What is your financial personality?

Recognising your financial tendencies helps you to develop better financial habits. So whether you’re a Saver, Spender, Avoider, or Giver helps you understand why you make certain money choices.

Awareness is the first step toward making changes that serve your long-term financial goals.

Here are 6 Money Personality Personas, what they mean, and tips to improve financial management for each type.

1. The Saver

• Characteristics: Thrives on budgeting, feels secure seeing their savings grow, and avoids unnecessary spending.
• Strengths: Excellent at building emergency funds and avoiding debt.
• Challenges: May avoid taking financial risks, such as investing, missing out on potential growth opportunities.
• Tips: Learn about low-risk investments to make your money work for you. Set aside a small budget for enjoyment to avoid feeling overly restricted.

2. The Spender

• Characteristics: Loves treating themselves and others, enjoys the latest trends, and often associates spending with success or happiness.
• Strengths: Lives in the moment and can be generous.
• Challenges: Risk of living month to month waiting for the wage payment to go into the bank, accumulating debt, or lacking savings.
• Tips: Practice mindful spending by waiting 24 hours before making non-essential purchases. Set clear financial goals, such as saving for a holiday or reducing debt, to curb impulse buys.

3. The Avoider

• Characteristics: Finds financial topics overwhelming or intimidating, often ignores bills or statements.
• Strengths: Might be highly creative or focused on other aspects of life.
• Challenges: May neglect essential planning, leading to financial instability.
• Tips: Start small: dedicate one hour a week to reviewing finances. Seek advice from a trusted financial advisor or friend to gain confidence. Automate bill payments and savings to reduce stress.

4. The Investor

• Characteristics: Enjoys learning about money and wealth-building, confident in taking calculated risks for potential gains.
• Strengths: Grows wealth through investments and diversified financial portfolios.
• Challenges: Could overestimate risk tolerance or overlook the importance of liquidity.
• Tips: Regularly review and rebalance your investment portfolio. Make sure you have an accessible emergency fund in cash savings.

5. The Security Seeker

• Characteristics: Prioritises safety and stability, values long-term financial planning, and tends to avoid risk.
• Strengths: Strong at creating solid financial plans and ensuring future security.
• Challenges: Can miss opportunities for growth by being overly cautious.
• Tips: Educate yourself on medium-risk investments to strike a balance between safety and growth. Consider working with a financial advisor to explore safe investment options.

6. The Giver

• Characteristics: Finds joy in helping others, often prioritising the needs of family, friends, or charities over their own.
• Strengths: Builds strong connections and contributes to meaningful causes.
• Challenges: May neglect personal savings or retirement planning.
• Tips: Set boundaries by allocating a specific portion of your budget for giving. Prioritise building your financial security before extending help to others.

How to Use Your Money Personality

You might be a mix of more than one so work out which two are your most dominant.

Then take some action!

1. Set Goals: Use your strengths to work towards financial milestones (e.g., buying a home, funding a business, or retirement).
2. Adapt and Grow: Balance your natural tendencies by adopting strategies from other personas.

Understanding your money personality isn’t about labelling yourself; it’s about learning how to harness your strengths and overcome challenges to achieve financial success.