How do we change over our lives? What's your favourite food? Fish fingers. Fish and chips. Trout. Favourite animal? Sloth. Dog. Dog. Favourite movie? Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars. Sorry, I'll just... Thank you. So when it comes to our money personalities, do we stay the same over our whole lives, or do we change? Are you born with a money personality and that's that? If you're good with money, are you set for life, or can it change over different stages of life? Promotion! Do milestone events like having a baby, buying a house or retiring actually change your money personality? Fa, la, laa! Copyright Able 2018 We've used scientific studies and our own research and discovered four key money personalities. The Power Spender, who reacts to money in an emotional way and gets a dopamine hit from buying stuff. For the Security Saver, money can make them feel safe. They're more likely to have put something away for a rainy day. The Sociable Sharer uses money to have a good time with people. They're the kind of person you want as your best mate. And the Freedom Seeker sees money as a way to independence. For them, it's all about having new experiences. We come into this world with nothing, and let's be honest, we might be pretty cute, but we're also pretty useless as well. We can't really do anything for ourselves, but gradually, that starts to change. We begin to build up our assets. First, a rattle. (GURGLES) And then later, a bike. In our teenage years, a crappy car, and eventually, if we're lucky, a nicer car. But do we build up our financial assets the same way, and does our stage of life change our behaviour as we get older? We're gonna play a game of Monopoly, but this one's a bit different, because we're gonna base the amount of money each player gets on their stage of life. Rob is 56, and statistically speaking, he's gonna have assets of around $278,000. So we're giving him $278 to start the game. Someone Sonia's age, 37, is worth on average $96,000. Luke, 26, you get $43. Cheers. And Rhiannon, just starting out. Sadly, you get $1. Thank you. Right, here we go. We've changed the rules a little, to reflect modern New Zealand. How much does this game show the realities of our different stages of life? My Toyota Corolla, 1989, failed its WOF. Pay $80 in repairs. Well, Mr Mechanic. (LAUGHTER) Ooh, investment opportunity. Can't afford it anyway, but... Pay $20 to the bank and take an investment portfolio card. OK, I've got the money, so I'm gonna take the investment portfolio. Things are working out quite nicely for our 56-year-old, who has a lot more assets. Oh no. I feel like your money hasn't moved. No, it hasn't. I keep having to pay these people. I'm paying all the taxes, and you guys` I was trying to hear about her life, and you're just complaining. (LAUGHS) Roll the dice. Yeah, well, there you go. Come on. (GROANING) Promotion! Rob won the game, and we all know that Monopoly is more fun if you have more assets. And our young millennial Rhiannon didn't really enjoy herself. But is there a way to use your money personality in the real world to create fun, even when you're just starting out? Stephanie's a young freedom seeker who isn't rich but does have some tricks up her sleeve. I like to spend my money on experiences, so mainly travel. I really enjoy going overseas, also travelling within New Zealand. What is it that drives your focus on travel? I really enjoy buying tickets really, really far in advance, so I'll write a countdown from 187 days out, because it gives me a sense of drive and purpose, and especially when stuff gets difficult and you're like, 'Oh, it's not worth it.' It's like, actually, it is worth it, because in 123 days, I'm getting on a plane to South East Asia. At Stephanie's stage of life, she doesn't have a lifetime of assets that allow her to travel whenever she wants. But even a trip planned miles in the future satisfies a Freedom Seeker. The secret is to transform the necessary delay while you save into excited anticipation. That way, you get twice the happiness ` the expectation and the trip. How would you rate yourself in terms of saving? Pretty well. I've always been quite good at it, because from a young age, it was, 'If you need it, we'll buy it for you. If you want it, you have to buy it yourself.' And then also I think about all the other times where, you know, maybe I haven't gone out for that dinner or I haven't gone to this thing because I've been saving. And then I think about the amazing time that I had on that trip, and I'm like, 'Yup, I'm gonna have that again.' And it makes it worth it, and it makes it quite bearable. Stephanie's still young, but she actually has a very sensible, low-risk, planned approach to achieving the kinds of experiences that her Freedom Seeker personality loves so much. Which made me wonder ` is it our money personality or our stage of life which has the most influence on how much risk we're willing to take in the pursuit of the things we value? I'm gonna see if I can convince anyone to jump off that building strapped to my wingsuited self, and then land on this small mat with 'X' on it. It's a stupid idea, but let's see if I can sell it to anyone. Now, just to be crystal clear, I know absolutely nothing about wingsuits, except there's no such thing as a tandem wingsuit. And if we actually jumped, we'd die. But I was determined to find out whether young people were more easily convinced to take a risk. No, no, no. It's not you? No. You sure? My daughter would have loved to. She's working here, but` Is she? You could do it and impress her. She would go, 'Mum, that was amazing what you did!' Couldn't tempt anyone? You'd read the headlines ` '79-year-old falls to his death.' What if we put a blindfold on you and just said, 'It's all right? You're still on the ground.' (LAUGHS) 'Shoom!' Is that something that potentially you might be interested in doing? Yeah. The results from my experiment were unexpected but clear. Personality was a far more dominant influence than stage of life. Most young people very sensibly said no to the high risk of certain death. No. No, no, no, no. No? No, thank you, man. Thank you. Really? But how does that translate to our behaviour with money, and how can thinking like a superhero help you buy a house? . All right, so, this is Tim. 34-year-old male. RTC. Multi-vehicle... VOICES OVERLAP I think about the car crash a lot. I know he caused it and I reacted the best way possible. But it's hard to let it go. SOMBRE MUSIC When I asked what had happened to him, the doctors said he really wore the impact ` any more and things would've been much worse. They said he was lucky ` lucky I wasn't going any faster. Thank you. SOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES It's OK. MUSIC CONTINUES It's OK. * (LAID-BACK GUITAR MUSIC) What would you tell your younger self about money? To put some money away for retirement. Most of the things will kind of make sense. I don't really know. I would say just live your life fully, and don't worry about the money. Obviously, don't go too crazy with money either. Take the risks. Take the plunge. But make sure you do a calculated risk, not just the flip of a coin. And enjoy it, because... you only live once. A free wingsuit jump. Nah. Young people weren't any more willing to risk serious injury by jumping off a building with me than anyone else. No, no, no. It's not you? No. (CHUCKLES) But what about young people's attitude to financial risk. So, budgeting time. I asked Miss Holmberg whether she thought her pupils would take risks with money. Possibly if they have the money, but they don't tend to have a lot of money. So some of them might have their $20 a week that they get, so I think not having a large amount of money means that they don't take huge risks. Off we go. This is musical chairs, but not as you know it. In this version, the longer you hold out before taking a seat, the more money you'll make but the bigger the risk you'll end up with nothing as more chairs are taken away. Poppy, what's your prediction about what they'll do when we play 'musical money chairs'? Definitely depend on their upbringing, I think. If Mum or Dad are risk-takers, maybe they'll see it that way and they'll follow suit. And possibly their friends ` how they're spending. (LAID-BACK MUSIC STOPS) There you go. There's your dollar. There we go. A third of the class want no risk. They casually take a seat and earn themselves the safety of a definite $1. Now we're gonna take two chairs away, but every seat is worth $2, yeah? OK? Go. (LAID-BACK MUSIC PLAYS) (LAID-BACK MUSIC STOPS) Next, three people take $2. All the kids are assessing the risk they're comfortable with. Right, so there are currently four chairs left, worth $3 each, yeah? OK, and go. (LAID-BACK MUSIC STARTS) (MUSIC STOPS) The game plays out, risk is evaluated, and the kids scramble for the last chairs and the $3. Who would've sat down? Who would've kept going? How far would you have kept going? All the way. All the way to $10? Yeah. Nice. But sadly, the strategy didn't work. You get nothing. It wasn't big stakes, but those prepared to take on a bit of risk earned 300% more, but also, some of those risk-takers missed out completely. So, Oliver, you would have gone all the way to $10. What was your thinking there? Because if you take a bigger risk, you get a bigger payout at the end. And if you take enough risks, eventually, you'll get lucky. Tessa, you went for the $1. Yeah. And did you know you were gonna go for the $1? I did. What was your`? What was your thinking? Well, I would rather be safe than sorry, so I thought, 'Well, why not go for the $1?' So... Oliver and Tessa and the rest of the class show that it's not your stage of life which will dictate how much risk you'll take; it's your money personality. But are there tricks we can use to help our money personality when we come up against new challenges as we progress through life's stages? One thing I think we can all agree on is that life would be a lot easier if you were a superhero. And if I were a superhero, I'd be Slothman. I could use mind control to get Brian to make my coffee. I wouldn't have to walk to the microwave. I could just reheat my cold coffee with my laser eyes. (LASER BEAMS WHIRR) Instead of returning my coffee cup by walking, I'd fly. And a little bit of superhero can help all our money personalities, as we're going to prove with our twist on the classic marshmallow experiment. But first ` the original version. If you can leave that delicious marshmallow on the plate and not eat it for five minutes, I'll give you two marshmallows. Now, you've all seen this one. You put the marshmallows in front of the child and see how long they can maintain their self control. Eventually, even the strongest crumble. But there was a second, less well-known part of this experiment, where the researchers got the kids to pretend the marshmallows were invisible, and they all lasted much longer. In our experiment, we got the kids to pretend they were superheroes. (WHIMSICAL MUSIC) La, la, laa! They all lasted for much longer. That was amazing. Just wearing the superhero costume meant the kids could adopt a superhero's superpowers, which gave them more self control. What about the rest of us? Well,... when,... in life, you hit a different stage ` and say it's buying a house ` then sometimes, you're forced to put on a grown-up suit. And it feels a bit weird at first, but the longer you pretend to be a grown-up, the easier it becomes. Amelia and Chris have had to start wearing their grown-up suits. They're about to start a new stage of life. They're looking to buy their first home. Oh, in-built fish tank. Yes. And a big chandelier. Mm. That's a nice little touch. So what money personality are these guys? When you were younger, what were you like then? I mean, uh,... when were in the UK, we, sort of, just lived a good life. Yeah. Spent all our money; (CHUCKLES) went on nice holidays. If I was gonna take a guess, Amelia and Chris seemed like they were Freedom Seekers. A week ago, they found their perfect first home. So do they give up their freedom-seeking ways? Is it time to become Security Savers? Do milestones in your life mean a change in your money personality? Before we had kids and the potential of a mortgage, we probably spent more than we should have. And then, once we figured out that, actually, we need to start saving for a house, then we switched to focusing more on getting something in the bank. But in fact, this family have actually been Security Savers all along, and here's the proof. Over the longer term, have you always been planning for the future with things like insurance, that kind of stuff? Savings? Well, you're better than me. (CHUCKLES) Well... Cos Chris has been paying in at about 16% of his salary into his Super. I've had KiwiSaver since it came out. Your stage of life doesn't change your money personality. It's just that, like all aspects of your personality, it grows along with you. After the break, we have good news for those people that aren't quite where they should be in their retirement planning. What I love about Nova is we make getting great value easy. Ashley, you're right. We're more than just Dawn Ocking and... ...Pam Flets! When people call us, we make their Bill! Easy. We make it easy to Joy Nup. Whether it's April, May, June... ...or the first... ...Dave Spring. So when you need energy to cook Stu! Mo. ...the lawn or manufacture... Polly! Esther. Socks. Great value made easy is our priority number... BOTH: Juan! * Mandi is just 10 years away from retirement, and through bad luck and general life stuff, she's not financially ready for it. Is there anything that she can do? What's your life like today? Today is a good day, because I've just been paid. So it's a good day. Today is an OK day. (BOTH CHUCKLE) On the other hand, I've just been paid, but I know that I've got to pay` Most of that's gone already, because I've got bills to pay. Do you have a plan for retirement? I've got no plan. I need to make a plan. I need to do something. I know that. Thinking about retirement ` does that cause you stress and anxiety? Just, yeah, I panic about the thought of maybe not being able to get food, maybe, you know, not being able to see my kids. You know, that's a big one as well, because I don't like them to know my financial worries, because I always want them to think that everything's OK. What do you spend money on that you think you probably shouldn't? Make-up. Clothes. You know, my cat. I spend ridiculous amounts on him. I mean, people think I'm mad because my cat has to have medication that costs money every month, you know. It's quite expensive. But that's my mate who will probably be here when I retire. (LAUGHS) We've asked the Retirement Commissioner to give her some advice and reassurance. I don't want you to waste the next 10 years. Yeah. When you could pack in as much as you could, earn as much as you could, to whack into some savings account. Yes. Because you know what? No, I know you're right. You're healthy and fit and active. Mm. You might live to 88. You might live to 98. We've got a challenge for Mandi ` to live on her future superannuation budget for a week. Now, you might think, 'Oh, that's gonna be worse.' But weirdly, we've actually done some maths, and you are going to be a little bit better off. Oh wow. So, you will currently be $80.50 a week better off. Oh my God. Now, there's some good and bad news in that. So I'll give you the $80. That's the extra that you have each week when you're retired. OK. The reason that you have $80.50 extra each week is by then, the car will be paid off. Right. Also, sadly, the cat will be dead. (CAT MEOWS) So... (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) So we can take a moment to mourn the passing... It'll be good, though, that the car's paid off. I'm pleased about that. That is good news. Mandi spent a week living on superannuation. She's a sociable sharer, so she's always paying for others, but this week, she let her sons pay for dinner. Mandi, what was it like living for a week on superannuation, given that it's actually more than you have most weeks? I wouldn't have managed it had I not spoken to you guys before. I don't feel quite as fearful. In the long run, that's gonna make me a much happier person. Mandi's finally stopped procrastinating and found that retirement is nowhere near as scary as she thought. So what can you do to stop putting off those important financial tasks? Basically, you make a list, and the first three things are really boring. SLOWLY: 'One, clean whole castle.' 'Two, clean hair from drain.' 'And three, talk to really boring uncle.' Leave one box on the top of there. And when they filled that up, they were gonna put another box... And then you make the last one, number four, the money chore. 'Ring bank to talk about financial plan.' Yup, hello. Could I speak to someone about making a financial plan, please? That fourth money chore is now going to seem much easier to do, and it's based on sound psychology, because if doing that fourth thing means we can not have to do the three boring and awful things in front of it, we're much more likely to do it. You've gotta take the whole thing, dig a hole, put it in and burn it. Let's put your money personality knowledge to the test. Can you figure out these women's money personalities based on something they bought years ago that made them really happy? If our money personality really does stay the same over our life, then you should be able to figure out who bought these things today. Our Security Saver will have bought something for the house, because home is where the heart is for her. Our Freedom Seeker is going to look for adventure, like high tea up the Sky Tower. The Power Spender is going to want the beauty treatment. It's gonna make her feel just a little bit special. And the Sociable Sharer would love a personalised storybook for the grandkids. What I'm really interested in here isn't just who bought what; it's whether our money personalities stay with us over our whole lives. Do we change with the times, or are we always being nudged in the same direction? OK, Chris, could you tell me a story of something that you bought in the past that has brought you a sense of joy? My holiday to Ireland and Europe about two and a half years ago with Jan and my sister. And it was incredibly emotional just being in a place where I could find my great-grandfather's grave and just feeling so at home in a place that I'd never been to. Magic. Helen. Well, the very first thing I can remember buying myself in my life ` that was back in the rock-and-roll days, all the big petticoats and things, And I really wanted one, so I got myself a little job, saved up my money, and I went and bought one of these petticoats. And I thought I was just the cat's whiskers. (CHUCKLES) And Sandra-Leigh. Well, Nigel, I was a newly single mum, and I took my two daughters, rented a caravan in Ruakaka. And we just had a wonderful time. And Jan. Well, my dad would grow hot-house tomatoes, and I desperately, at the age of 10 or 11, wanted some knucklebones. I wanted the real, good silver jobs. And I thought Mum and Dad would just go and buy them for me, but, no; 'You've got to work for the money to buy them.' I got a penny a row. I can't remember how many rows it took, but I saved up enough for those knucklebones. And they were doubly precious, because not only were they mine, but I paid for them with my own money. So, what do you think? Who bought which object? Chris's story was about a trip to Ireland, Helen bought a stylish petticoat. Sandra-Leigh talked about a time she took her children on holiday. And Jan's story was about picking tomatoes to buy knucklebones. So, Chris, my thinking is that you're a Freedom Seeker. And I think you would have chosen the high tea at the top of the Sky Tower. Helen, I think you're a Power Spender, and because of that, I think the voucher for the beauty therapy treatment. And Sandra-Leigh, I think you're a sociable sharer, and so I think the personalised book. And Jan, I think you're a Security Saver, so I'm thinking that you got a gift for the home. But there's a bigger message here than just a guessing game. If you're a freedom-seeking little person, you'll probably be a freedom-seeking old person. If security makes you feel good, or sharing, or buying stuff, then you'll chase those things over the course of your life. It colours your whole life, so the more you understand about your money personality, the better your decisions are going to be. All right. And so here we are. Captions by Amelia Rushbrook Edited by Imogen Staines. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018