Is your money personality sabotaging you?

Did you even know you had a money personality and that it could be sabotaging your success?

If you google money personality, you will be bombarded with different money type quizzes and definitions- I mean it overwhelmed me when I started on my financial journey so if it doesn't overwhelm you... please share your secrets with me.

I have done a lot of research on this and narrowed all the various personalities down to the key ones that I feel summarize them all (no matter what name someone calls them), but I have also realized that you will have a money driver and a money spirit that will come into play on your money journey.

Let's start with the personalities and a brief overview.

Avoider

As an avoider money type, you do just that, you avoid the hell out of money. You may let your bookkeeper and accountant handle finances for the business, and your spouse handle finances for your household. You may not deal with it at all until that dreaded tax time because you 'just can't'.

Don't feel bad, you are not alone and you are not to blame.

You feel overwhelming anxiety when it comes to money. This could be due to how you were raised or past money traumas you have gone through. It could be for multiple reasons, but for whatever reason, you just don't want to face any money topics head-on at all. Due to this, you may sabotage yourself by not realizing where you are financially. From a business perspective, this could mean operating at a loss or not being prepared for your tax bill, and on a personal side, this could mean not being prepared for an emergency, or paying more for something than you could have with a few moments of focus and intention.

Saver

As a saver money type, you are almost like a money hoarder. There is never enough in the savings, there is never enough in the checking, and you are constantly worried that an emergency will come up and it will financially ruin you.

So your solution is to pinch every penny, spend as little as possible, and check your account balances daily (if not several times a day). Having money for emergencies is something I highly recommend, but as a saver, if you aren't careful, you could be saving money that you could be using to make more money.

The feeling of large sums of money, however, you define that, makes you feel comfortable and because of that you may sabotage yourself by not using your money to make more money for yourself.

Warrior

As a warrior money type, money is almost like a game to you, a game you want to win. Sometimes no matter the cost. Money has probably always come naturally to you and you don't tend to stress over it too much, but you also don't tend to feel satisfied with where you are financially, ever. Because you could always do better. There is always someone with more and you want to win, not be second place.

Being a warrior can be very valuable as an entrepreneur, but very invaluable as a person. You need to balance your desire to win with being careful of who you may be trampling in the process.

A warrior money mindset can show up as a one-track focus and can sabotage you as you may miss opportunities that are disguised in a way you don't instantly see the dollar signs attached to.

Money Monk

A money monk's money personality is very indifferent to money. You don't care how much you have as long as you can get what you need, and you may even see money as something evil. You may have someone in your life who changed, in a bad way, when they made more money or came into a large sum of money. Whatever the reason, you are not a fan of having a lot, and you lead a simple life financially.

No one will ever accuse you of chasing money or being greedy with your money, but you will often find yourself in business, discounting or giving away your services because you want to help everyone, and in life, you might be the person everyone asks to borrow money because they know you will never ask them to pay it back.

Next are your money drivers, there are only two of these and they are pretty straightforward.

You are either driven by safety or by status.

A safety driver means you truly feel financially secure when you feel prepared and financially 'safe', this means more to you than showing visual expressions of your financial situation. There is nothing wrong with this, but remember, a budget that doesn't allow for splurges here and there, is a budget that will easily be blown.

A status driver means you feel financially successful when you are able to express visual and outward symbols of your financial situation. This may be in the form of shoes or clothes or purses, for men it tends to be cars. There is nothing wrong with this as long as it is not hindering your budget and financial goals to display those visual symbols that are important to you.

Neither of these is good or bad, you just want to be aware of what your driver is and make sure you are still navigating and have not lost control.

Lastly is your money spirit. There are two spirits around money you can have.

The first is money nerd. (This is me! Shocked?) Us money nerds, love a good spreadsheet, to create budgets and make the numbers all work out. We get energized from spending time with our finances, even if our personality says otherwise. This is the true, deep to the core of how you deal with money, the spirit you hold financially. You may be an avoider, but once you create the skills to handle your money without avoidance, if you are a money nerd, you are going to fall in love with the process and the results.

The second spirit you can have is a free spirit. You are not a spreadsheet and budget type, you just want to let money do its thing and see what happens. Your energy can easily be drained by focusing on the mundane details of financial data. Due to this, I encourage you to maybe carve out time for your financial reviews before something you love- reward yourself after the hard work. If you have a weekly yoga class you love that is on Thursday mornings, calendar time before that on Thursday to work on the financial aspects of your business and home.

Neither of these is good or bad either. As money nerds, we can get too caught up in the details and free spirits can forget to ever pay attention.

Your money personality combined with your driver and your spirit can tell you a lot about why you are in the current financial situation you are in, why you do the things around money that you regularly do, and why certain emotions may come up when any conversation turns to financial topics.

Understanding these pieces of you can help you to better navigate all financial aspects of life as an entrepreneur.

If you would like to explore more about your money personality and understand how to work this to your benefit, go ahead and schedule a call with me to discuss how I can help you navigate through this and create a plan to use these parts of who you are and how you financially operate to create success.