Did you know there are five money personalities? When it comes to finances you can be a spender, saver, investor, debtor, or avoider. Although we may have tendencies of all, we closely relate to only one.
On this episode, Community Engagement Specialist, Carrie Cantrell and co-hosts Shea and Mary Helen discuss how balance different money personalities and what each personality should be aware of to achieve financial freedom and take hold of your financial journey.
"With the spender, you can try the sleep on it method where instead of buying something right then, just take a breather and sleep on it and ask yourself, are you buying it to keep up with the Joneses or do you actually need it?"
If you need help on your financial journey, Leaders Credit Union is here for you! Leaders offers a robust mobile app with built in budgeting tools, financial wellness resources, articles, calculators, and more.
Shea:
Hey, this is Shea.
Mary Helen:
This is Mary Helen
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change podcast.
Mary Helen:
Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest and take control of your financial journey.
Shea:
We've got a great episode today. We're excited to dive into some money personalities.
Mary Helen:
I think it's going to be a ton of fun.
Shea:
So I mean money. Everyone loves money. We want to learn how to relate to it and how we interact with money and what it means for our financial journey and our financial lives. So it should be interesting.
Mary Helen:
Shea I'm so excited for our special guest. Aren’t you?
Shea:
Yes! One of our own on our team. We're glad to have her.
Mary Helen:
One of our own! So Carrie, thanks for being on the podcast today.
Carrie:
Thanks for having me.
Mary Helen:
Of course. So you're a community engagement specialist. So tell us a little bit about what you do and what that means.
Carrie:
Okay. So I'm a part of a team of three of us. Shea is actually my director, and we actually take the credit union outside the four walls. So we get to connect with the community and our employee partners. We also educate others on financial wellness. And I actually just recently became a certified financial counselor. So we do all of that, and I'm also the in-house photographer as well.
Mary Helen:
So today we're talking about the five money personalities. I'm excited to hear about this topic. So what got you interested in what we're going to talk about today?
Carrie:
I have a passion of human behavior and psychology, and I heard about this book by Effie Zahos called “Ditch the Debt and Get Rich”. And she has a concept of five money personalities that identify with animals. So I thought it would be fun to talk about because I think we can all relate.
Shea:
So we get our money personality plus an animal. So this should be really interesting. So what's the first one? What personality are we talking about?
Carrie:
Okay, so the first personality is the spender, which is also known as the peacock.
Shea:
All of us probably at some point or another. Flaunting it around.
Carrie:
Yes, exactly. They're the ones that like to keep up with the Joneses and flaunt and show off what they got.
Shea:
Having one of these - a little money jacket or a money suit that I can wear.
Mary Helen:
If y'all aren't watching on YouTube. Shea has this dollar bill like suit jacket that he wears on...very interesting and fun occasions.
Shea:
Just a few occasions.
Mary Helen:
That's right.
Shea:
I don’t wear it out in public. But maybe I should.
Mary Helen:
Maybe you should! We should think about that.
Carrie:
So the peacock or the spender is the show off. So they like to spend their money and, you know, I think we all at least have identified with that.
Shea:
Keeping up with the Joneses.
Carrie:
Keeping up with the Joneses. Yeah.
Mary Helen:
So a peacock. I'm excited to see what all the other animals are. So the first ones are Spender (Peacock). So what would the second one be?
Carrie:
So the second one is the saver, which is a squirrel, naturally.
Shea:
Storing up all the acorns. They are all over my yard, burying those acorns, stashing them away.
Carrie:
So the saver is obviously known for hoarding money, and they're not big risk takers with their money either.
Shea:
So we've got the squirrel and the peacock. So what's next?
Carrie:
You've got the debtor, which is the sloth. And I don't know if you knew this, but sloths aren't slow because they're lazy. They're actually slow because they're trying to, like, move under the radar of predators.
Mary Helen:
Interesting.
Shea:
So how does that relate to, I guess, being in debt or being a debtor?
Carrie:
When you're weighed down by debt and you move a little slow.
Shea:
Okay, that makes sense.
Carrie:
So the debtors are obviously known for just spending lots of money and piling up the debt. So they might max out their credit card. They may live paycheck to paycheck.
Mary Helen:
They don't want to be seen.
Carrie:
Exactly. They don't want to have to acknowledge that they're in debt.
Shea:
These animals are very like specific to these personalities. They fit really well.
Mary Helen:
They really do. Okay, so what would the fourth one be?
Carrie:
So the fourth one is the avoider, which is an ostrich. So they basically bury their head in the sand and they're like out of sight, out of mind. I don't want to think about it. A lot of times the avoider has anxiety or gets a little overwhelmed with thinking about their finances. And so they just avoid dealing with it.
Shea:
I’m sure we've all been there at some point. Maybe, for instance, working on a mortgage and having to sign, you know, 50 papers, you know, for that process or student loans, you know, signing up for that when you're in college. I mean, there's a lot of times where we could be overwhelmed by money or making financial decisions. So that's a big part of it.
Carrie:
It is. And last but not least, it's the investor. And the investor is considered an owl. An owl can rotate its neck 270 degrees to keep an eye on everything. So if you're an owl, you relate to it by always having to check your financial portfolio. You know, you're always looking at your finances and checking your bank account and you invest and, you know, it's always on your mind.
Shea:
You may could say they give a hoot about their finances, right?
Carrie:
They definitely do. If you relate to that, then I guess you're an owl.
Shea:
So are there certain things we need to know about each personality or things that you know we can do to maybe break the cycle?
Carrie:
Absolutely.
Shea:
And move from one personality to the next or level up?
Carrie:
Yes. So with the spender, you can try the sleep on it method where instead of buying something right then, just take a breather and sleep on it and ask yourself, are you buying it to keep up with the Joneses or do you actually need it?
Shea:
I thought you were going to say, whatever the product is, you sleep with it at night because you spent so much money on it.
Mary Helen:
I've heard of this. I've called it something different. I call it the 24 hour Rule. If I go to the store and I see something that I like or something that I want, I'll leave it there. And if I'm still thinking about it in 24 hours. Okay. Because it just keeps me from like buying and buying...
Carrie:
Impulse buying. Yes.
Mary Helen:
That instant gratification.
Carrie:
I have this method. You know, most women love to go to Target, and so I get my little target cart, and I fill it full of all the things I want. And I walk around and imagine having it, and then I don't want it anymore. So I put it all back and it works for me.
Mary Helen:
I also heard this trick and it works for anybody that wants to do it, spender, saver, whatever. But if you go to a store and you have like three shirts or like a kitchen item or like whatever you have, if you hold it and you pick it up around the store, say you put it in your cart, and you push your cart away.
If you can't remember what's in your cart, you should put it back because it doesn't mean that much to you. It’s not the important. And I've taken that, and I've used it several times. And I'm like, okay, I don't I don't remember what I picked up 5 minutes ago, and therefore, I'm not going to need it.
Carrie:
Absolutely.
Shea:
So how are we supposed to be a better saver? How can we become better savers?
Carrie:
So the thing about saving is, saving is not the same as investing. So the whole point of saving is to watch your money grow. So it would be helpful to start small and put away small investments and...
Shea:
Like pocket change for instance. Just adding it up in your piggy bank.
Carrie:
Adding it up! You know, put $5 in an envelope every week, put it away. But instead of just putting it away into your savings account, invest it.
Mary Helen:
I will say, I have a savings account that if I withdraw - it’s a Leader’s savings account, the Fast Forward - if I withdraw, then I lose the interest that I have. And so it helps me and it trains me of like don't touch it. Once you put it in there, in my mind, I've locked it away and I'm not going to touch it, I'm not going to get it out.
And so, having those incentives to not pull your money out, not to spend your money because you're going to lose something in the long run, that's just helped me lock it away.
Shea:
There's more of a risk reward to it. If you take it out, you may lose something, but if you keep it, then you'll gain your reward. So that's helpful.
Carrie:
So with the debtor, they recommend making a budget. There are apps out there that help you manage your money.
Shea:
We’ve got Money Management at Leaders. You can check out some of our other podcast episodes about saving for an emergency fund, things like that.
Carrie:
It also helps you when you're able to track your spending to see where you are spending a lot of your money. For instance, if you are going to, you know, a coffee shop or eating out a lot or target wherever your vices is, it helps to kind of get a grip on that.
Shea:
So what's number four? What else does the author say?
Carrie:
So with the avoider, they recommend to have two financial goals to start small and, you know, set a date for those goals. And once you reach that goal, then you can keep setting another goal. That way you're more aware instead of avoiding your finances.
Mary Helen:
Which makes sense because we talked about earlier, the avoider is someone who gets overwhelmed. They're going to want to run away. They see the number and they're like, I can't do it. They just kind of walk away and don't handle it maybe in the way that it needs to be handled. And so setting two goals. Not ten, just two. I think that's great.
Shea:
I think it’s helpful to do that with your budget too, to keep that simple, because we can break down everything from, you know, Target, Walmart, I mean, break it down by so many categories that it gets overwhelming. And we need to really keep it simple of shopping or bills or, you know, utilities, whatever the case is, to to make it easier on us and not be overwhelmed.
Carrie:
I think it's all about building habits too, healthy habits. So we talk about that with our eating habits. So we can also talk about that with financial habits as well, just building healthy habits. And if you start small, it becomes routine.
Mary Helen:
And habits take consistency too. But consistency starts today. And then tomorrow and then the next day. But we just have to worry about today. What can we do today? And that's setting the two goals.
Carrie:
And it could be as simple as I'm not getting a Starbucks drink this morning today, you know, and then tomorrow start over. And so the last one for the investor really is to not let your emotions get in the way too much. Investors tend to get a little anxious because they're watching their money constantly.
Shea:
Especially right now with the economy and all the uncertainties. So that can be difficult.
Carrie:
So those are mostly the ways to help each money personality.
Shea:
Those are great tips for each of those money personalities of how we can kind of move to the next level and really control our finances day to day.
Mary Helen:
So Carrie, which one do you relate to the most?
Carrie:
I knew this question was coming. As much as I want to avoid answering this, that's me. I'm the avoider. I'm the ostrich.
Shea:
Burying your head in the sand.
Carrie:
Well, I'm a single mom, and so everything's on me. So sometimes it's like I just don't even want to look at it. I don’t want to think about it. I wish somebody else could take care of all of that. But as I mentioned earlier, I think we all relate to each personality. And I mean, I have a little bit of each personality in me for sure.
Shea:
So, Mary Helen, what's personality are you. I'm saving mine for last. So y’all tell me what you are.
Mary Helen:
So does that mean you're the saver?
Shea:
We'll see.
Mary Helen:
I think I relate most with the saver personality. But if you were to ask me a year ago…
Carrie:
So you’re a squirrel?
Mary Helen:
I am right now. In this stage of my life, I'm very much a squirrel. But if you were to ask me a year ago, I think I was more of a spender, more of a...I had less financial responsibilities. And so, therefore, I felt like I had more money to spend. But now the more responsibility that you gain, the more I'm becoming more of a saver and entering a new stage of life and just trying to prepare financially for different things. So I think that's the one I relate with the most right now. But like you said, there's a little bit of all five of those in me in some way.
Shea:
I'd have to say for me I would probably be the spender. I am a spender. I probably spend too much and should probably work more on my saving and budgeting. But like you said, at different times in our lives, we've probably had a little bit of one of those. But I'm the spender.
Shea:
So Carrie, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for sharing those five money personalities and about the money animals as well. We got a little insight into that. So the last question on the Pocket Change podcast is if you had some extra change in your pocket, what would you spend it on?
Carrie:
I knew this was coming. Thankfully, I have a big event coming up this weekend and it's my son's 12th birthday, so I would take him and let him get a treat somewhere. Maybe ice cream or a cupcake or something like that. We'd do something fun.
Mary Helen:
Oh, that's so fun. That's great. Well, great answer, Carrie. Thanks for being on the Pocket Change podcast. I think you had great things to say and I hope our listeners really took it in and maybe they figured out which personality they are.
Carrie:
I would love to hear what others in our office are too.
Shea:
If you're listening, comment and tell us what your animal personality is.
Carrie:
Thank you guys for having me.
Mary Helen:
Thanks for tuning in to the Pocket Change podcast. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe.
Shea:
Pocket Change podcast has been brought to you by Leaders Credit Union.
Mary Helen:
Where we power your passion and make lives better. Cha-Ching!
Shea:
Leaders is federally insured by the NCUA Equal Housing Lender.
Mary Helen:
Learn more at leadercu.com.