Maggie Baker, PhD on Money, Special for US Daily Review
Brain wiring, behavioral quirks, and our early life experiences provide a new way of understanding our “money behavior.” The better you understand how you use money, how you think and feel about it, and how you organize it – or how it organizes you — the easier it is to figure out what is holding you back from having a more balanced attitude toward money.
Maggie Baker, Ph.D., a Philadelphia area financial psychologist and author of “Crazy About Money: How Emotions Confuse Our Money Choices and What to Do About It” (Holistic Wealth Press, 2011, $14.95), has developed 10 “money types” which identify your unique relationship to money which are a part of your “financial self.”
Which type are you?
1. THE SPENDTHRIFT: Enjoys spending money for immediate pleasure; has a hard time saving and prioritizing for the future.
2. THE STOCKPILER: Hoards money; carefully follows a budget in order to achieve financial goals.
3. THE INDULGER: Saves obsessively, then spends all of his/her savings in a flash without really knowing why.
4. THE SPARTAN: Believes that the love of money is the root of all evil; self-esteem is derived from feeling superior to money and those who seek it.
5. THE ELUDER: Balancing a checkbook provides anxiety and tension. Avoiding the topic is this type’s course of action.
6. THE AMASSER: Self-worth is an extension of how much money they have accumulated.
7. THE GAMBLER: Risk-takers who love the thrill of adventure; tends to throw their money around in the hope of winning big.
8. THE CONSERVER: Determined to find the best value for their money no matter what it takes.
9. THE DEALER: Loves showing his/her power and ability to get a better deal on whatever he/she buys.
10. THE RISK AVOIDER: Hates financial surprises and setbacks; chooses safety and security in all things financial.
Once you’ve identified your “money type” or mixture of types, Baker believes it will help you develop the awareness and ability to effectively reflect and understand how you behave with money, and how money affects your self-esteem.
Baker states that the way we deal with money and the resulting emotions can interfere with rational decision-making processes. The impact of unacknowledged emotion on behavior and self-esteem is powerful and leaves people with little control over what is happening to them financially. By learning to experience emotions directly and reflect on them, we become more creative, solve problems more effectively, and feel better about ourselves.
“None of the money types are essentially good or bad; rather, each simply characterizes our attitude and behavior toward money. If our attitude or behavior is obsessive – too intense, too extreme, too rigid, or too destructive – it is time to examine your money type and behavior in depth,” says Baker.
About Maggie Baker, Ph.D.: A practicing clinical psychologist, Maggie Baker, Ph.D. has helped individuals, couples, and their families with relationship issues for more than 30 years. Since 1996 she has developed a focus on money issues. Her therapeutic approach of empathic understanding and emotional attunement strives to identify a person’s strengths and help them expand and use those strengths to set and reach personal and professional goals and to sustain positive self-esteem.
For more information on “money types” or to purchase a copy of “Crazy About Money How Emotions Confuse Our Money Choices and What to Do About It,” visit Amazon.com or maggiebakerphd.com.
Copyright © 2011, Maggie Baker, PhD. All Rights Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it includes the following attribution: Reprinted by permission of Maggie Baker, Ph.D., financial psychologist and author of “Crazy About Money: How Emotions Confuse Our Money Choices and What to Do About It.”
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