(Prosperity - Laura E Kirkpatrick) Are you seeing blue ostriches, green high rollers or red producers? No, it’s not a new version of Lucky Charms, or that last drink on Saturday night coming back to haunt you. It’s combinations of the many types of financial personalities.
Knowing your personality type is a great way to assess where you are, and how to reach where you want to end up. By acknowledging both the strengths and the weaknesses of your type, you gain insight into not just your finances but who you are.
“It’s all about emotion,” says Jordan F. Goodman, author of Master Your Money Type. “People think it’s about dollars and cents, but it really isn’t. It’s emotional.”
So be prepared, this is not a cut and dry 10-minute quiz with a set of obvious answers. The goo
d news is that you can’t fail; the bad news is that you have to confront many aspects of who you are during this process. To know your financial type, you’ll need to honestly answer hard questions, like what does money mean to you – does it equal self-worth, prestige, love or security? Or all of the above?
There are as many ways of defining financial personalities as there combinations of colored marshmallows in that spoonful of Lucky Charms. Dr. Kathleen Gurney, CEO of the Financial Psychology Corporation, defines nine types; author Susan Zimmerman cites eight; Goodman uses six (listed below); psychologist Olivia Mellan has developed four. Another test, developed by the University of Tennessee for its students, lets you pick your financial personality color, if you’d rather be pink or yellow than an “ostrich,” “perfectionist,” “clueless” or “debt-desperado.”
“I’ve learned,” writes Dr. Gurney on her site “that not only do we have a physical self, an emotional self and a social self, but we have a financial or money self.”
This money self may have as many facets as your emotional or physical self and comes with as many hang-ups. Don’t just blame Mom and Dad for those six torturous years of braces; your relationship with them influences your relationship with money, credit and even retirement.
In fact, Goodman recommends delving as far back as your grandparents for clues - look at how their relationship with money influenced your parents, and then look at how your parents relationship with money has influenced the way you think about money.
Some questions to consider are:
- Did your grandparents worry about making ends meet?
- Did your parents feel they did without as children?
- How did your parents and grandparents speak about money? Was it spoken about openly? Was it something to be enjoyed or simply accumulated?
- Do you think your attitudes about money are similar to your parents’, or did you rebel and become their opposite?
Your marriage or romantic partnership is also defined, in some part, by your financial personality. (For more on opening up with your significant other, read The Money Talk). According to Goodman, opposite financial personalities do attract, creating a natural balance when you are aware of each others positive and negative traits.
Below are descriptions of Goodman’s six types, with tips for each. For a more in-depth analysis based on his types, take our financial personality quiz. For a list of other tests available online, go to our resources section.
As you look through these, you may seem to fit several types, but go with the dominant one. Remember -there is no right profile! Each has positive and negative traits. By realizing which type you are, you can reap greater benefits. Don’t try to change, work with who you are.
Strivers
At their best, strives are energetic, entrepreneurial and driven to achieve. For them, acquiring money, gadgets and assets demonstrates success. Strivers like luxury items, and usually make enough to afford them. However, overspending, or as Goodman puts it “forgetting how your income matches up with your expenses,” is a hazard.
Tip: Slow down and fit luxury purchases into the rest of your financial priorities.
Ostriches
It’s hard for ostriches to deal with money; they’re frequently baffled, intimidated or embarrassed by it. Often their financial planning is incapacitated by the belief that they can’t learn to master money basics. Ostriches are sometimes waiting for a white knight to rescue them from having to deal with these issues.
Tip: Take charge of your own finances by recognizing you can be prosperous. Shake off the inertia.
Debt Desperados
Desperados max out credit cards and go into debt to pay for staples or luxury goods. Their overspending--or underfinancing--creates a vicious cycle in which they get buried in more debt while trying to dig out.
Tip: Digging out might not be something you can do alone - if you have the commitment. We recommend a true desperado (as opposed to someone who works in say, media, and just has underfinancing issues - not that we know anything about that at all) talk to a professional.
Coasters
The most financially stable, but least risk taking of all the types. While your financial house may be in great order (a key to your personality is organization and responsibility) you may be too complacent and miss opportunities to grow. You could be even more prosperous!
Tip: Review your finances and shake things up. Set more aggressive goals. Talk to a professional about a few more aggressive investments.
High Rollers
High Rollers gamble – not just in Vegas but on new ventures and investments. There is an aura of invincibility around you. You know that in the world of money, there is some risk involved. Unfortunately, you occasionally forget to have a safety net.
Tip: Don’t bet the farm, just the silo. By learning how to manage your impulses, you can gain from your ventures, while not facing financial ruin.
Squirrels
You’re motivated by fear of loss, and that lack of security drives you to live below your means. You have enough to enjoy yourself but emotionally you cannot. By sticking to a hoarding lifestyle, you are losing out on growth opportunities.
Tip: Learn how to invest and grow all that money you’ve saved.
For more advice from Jordan Goodman, visit his website moneyanswers.com.
