(UPBEAT PIANO MUSIC) My personality shapes everything in my life. I'm reasonably friendly, but I hate going to parties. I love adventures, but I'm also just as happy sitting on the couch at home, watching telly. But could we also each have a money personality? Is there something about who we are as people that shapes our money behaviour? Money brings some of us happiness. (LAUGHS GIDDILY) (GASPS, GIGGLES) (KITTEN MEOWS) But it can also make others worried and lose sleep. It makes some of us feel safe and secure. And money makes some people feel free. (LIGHT-HEARTED MUSIC) Perhaps we can recognise patterns in our behaviour that will help us to understand what we're doing with money and why we do it. Some people spend money because it makes them feel good, and others save money because having a nest egg makes them feel calm. In this series, we're going to help you discover your money personality... That was an amazing sale. ...and give you life hacks to get the most out of the money you've got. And learning about your money personality isn't just gonna help you manage your finances; it's going to help you to get to know yourself better, and that is going to help you to get the most out of your entire life. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 We've used scientific studies and our own research and discovered four key money personalities ` Each of these money personalities are motivated by different basic needs. Bryce is a Security Saver. Money can make him feel safe. He definitely has insurance, his home is his castle, and he's more likely to have put something aside for a rainy day. And when Bryce shops, he can't resist a bargain. Nina, our Power Spender, reacts to money in an emotional way. She loves spending, so she gets a dopamine hit from shopping. She'll buy something when she's feeling down, and she'll tend to go for top brands, not the boring generic version. Wolf is a Sociable Sharer and uses money to have a good time with people. He enjoys spending money on others to show them how much they mean to him. Family and friends take priority. He's the kinda guy you want as your best mate, and his door is always open. Ti is a Freedom Seeker and sees money as independence. Hey, Ti. Don't go yet. For her, money is a way to escape the daily grind. It's all about experiences for Ti ` travel, finding new things to be passionate about. If she just had enough money, she'd never work again. So how does all that stuff map out in our day-to-day behaviour? How do money personalities shape our lives? Why is understanding your money personality so important? Well, it's because that's the thing that drives all of the little decisions you make every single day that are building your life ` sometimes without even knowing it. We asked people to build the life they wanted from four choices ` going to work, hanging out with friends and family, chasing your hobbies and passions, and just relaxing. After we got them to build their ideal life, we asked them to build their actual life. This time, it's the actual amount of time that you spend on these things. It's pretty clear that everyone's actual life is dominated by work. If there was a thing that stops you from having your ideal life, what would it be? Um... Look, I guess it boils down to money, doesn't it? In order to have a good family life with your friends and relaxing, you have to work in order to make more money. How much of a barrier is money of getting from there to there? Quite big, yeah. (CHUCKLES) You need to have money to kind of enjoy all these things as well. If we want to move from the life we have to the life we want, the answer seems to be money. Money becomes a bit of an enabler for you to have more time with family, friends, hobbies. Perhaps our money personality is going to be vital in helping us build the life that we really want. (LIGHT MUSIC) Leigh is a Freedom Seeker, which means she wants experiences. The problem is she can't always get them because of some of the money choices she makes. Leigh, what's your kind of big dream in life? What's the big picture for you? I've always been interested in travel, and I think what drives that the most is that I'm in a different country on my own and having to be fully independent ` like, there's no one else to help. I want that kind of challenge. I like forcing myself outside the box. So would you say you're kind of a live-for-the-moment person or a planning-for-the-future person? Live for the moment, definitely. (LAUGHS) The positive side of Freedom Seekers is they love to be spontaneous on their quest for adventure, but the flipside is they sometimes don't buckle down and do the boring stuff, like budgets. What would you say are the strengths and the weaknesses of your money personality? I'm a procrastinator, not gonna lie. So I see things that come in ` if it's urgent, then I'll deal with it, but if it's a bill that I see that's due in three weeks, I'm like, 'I'll just pay you later.' Even if it's a little amount, you still feel that dread of, 'Oh, great. There's another thing I have to pay for' or 'another thing I have to sort out.' The Freedom Seekers wants to live in the moment, but at the same time, they need to save for their bigger adventures. It's a constant struggle. It's hard to kind of think ahead. Like, I have a plan, but then it's hard to actually get there when there's so much I wanna do now. I need to change things. Freedom Seekers like Leigh need to work hard to focus on their bigger long-term goals and override the pull of the experience right in front of them. That's hard because now always feels more exciting than later, but you have to keep working on it. After the break ` how our money personalities can even influence the way we buy a cupcake. And other people will look at it and go, 'That's a flash cupcake.' And how does a Power Spender feel when they just can't help spending their money on stuff? (RELAXING GUITAR MUSIC) What would you do if you had $10,000 to spend? Ooh. $10,000. Ooh, I would spend it on promoting my books, cos I'm a writer. I'd probably pay off my student loan. Probably take off a couple of months and go travelling. If I had $10,000, I would book a flight to London and a course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. (MUSIC FADES) Let's meet a real-life Power Spender. Ricky loves to spend his money on one particular thing. I spend it on Star Trek memorabilia ` costumes, props, figures, models. What's the most expensive piece that you've ever bought? The most expensive piece is probably the plastic playset bridge. It's a control room of the Enterprise that was about $1200. And you had to mount a rescue mission after the earthquake in Christchurch? During the Christchurch earthquake, I lost pretty much everything. I managed to find some of the bridge buried underneath some rubble but not all of it. Please be all right. Oh, it's scratched. What do you get out of buying the collectibles? We didn't really have much money growing up, but if we nagged the right way, Mum would sort of buy us this $3 action figure ` cos they were really cheap back then ` and I think that's probably how she expressed her love for us. CHUCKLES: So maybe I'm just buying figures to just love for myself. Do you ever feel like you're missing out on anything because of the amount that you spend on the Star Trek collectibles? I see other people going on trips around the world, getting married and buying houses ` that's the usual thing. It's like, yeah, well, you've got a house, but I've got action figures. (LAUGHS) I'm approaching mid-life now, so I think things are changing in my head quite a lot, so I want to take a different direction. I don't drive, so I'm not gonna buy a new car for my mid-life crisis. I certainly can't buy a spaceship, so I think I'm just gonna have to make some plans to buy... I don't know. I've got to do something. I just don't know what it is. I'm trying to educate myself to think, 'OK, I don't necessarily have to have the action figure. 'It exists somewhere in the world. My friend might have it. 'I can appreciate it when it's at his place; I don't need to buy it.' That's what I'm trying to tell myself now. How difficult is that? Very difficult. Because I'm probably gonna go straight from here on to TradeMe, and I'm thinking I wanna buy a spaceship today. The Power Spender gets a hit of dopamine from every purchase. Some buy lots of small things. Others, just one very expensive thing. But the downside is you can sometimes get addicted to the buying and not actually need the thing that you're buying. (UPBEAT MUSIC) So what kind of cupcake would a Power Spender buy? Our money personalities are susceptible to quite different marketing strategies. They behave quite differently when we buy stuff. So it's important to understand that the people trying to sell you things are going to try and hook your money personality. We've come up with four ways of selling exactly the same cupcake. First, the $2 Security Cupcake ` you get to test it. The Freedom Cupcake, which has a game involved. Costs a little bit more ` $3 ` but if you can get the little green ball in the cup, it's free. (LAUGHS) So there's that. The Social Cupcake ` two for $4 ` for sharers. And lastly, the Power Elite Deluxe Cupcake. It's exactly the same as the other cupcakes but costs $3 ` $1 more. So, what's special about this one? Uh, it's the Elite Deluxe model. And it has the gold frosting, and it has the little gold crown, and other people will look at it and go, 'That's a flash cupcake.' It's very clever. They're all gonna taste the same. (CHUCKLES) But they all come with a different deal. It's decision time. Which cupcake is your money personality telling you to buy? The try-before-you-buy cupcake is aimed at the Security Savers. You're not taking a risk? Between me and my partner, we put a big effort into trying to save a bit of money. We always have plenty there in case anything happens. We put a bit of money away for the future. I'm getting this one. Oh. Perfect. Yum. So you've gone for the sensible saving decision. You don't want to share with us. That's fine. That's fine. Right. Others were into sharing. Can I please get the Social Cupcake? You're going for the Social Cupcake? I think I will have two. You're gonna make someone pretty happy if you share that cupcake with them. Is that your approach to life? Sharing ` you like doing that? Yeah. There we are. Fantastic. Thank you very much. One and one to share. Sharing cupcakes. Thank you. OK. Thanks. Freedom Seekers love the adventure of tossing the ping pong ball for $3. Get it in the cup, and you get your money back and a cupcake. Miss, and you've just paid for an expensive cupcake. Ah! (LAUGHS) Free cupcake ` and you get your money back. But sometimes the Freedom Seekers' hunt for fun leaves them coming up a bit short. Argh, missed. (ALL EXCLAIM) That's a $3 cupcake. Whoa! It's all about the experience. That's what will pull me in. I've got to have fun. I've got to experience something. I've got to come away and go, 'Hey, that was great.' The Power Elite Deluxe Cupcake, which, remember, was exactly the same as the others, cost $1 more because it had a sparkly crown stuck in it. It was designed to tempt the Power Spenders. I want the crown one. You want the crown one. Even though we made it look exclusive, there was actually a whole pile of them under the table. She was always gonna go for the flash one? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that spells trouble for you, then, doesn't it? Sure does. (BOTH LAUGH) Power cupcake. I chose this golden one because it stood out from all the other white ones. Very impulsive when it comes to buying. Very. My cupcake stall demonstrates how your money personality is at work the whole time, making decisions you might not even be aware of. WOMAN: Come on. Casey is a Sociable Sharer, and she's starting to become aware of how her money personality has coloured her whole life. One of the earliest memories I have of having money ` I think Mum gave me $2 to go to school and get lunch. So, I was walking to school with my friends, and I stopped in at the local dairy and got, like, $2 worth of these 5-cents chocolate fish, and we all just ate them, and then I had no lunch, so. Is that kind of a metaphor for your relationship with money over your whole life? Yeah, absolutely. When I have money, I like to share it with people and just make people happy. If somebody needs something that's gonna make their day a little bit easier for them, then I'll happily go and do that. So your generosity, it comes at a cost to yourself in the present. I don't think about the future with what I have. I have this now. If my sister rings me up ` I have $20 left, say ` she needs something for the babies, and I'll go and get that, and then I'll come home and go, 'Oh, crap, we haven't got any milk.' And long-term savings, of course, it's not really that great. (CHUCKLES) How much of a problem is generosity for you in terms of savings and making progress financially? Uh, it is 100% the problem, yeah. (SOFT MUSIC) Sociable Sharers are the kindest of people, but, like Casey, they can sometimes literally be generous to a fault. If you're a Sociable Sharer, you have to consciously find ways to make sure you put aside enough for yourself and only give away what you can really afford to. Coming up ` how our money personalities compare when it comes to having money put aside for a rainy day. And we figure out a way for Security Savers to have some fun. There's one last factor to add to your money personality, and that's whether you're in spender mode or saver mode. Now, it's true that Power Spenders are more likely to be in spending mode and Security Savers are more often going to be in saver mode, but spenders do save, and savers do spend. A Freedom Seeker might be in spending mode when they're on an adventure and in saving mode when they're planning the next adventure, and a Sociable Sharer could be in spending mode if they're spending money on a friend right now, or they could be in saving mode if they're saving up money for their big 30th birthday party. The Security Saver obviously spends more time in saver mode. I'd say I'm definitely more inclined to save. I see saving as sort of just setting myself up for the future. I'm more than willing to make a couple of sacrifices now to make that I'll have more fun in the future. How much do you save? At the moment, I save about... 30% of anything that I get, and that just goes straight into my savings account. I pretend I never had it, and I can just sort of plan what I do with my money with whatever's left over. What does that number in your bank account ` that kind of ever-increasing number, what does it mean to you? It just represents, for me, financial security. It's really just all down to the way I was brought up. Me growing up with a single parent, there have definitely been some hard times that I experienced as a young child where things were kind of tough, and it really weighed a lot on my mum, and with that in mind, I just want to make sure that I'm not in that position when I'm older. Do you ever feel like you're missing out on doing this? Over the last summer, I don't really feel like I did a lot with it, and I could have maybe used it going on road trips with friends, going and exploring other areas outside Auckland instead of just being cooped up in front of a laptop. There's times like that where... my inclination to save and just prepare for the future kind of inhibited me having those experiences. It seems even saving can have a downside. There's no money personality that's simply good or bad with money. It's just whether you can harness your money personality to work for you. A lot of us worry about money a lot of the time, so here's a question to really worry about ` how long could you last without a paycheque? Answering this question will help you discover whether you've got your money and your money personality working for you. Well, welcome, everyone, to our little experiment that we call the Experiment of Worry. We've got 40 people here who are going to show us how many weeks they'd last without a paycheque. This doesn't include your credit card ` just the money you've got saved. Who is a Sociable Sharer? Quick show of hands. Hands up if you are a Security Saver. Freedom Seeker? And Power Spender? Whoo-hoo! (LAUGHTER) Always the loudest. OK, so now what we'd like you to do is very simple. Behind you are a series of flags, and what I would like you to do is just to walk out to the flag that represents the number of weeks that you could survive if you didn't have a paycheque. OK. And go. Financial experts recommend having enough savings so you can last 12 weeks, but some people had a very short walk in the park. So, Vic, what's your money personality? I'm a power spender. And how easy is it for you to be a Power Spender? LAUGHS: Incredibly easy. So spending is something that you enjoy? Yeah, course I enjoy it. It's OK on days when I don't spend also. If it was just you and just your income and it got cut off, you'd have no kind of savings by yourself? No, I wouldn't, but I know I would be fine, cos I would think of something ` busking. I don't know. Something would happen. It would be fine. Do you think about money in the future? Does it ever come into your head? No, cos I know it will be fine. I know that I will be able to think of a solution, so I don't dwell on what's gonna be tomorrow. I know that we can find a solution to anything. But some Power Spenders manage to save a little. Hugh could last two weeks without a paycheque. In your day-to-day life, do you do much personal financial planning ` that kinda stuff? No. I tend to try and leave that to my wife. (CHUCKLES) We've got a flow. My wife brings it in, and I get rid of it. We found mainly Freedom Seekers and Sociable Sharers stopping in the middle of the course. And quite a few people walked down to the 12th flag, which means that they could survive at least three months on just their savings. One money personality featured heavily in this line-up. So, Xanthe, you could last 12 weeks if your paycheque stopped today. Yes. And, so, what money personality type are you? A Security Saver. And when you look at the people all the way down the bottom and they could last zero, what would that be like for you if you were at that spot? It would be very, very stressful. Though they weren't all Security Savers. So, what's your money personality, then? I am a Freedom Seeker. Right. So you have that Freedom Seeker thing if you like doing stuff and experiences and having fun? Yup. But when push comes to shove, if you've gotta dig in... Absolutely. I had a heart scare about 10 years ago, which pushed me into the freedom seeking ` live for today. You never know when your time's up, you know. But you still have that thing in you that if you need to, you can dig in and save and not buy stuff. Correct. I have a voice that says, 'You might make it to retirement. LAUGHS: 'So you'd better plan for it.' It was good to see that the longest line was actually at the 12-week mark. Your money personality literally builds the foundation for your life. Knowing your money personality means you can play to your strengths and weaknesses so you're prepared for whatever life may bring. If you figure out your money personality, you and your money might even become the best of friends. This bloke's even helping me to move house. Which is what friends do. Captions by Madison Batten. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018