Wealth & Personality

When I first thought of this particular blog post I had no idea what kind of image I would find to accompany it.  When I entered in a few key search words in Adobe Spark, numerous images of colored pencils came up.

Before I get into the meat of today’s post, I want to share something with you.  As a child, and even now and again in my adult years, I loved drawing.  Especially with pencil.  It just had a texture and feel that I loved.  Then I took an art class my senior year in high school and fell in love with colored pencils.  I created my personal masterpiece (okay, I consider it the best art piece I have ever done) in that class with colored pencil.

So searching for an appropriate image, these colored pencil images really stuck out because regardless of which colors I might like the best, I needed all of them, and sometimes even found new favorites.  The real fun started when I realized I could use several colors and blend them in sequence to match the colors I saw in front of me.

The picture you see with this post was perfect…not only did it show different colored pencils which could represent different personality types, it also featured a flower tucked between two of the pencils that I felt represented those personalities that have to be just a little different, who embrace life full on and whom we love to have in our lives (even if they aren’t the best with finances).  And thus we blend.

You may have guessed what this post is about if you’ve been following me for any length of time.

It’s about how our unique personalities influence our interaction with finances and wealth.

Most of us realized at an early age that some people were better at math than others, including ourselves (I admit this even with a BS in Mathematics).  At some point we also realized that some people were better with finances than others.  And they weren’t always the Math nerds (or the business majors).

So this post is about how personality drives our interaction with money and wealth more than intellect ever will.

We are all very different people, with different personalities, different personal tastes, and certainly different backgrounds.  What makes us think, then, that we will all encounter and deal with money the same way?

In the American culture we are brought up and educated that we are all individuals who can be whatever we want to be.  This is a lie.  Not that we cannot achieve what we seek to achieve, but not all of us are cut out to be astronauts, or FBI agents, or accountants, or computer programmers, or even entrepreneurs!

I would like to believe I am an entrepreneur, but I have had to deal with the fact that while I have entrepreneurial leanings, I am not an entrepreneur in the true sense.   I know because I am close friends with a few of them, and we are so different in many ways.

What I have figured out is that I complement true entrepreneurs because I easily grasp where they are going and can build the initial infrastructure to support them, although I would likely have analyzed the idea for years without ever acting on it if left to my own device.

But on to personalities – there are so many beautiful and crucial differences between us as humans.  Some of us are very serious about finances and spending categories and sticking to a budget, while others see finances merely as means to an end, not worried about going broke if we have experienced a memory of a lifetime.

I for one have struggled my entire life with this and am still learning to let go and simply accept when friends suggest last minute once in a lifetime adventures.  I have turned down numerous opportunities that many of my friends would have given me the money to experience.

My personality type tends toward self-sacrifice before asking friends, even to the point of extremes (thankfully, I am gradually learning how to accept the generosity of friends – not an easy task for my personality type).

I ought to at least talk about my personality type.  I am an INTJ on the Myers-Briggs/Keirsey Temperament Sorter and a 5 with a 4 wing on the Enneagram.  On the DISC profile I am a C with a strong S and dominantly C under stress.  In general terms I am an extremely introverted, very rational, process oriented individual who is also creative and fairly in tune with his emotions and understands how personalities interact on a primarily intellectual level – the emotional content is mostly understood through observation, study and knowledge of types.  (The links here are only suggestions and are not affiliate links – there are many places you can take the tests for free for initial findings – I do recommend paying for at least one of them as the paid results are often more enlightening).

So I happen to be decent at math and really good at a personal finances and how people interact with money.  But I desperately need friends to drag me out to experience things that I would never do on my own.  So a balance is always needed in dealing with money – save for the future without missing the opportunities to enjoy the present.

As this topic is quickly outpacing the length of most of my posts, I will draw things to a close here with a final thought, and an invitation for comments if you would like more on this topic.  I am only at the beginning of my understanding of how each personality type interacts with money and finances, but am willing to educate myself as needed to answer the call if there is further interest.

Final thought for this post:

You are who you are.  If you are terrible with money, you need someone in your life who is good with money.  If you are great with money, and maybe a little like me, you need people in your life who know how to live and experience life.

Sometimes they pick up the tab.  Sometimes you should.  Just don’t die rolling pennies alone.