3 Common Unhealthy Money Types: Is This You?

Money at its essence is energy. And it is the energy we have around money that shapes our fears, anxieties, desires, needs and insecurities.
We all learned money lessons as children. The beliefs we took on for ourselves serve as the foundation of what become our money personality. And we all have a money personality.

There are many different money types. Some are healthy, many are not healthy at all. They can result in bankruptcy, illness due to stress and financial victimization. The following addresses three very common unhealthy money types so you understand their attributes and can recognize whether or not you hold some of them within you. I’m also going to describe a very healthy money type for the same reason and so you can model those attributes if you don’t hold them already.

Let’s talk about the Spender. She overspends. She’s brilliant at running up the credit card. She shops so she can feel better about herself and her circumstance. Typically her closet is full of clothes, many of which still have the tags hanging from them. She believes that if she just buys this one more Prada bag, THEN she’ll be seen as good enough, respected enough, valued enough. And she wastes a lot of money in the relentless pursuit of enough-ness.

Then there’s the Avoider. Bank statements and financial statements arrive and (boom) in the drawer they would go, unopened. To examine might require taking some action, making a decision – and that is scary. They're in fear of making a mistake. Avoiders aren’t stupid people. They can be highly intelligent. They just avoid the topic of money so they’re not well versed in money matters. And they’re too embarrassed to ask questions. So they either don’t manage their money at all or they blindly had it over to 3rd party people to oversee – their spouse, an agent, a financial manager. And we’ve all heard the stories where some of these Avoiders get the rude awakening one day only to find they’re financial resources have been squandered by these third parties or themselves.

Next is the Worrier. She worries. For her money equals security and she just can’t ever feel secure enough. She’s terrified that her worse fear will come to be – that she will end up living in a box by the side of the road – that she’ll become a bag lady. Her fear is way out of proportion to her financial status and abilities. She’s frozen and can’t make financial decisions even if the obvious choice is in her best interest. She doesn’t trust her own instincts let alone those of a financial expert. She tends to hoard her money rather than leveraging it – sometimes creating her own self-fulfilling prophecy. She loses a lot of sleep worrying about money to the detriment of her health and well-being.

Finally, there’s the Money Master. She creates her life from her heart. She’s motivated by her intuition, inspiration and passions. She values herself and appreciates the life has. She spends her day creating what will serve the greater good of all, including herself. She mindfully manages her money because it serves as the means of exchange to do just that. She values herself and appreciates all that life has given her. What she appreciates, appreciates. With that attitude money naturally flows into her life as she continues to create abundance in her life and in the lives of those she loves.

That was a very brief overview of the different money types. Be curious and dig deeper into what serves as the foundation of your money type. Keep what beliefs are in your best interests, transform what isn’t.