Financial Amends with Vince & Pat Y.Financial Amends with Vince & Pat Y.
Recovery Radio Network
Vince and Pat Y focus on money, debt and the Ninth Step, using real-life questions and stories to show how financial amends relate to sobriety and self-respect. The session blends humour with blunt honesty to stress paying back what’s owed and living responsibly as central parts of recovery.
1:00:35•25 May 2026
Paying It Back: Vince & Pat Y on Money, Amends and Sobriety
Episode Overview
- Financial amends are treated as essential Ninth Step work, with a strong emphasis on paying back what is owed rather than seeking quick escapes like bankruptcy.
- Even very small, consistent payments toward large debts can restore dignity and self-respect long before the balance is cleared.
- Student loans, IRS obligations, family loans and credit card balances are all framed as genuine debts, not optional or morally exempt.
- Vince’s finance class structure shows how budgeting, identifying "dead horses" (old debts) and regular review with support can help people in recovery become financially responsible.
- When money is tight, gifts of service and practical help are encouraged as meaningful ways to show love while prioritising debt repayment.
“I think the most spiritual thing that ever happens in Alcoholics Anonymous is to get up, to go to work, to be on time, to be where you're supposed to be, when you're supposed to be there, and pay your bills.”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This session from Recovery Radio Network zooms in on a very specific one: money, and how it ties directly into the Ninth Step. Vince, an alcoholic and long-time AA member, shares how a small chat with a young couple drowning in credit card debt turned into a full-on finance class for people in recovery.
With plenty of humour and straight talk, he walks through stories of rented townhouses paid on plastic, “pseudo” sales careers with almost no income, and the brutally honest moment when someone adds up six months’ earnings and finds just $712. The heart of the episode is financial amends.
Vince is crystal clear: “If you’re going to stay sober in this program, you owe the money and you have to pay it back.” Questions from the floor cover everything from old personal loans and medical bills to IRS debt, student loans and shoplifting from big-box stores.
Bankruptcy gets challenged hard, with Vince saying he’s “never met anybody in Alcoholics Anonymous that has filed bankruptcy that hasn’t lived to regret it.” You’ll hear moving examples of people who spent years paying back treatment centres, taxes and stolen wages, and how their self-respect returned long before the final cheque cleared. His finance class structure also shows up here: fixed expenses, “dead horses” (old debts), tiny payments, and sometimes very creative gifts of service instead of bought presents.
The tone is blunt but warm, with plenty of laughs about “Kmart shoppers”, “Jerry’s kids” tins and closet IRS dodgers. Underneath the humour sits a serious message: money, honesty and sobriety are tightly linked. As Vince puts it, paying your bills, showing up on time and living responsibly may be “the ultimate act of spirituality” in recovery. How might your own financial story fit into your amends?
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