Originally published in UGA Today

Dr. Kimberly Watkins, an Assistant Professor in UGA’s Online Graduate Certificate in Behavioral Financial Planning and Financial Therapy program, knows firsthand how money can strain relationships. Growing up, she learned about her family’s financial struggles by decoding overdue bill notices.

“There was always this cloud of mystery around money, so the only way to find out about it was to be a little detective,” Watkins said. “I would just go through the mail and read things, and when the envelopes were pink, I knew we were in bad shape.” While money was rarely discussed, she saw how her mother’s spending habits and her father’s saving mindset led to conflict.

Years later, the pattern repeated in her own marriage. Despite both having good jobs, she and her husband, Daniel, constantly felt like they never had enough money. “It was death by $5 here, $10 there, like leaks in a boat,” she recalled.

A turning point came during a conversation outside an OfficeMax. “I said, ‘Daniel, when we got married, you said you didn’t believe in divorce. Do you still not believe in divorce?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know.’ To know that he had changed his mind on something that important in such a short time, I was like, ‘Something’s not right here.’” Determined to bring peace to their home, she and Daniel enrolled in financial education courses, ultimately paying off their debt and strengthening their marriage.

Inspired by this transformation, Watkins pursued a doctorate in financial planning from UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences, where she now teaches. “Becoming a mother did shape my research at that point because I was spending more time looking at parenthood materials than academic articles,” she said, referencing her dissertation on parent relationship quality and financial well-being.

Now, she integrates her personal experiences into her Advanced Financial Planning Capstone course, where students develop real financial plans for clients. “I tell a lot of my business,” she said with a laugh. “Because while you may know exactly what to do with money, you may have money issues of your own. Guess what? So do your professors. So do the financial planners. So, I normalize the fact that we all struggle with it in some way, but there are ways to work around it.” She also highlights money issues in relationships, calling it “the number one issue that comes up for couples.”

Beyond her work in financial well-being, Watkins is also interested in neurodivergence in the financial planning field after being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. “I’m interested in learning what we can do to make sure people who are neurodiverse can do this job and do it well,” she said.

While her early experiences with financial struggles could be seen as hardships, Watkins sees them as valuable lessons. “All those stories are things that I have to be able to connect with people and to keep this work humanized as much as possible,” she said. Through her teaching and research, she continues to break down barriers and prepare future financial planners to support clients with empathy and expertise.

The Graduate Certificate in Behavioral Planning and Financial Therapy is designed to prepare students in financial planning with knowledge of the psychological and relational aspects that drive financial decision-making in the financial planning profession.  The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has recently added client psychology as a learning objective, as they recognize the need for financial planners to understand the human aspects of money.