For better or worse, to have and to hold…. our relationship with money is one for the long-term. It might be worthwhile getting to know yours better. Are you tight on those purse strings, or like a yoyo up and down…indifferent…pragmatic? Birdee has a quiz to help you find out more. Ready? Click here.
And then, find out your personality style below.
You are pretty dispassionate about money. Money comes and money goes. You view it as something transient. As long as you have enough and you have taken care of the essentials like your rent/mortgage, you aren’t particularly interested. On the plus side, your way of being brings flexibility and adaptability to meet life’s ebbs and flows. You may also appear to others as generous as you are so unattached to money. You’re more fascinated in the contemplating the ‘bigger picture’. Perhaps when you do consider money you view it more conceptually rather than a tangible, concrete object. However, your disinterest or distance may lead to you wasting money you could have invested in a longer-term project. The minimum involvement you prefer may be an avoidance of taking responsibility for certain of life’s inevitabilities (like retirement for example). You may struggle to envisage that as with a building, your finances can be built up brick by brick.
Generally speaking, your relationship with money is positive and pragmatic. You understand money as something useful and supportive providing you with independence. You feel calm and at ease with your finances. You manage your money well and stay on top of your finances in a healthy, responsible way. You have more than likely developed structures and methods to track your spending. You’re likely to have set up savings, investments and tend not to spend impulsively or over-spend. In saying that, you are not ungenerous, you are able to enjoy life’s pleasure and buy things that matter to you - you just know when to stop. You are not necessarily interested in money for money’s sake, rather you view money as a means to an end for other pursuits. However, as a pragmatist with a more positive outlook, you’re a bit of an opportunist and may even be fairly interested in finances/financial markets as you’d like to make your money work for you. You feel confident to invest, showing aptitude, creativity and resourcefulness.
You view money as an absolute necessity to the security in your life, a person who tends towards being risk-adverse. You probably have a certain amount of money put away for a rainy day and it calms you knowing it’s there. The idea of borrowing money is unpleasant for you, you would prefer to go without than get into debt. If you do have borrow money (a mortgage for example) you make it a priority to make repayments before making new purchases. In money (and more than likely in life generally) you are honorable, exact and careful. You believe that money is hard earned and should be held on to. You are conscientious and have detailed organisational skills. You may also have a strong sense of responsibility and may struggle to trust others to manage things. Deep down you may worry of scarcity and not enough. You may undervalue your many skills and how your gentle discretion brings much to others.
When it comes to matters of finance you tend towards being split. About money, you waver between feeling liberated, empowered to anxious and stressed. You are clear rationally that money is important, supporting life’s necessities as well as pleasures. However, your mixed ‘I love you-I hate you’ feelings about money can manifest itself in inconsistent feast-famine, up-down behaviour. This can make it difficult for you to save, invest or think long-term about your finances. Seeking instant gratification, you may be drawn to buying things to make yourself feel better that you later regret. This impulsive spending can then sabotage efforts made to better manage your money. Consequently, you can feel out of control, guilty and so on goes the vicious circle. As more of a sensitive character, you may also be upset about inequality on a global scale, noting the extremes of decadence and poverty. Your sensitivity makes you a kind, loyal person, save some of this warmth for yourself too.