Money Personality – why it’s important to know yours.

Did you know there is such a thing as a money personality?

Or even an abundance or scarcity mindset?  We each have our own style of personality – such as being cheerful, chatty, shy, confident. And generally your own personality can determine how you respond to certain life events or situations. 

The next step is to understand how your personality or beliefs can also impact your thoughts and actions towards money.

How are your beliefs towards money formed, and is it possible to change them? 

The formative years of your family upbringing can play a significant role in shaping your money personality or beliefs.

The conversations you overheard, the spending behaviours your parents exhibited. So it’s important to recognise that a money personality may be more about conditioned or learned beliefs.

Psychologists believe it is possible to alter core beliefs rather than existing personalities.

It’s important to acknowledge and understand, that core beliefs can actually be positive, neutral, or negative. Their impact depends on how they make you feel, and how they can either assist you or work against you in your daily routine. 

  Here are a few general positive        

  core beliefs:

• “People are mostly kind.”
• “If I work harder, I know I can succeed.”
• “Every mistake I make is a chance to learn.”

  Alternately, there are other core

  beliefs that may cause stress or     

  upset you :

• “I never fit in anywhere.
• “Nobody ever likes me.”
• “If I start to love someone, I know they will leave.”

Whilst the above examples are very general in nature, it supports opinion that core beliefs can have a major effect on how you see and  experience the world.

They have a strong potential to actually shape your thought patterns, how you interpret life events and even your decision making. 

Replacing historical limiting beliefs with your own new set of positively charged ones will impact your approach to spending and managing money.

When it comes to money or spending, your own research will uncover a variety of Money Personalities.

Typically, these are : Big Spenders – Savers – Shoppers – Debtors – Investors.

 Money personalities and their traits

The 5 money personality types?

Big spenders – not especially concerned about when or how much they spend, as long as it provides gratification

Savers – quite the opposite approach, with the intention of saving as much as possible for the future, or that rainy day

Shoppers – impacted by marketing hype, emotionally driven to grab season bargains, or buy items they don’t necessarily need

 

Debtors – generally spend more than they earn, sometimes to impress friends, or just because they don’t think about their money

Investors – a smarter personality, making conscious decisions about how to spend their money and gain the greatest value

  Would you describe yourself as one or more of the above personalities?

Do you now understand your spending behaviour more clearly? You may want to consider what steps you can take to alter your behaviours to improve your financial health. In addition to the above, we know of two broader money personalities – abundance and scarcity.

Abundance Vs Scarcity

Stephen Covey initially coined these terms in his best-selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

So how do we explain these two very different approaches to money and spending?

Put simply, its centred around your thoughts and consistent feelings or beliefs towards life and money.

  What do you see in the landscape image above?

On the left half of the image you see a parched, drought stricken landscape and skies that are uninviting. And so it is with your money beliefs or thoughts. What you see or think consistently, is what you ultimately will attract.

 Always believing or stating you will never have enough money in life, is exactly the outcome you expect. 

And you will ultimately manifest this for yourself. That’s a scarcity mindset in action!

Abundance is also clearly visible (on the right) with lush green grass, leaves and blue skies.

It’s that Abundance Mindset that gives you the belief you will always have enough of everything in life. Sufficient enough to do what is important or of value to yourself.

Try focusing on what you have, and being amongst other abundant mindset people. Be open to all possibilities.

These are just a few steps towards developing that positive approach to financial growth.  

It is not unusual within couples, for one person to have differing beliefs about  money.

One person may have long term beliefs around abundance and faith in their money outcomes. Trusting and believing there would always be enough.

Whilst the other half of the couple, has a fear of being without money and a constant scarcity mindset. This can all change, with practice and time,  with the realisation that working harder for money is not always the answer. Commit to regularly working on your mindset to ensure that you set clear intentions for your money health.

When you both agree to practice and maintain a consistent abundance mindset, it greatly improves the chances of achieving your desired financial outcomes. Make it an ongoing focus to achieve those outcomes – you will see and enjoy the success of your results. 

How to move from scarcity to abundance

There are some practical methods you can use to create this change in your own money beliefs.  

At Spending Choices we help show you how go about to this in our Abundance Mindset article.