little formal, historical research on the exact financial cost of the "aesthetic lifestyle," Dr. Peetz notes that its psychological weight is undeniable. “Our friend groups subtly dictate our spending through our innate human need for belonging. We chase identical purchases to define our status within a circle, driven by the acute fear of missing out (FOMO).”

In our conversation, we also unpacked how these heavily packed status symbols are frequently chased as status symbols rather than reasonable, essential items. When the group chat normalizes expensive habits, financial anxiety quietly skyrockets. Our takeaway from this reality is that our behavioural power should be defined by identifying the purchase as “yours” rather than trying to fit into someone else’s Pinterest board!

Source: Pinterest

Rewriting Risk

Perhaps the most interesting part of our conversation, and also the most radical component of Dr. Peetz’s perspective is how she challenges the mainstream fintech narrative. For decades, traditional institutions have pushed the myth of how women lack financial confidence, and they are too “risk-aversive” to build real wealth. It frames financial insecurity as an internal psychological deficit that women need to “fix.”

Dr. Peetz completely flips the script (and rightfully so!).

The confidence and risk gaps we see in research and elsewhere aren’t inherent flaws; they are completely rational responses to a patriarchal economic system that has been built by men, for men.

“Research does show gaps in financial confidence and heightened mass anxiety around money,” Dr. Peetz notes. “It starts incredibly early, even young girls in kindergarten often equate money strictly with cold math, a field they are socially conditioned to feel detached from.”

But the narrative that women are bad with money is a systemic lie.

“I’ve been told by so many men in my life that I’m bad with money, and it’s just a stereotype that’s pushed onto so many women” is a common remark enunciated by numerous women. And we’re sure, that a plethora of women might have experienced hearing this from a vast genre of men in their lives. Well, rest assured, the data consistently shows that women actually save a higher percentage of their income than men.

"Overconfidence in finance is not always a good thing; it leads to reckless, volatile decision-making. Women aren't failing the system, the system's historical architecture is simply showing its cracks.”

Furthermore, when young professional women face income volatility, inflation, and the persistent wage gap, maintaining a healthy "locus of control", which is the psychological belief that you can dictate your own future, becomes a massive challenge. To avoid spiralling into financial panic, Dr. Peetz emphasizes the behavioural strategy of consumption smoothing: consciously saving during stable periods to smooth out the inevitable macro-economic dips. It is about taking a step back, and reclaiming your internal certainty.

We see this systemic gaslighting mirrored heavily in media. Pop culture has long normalized harmful stereotypes, remember “Confessions of a Shopaholic”? Media influences like these label women’s financial habits as inherently "reckless.” This framing shapes societal values, stripping women of their financial power by teaching them that money equals guilt, rather than security.

Source: "The Confessions of a Shopaholic" (2009)

Spill the Tea

The ultimate antidote to a financial system built by men, for men isn’t silence. It’s community.

When we asked Dr. Peetz for one definitive behavioural strategy for young women navigating this landscape, her answer wasn’t a complex mathematical formula or a restrictive budget tracking app. It was beautifully simple, and deeply communal.

“Talk more with your girlfriends,” she insists. “Break the silence around what your money is actually for. Discuss investments, demystify the TSFA, and share what you learn. There is so much knowledge out there that one can explore.”

At aara, this is the exact ethos we are building. Financial empowerment is not a solo mission to be embarked on in isolation, behind your screen. True power belongs to women who brings these conversations to light, who talk numbers over coffee, and who don’t let outdated societal taboos keep them small.

The future of female finance lies in realizing that the knowledge was always ours.

Dr. Peetz, thank you so much for sharing these transformative insights with us. You've given our community an incredible framework for understanding money not as a source of anxiety, but as a powerful vehicle for relationship communication, and personal autonomy. We look forward to seeing your upcoming research continue to reshape the world of behavioural science!

References

Joseph, M., & Peetz, J. (2024). Hide and Seek with Finances: Financial Infidelity and Financial Snooping in Relationships. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-024-09988-2

Nikolova, H., Olson, J. G., & Gladstone, J. J. (2025). Financial infidelity asymmetry predicts couples’ financial and relationship well-being. International Journal of Research in Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2025.07.003

Peetz., J., & Joseph, M. (2024). How couples think about money: Types of money motives and relationship satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 31(2), 516 – 537. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12539

Peetz, J. (2025). Talk about shared money: Account pooling is associated with financial communication. Journal of Personal and Social Relationships. https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1177/02654075241312690