Information is power, right? A new money personality quiz built by our partners at Kiwibank could help you tackle your money issues. The Spinoff took it for a spin – here are our results.

Do you ever consider your relationship with money? Or that the way you feel about yourself carries through into what sort of consumer (or saver) you are, and what you do with your money?

As I’ve previously confessed, I’m pretty bad with money but I will say till my dying day learning from doing it all wrong has been great for my finances today. I know my relationship with money is tied up in how I’m feeling – I always *know* with the most self-assured knowing, that this thing I’m about to buy will be THE THING that makes my life complete.

So I was interested to learn there’s another series of Mind over Money with Nigel Latta launching tonight and then intrigued to learn it’s accompanied by a Kiwibank-built quiz to help us all discern more about our emotional relationship with money, and how that impacts our financial health.

Based on some heavy duty research, the quiz asks you some easy questions about you and money to help work out why you spend the way you spend or save the way you save; do you get off on watching your savings grow – or do you think money equals freedom?

With each question you rate your position anywhere from a strong disagree (a zero) to neutral (five), all the way to a strong agree (a ten). So who are you? Are you a Power Spender? (Self-explanatory). Or a Security Saver? (Ditto). You could also find you are a Sociable Sharer who gets gratification from splurging on entertainment and others, or maybe you are a Freedom Seeker, who sees cash as an exit strategy from the dull day-to-day?

While we are all journalist-types and therefore certainly not wealthy folk, we found our individual relationships with money differs greatly – and for some great reasons. So what are we? Read on.

Discover your own money personality here.

Rebecca Stevenson – Power Spender

Straight off the bat I saw ‘Power Spender’ and imagined myself with new shoes, a new handbag and some dope new earrings. But I also have a mortgage and two children, so my money is no longer my own. Will the quiz capture my conflicted relationship with money?

The first question threw me – can I easily imagine what I would be doing in 10 years time? Nope nope nope nope nope. I work in media, my partner is an athlete with a highly tenuous job – who knows where we could be in 10 years? Maybe I’ll be living my dream running a campground on the East Coast? Who knows. But that’s a strong disagree from me.

When it comes to my money, do I prefer to play it safe? I’d love to! But I don’t have any. Straight down the middle with that one.

I’m always optimistic and confident, probably wildly over-confident but hey – fake it till you make it right? And I’m pretty confident about my retirement (only because I accidentally fell into a KiwiSaver and now sort-of own a home) but as for spending YOU ARE DAMN RIGHT QUIZ I’D LIKE TO SPEND IT ON MYSELF. I earned it.

But again, I have kids and a mortgage so does this happen? Rarely now if ever. But, the point of the quiz is to discover your money personality and not wallow in the sad realities of your life, so I stay true to me and am strongly in favour of spending, believe money gives you freedom to live your best life and was feeling pretty good about everything until I confronted that age box that never used to bother me but now it’s all I see when I take quizzes. Yes, that’s right, I am no longer human I am a 36-45 year old. Kill me.

And guess what? I’m a Power Spender! Underneath all my brokeness the quiz discerned a shopper par excellence. You win quiz.

Jihee Junn – Freedom Seeker

The quiz tells me I’m a Freedom Seeker which doesn’t surprise me the least bit. After all, I’m a pretty big subscriber to the belief that while money can’t buy you happiness, it can sure as hell buy you freedom. Freedom from suffering, hunger, work or worry, and freedom to travel, explore and do rich people things, like go skiing or spend three days at Burning Man.

If you earn a lot of money, then that freedom is already yours. If you don’t, then you gotta learn to scrimp and save your way to it instead, which is pretty much what I did for a very long time. I hustled through university saving every penny I could from my part-time job in an effort to buy myself a plane ticket out of here, for months on end.

And while that was a few years ago now, old habits die hard. I’m a saver, not a spender, although definitely not to the extent that “I know how much money I need to save for retirement” (I scored that a two) or that “I can easily imagine what I will be doing in 10 years’ time” (I also gave that a two). I do, however, “really enjoy seeing my savings grow” (I scored that a seven) and that “the best thing about having money is the freedom to choose how you want to live your life” (I scored that an eight).

Nowadays, I’ve learnt to live a lot more in the moment and spend a bit more on myself on a daily basis. Because the future happens fast, and you never know what’s going to happen next. Still, it’s nice to know there’s a little nest egg stowed away for my next getaway, wherever and whenever that might be.

Alex Braae – Sociable Sharer

To be honest, this assessment came as a surprise to me. Yes, when someone buys a round at the pub, I’ll get the next one. But sociable sharer, for someone as boring as me? It’s flattering and exciting to be described as a sharer, let alone sociable.

My approach to money has always been like this: If you don’t have much of an income (journalism) then you cut back on other things, like saving for a deposit on a house (Auckland) or buying clothes. I’ve had the same pair of shoes for many years now, and they’re working just fine, despite letting in gallons of water every time it rains. I mean, I’m never going to have the eye for fashionable clothing, so why put money towards it?

So after taking this quiz, I felt I had two options: One, I could truly embrace being a sociable sharer. Go out every night, be the life of the party, eat at every restaurant in Metro’s Top 50. Live, laugh, love and all that. Have absolutely nothing but memories left over at the end of the week.

Or, I could reassess things completely. Realise that financial shocks could happen at any time. I could lose my job, or suddenly encounter a massive medical bill. Decide that actually, it’s pretty foolish to spend my entire life renting. Make sound financial investments, like actually putting money into KiwiSaver so that I’m not broke in my later years.

And after a lot of careful assessment and soul-searching, I came to what I feel is the correct decision. Barman? Another round please.

Alice Webb-Liddall – Freedom Seeker

So the results are in: I’m a Freedom Seeker. I love a good bit of travel. Saving up for an adventure keeps me excited. It’s something to look forward to. I’ve got that wanderlust bug, baby!

I make terribly loose, vague plans to go overseas with my friends all the time. Sri Lanka, USA, Japan, wherever I’ve last seen my favourite instagrammers hiking and swimming and looking hot becomes my latest goal destination. I’ve only just hit my 20s, so while I haven’t yet travelled I have plenty of time, and each penny of savings I’ve collected from working through uni and now is being pooled into a fund to one day be able to explore.

I do admit to suffering from the drawbacks the quiz has told me a Freedom Seeker could. Doesn’t know what KiwiSaver is or how to use it? Check. Is going away this weekend and probably going to return with about $7 in my account? Check. Haven’t planned for the future at all? Check. Who knows where I’ll be in 10 years? (I planted that slider solidly on 1).

Retirement seems like a fake concept to me at this stage. Probably because I’m an idiot, but also because I want to believe someone will bring out a pill in the next 10 years that will increase our lives by hundreds of years. I will be a 200-year-old decrepit great great great grandmother trekking across Southeast Asia. I will not die… So it probably comes at no surprise that ‘I have a plan to save for retirement’ slid all the way to 0.

Maybe I’ll take Kiwibank’s advice and start putting a little bit aside for things that life may throw my way, just in case the life-lengthening pill is too expensive.

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