Canadian Financial Diaries Research Project

The Ongoing Impacts of Trauma on Financial Well-Being and Decision Making

October 2022

This paper examines the finances and financial experiences of twelve low-income participants from the Canadian Financial Diaries research project, all of whom have been significantly affected by trauma. The Financial Diaries project worked with twenty-eight low- and modest-income Canadians for up to one year to enhance our understanding of participants’ finances and financial lives and being better placed to advocate for practices and policies of financial empowerment. The twelve participants chosen for this summary were those who shared with the research team about traumatic life events or situations. The traumas that they talked about were both personal—including abuse, neglect, relational breakdown, job loss—and systemic—racism, ableism, and colonization.

Report available by clicking here.