© 2024 The Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation (WDSE)

The North 103.3 FM is licensed to The Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation (WDSE)
Locally Curated. Community Owned.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Community Conversations: Awkward Conversations About Money

©Lisa Johnson

Money.  Whether we have it or we don’t, it’s a constant in our everyday lives.  Its presence – or absence is felt as we go about our business every single day.  So why is it so hard to talk about?

Saying to a friend, “Hey, I’m tapped out 'til payday” is hard enough, but what about those conversations we HAVE to have?  Conversations like “Mom?  Do you have anything set aside for assisted living?”  or “Honey, shall we take a loan for this cruise … or fix the roof instead” – why do they have to be so … fraught?  And although we want our kids to learn to manage money and be smart about it … we don’t have the first clue how to talk to them about it and besides, our finances are none of their business, right?

The experts offer some advice on having these "awkward conversations" without getting your whole family mad at you.

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.