Here’s your guide to better understanding the Payoff Money Personalities.
So you just started Joy. (Do it now if you haven’t) And now you’re curious about its accuracy and whether or not your Personality & Money coach is a good fit for you.
We think it is, and we have loads of science to back up Joy, unlike some other quizzes on the internet (looking at you, Buzzfeed). If you’re curious about the other personalities, here are summaries of all 10.
But first, here’s a little general information about the Money Personality Quiz.
The Payoff Money Personality Quiz
Designed by Dr. J. Galen Buckwalter — the same scientist behind eHarmony’s successful matches — and powered by the Big 5 (more on these in a second) for measuring personality, the quiz enables you to uncover the secrets behind your spending, saving and money management. Plus, you’ll get personalized tips, tools and insights to help you become financially empowered.
In psychology, the Big 5 personality traits are 5 broad domains or dimensions that have been repeatedly shown to describe the bulk of human personality. The five factors are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism — commonly referred to collectively as OCEAN.
Beneath each global factor, you’ll find a cluster of more specific factors, like how extraversion includes such related qualities as gregariousness, assertiveness, excitement seeking, warmth, activity and positive emotions.
And now, without further ado, a little more information on the different personality types.
Psst … You can share your money personality with others! Download or save your money personality’s image to share it on your social networks.
Choose Your Money Personality
The Adventurer — The Guardian — The Architect — The Free Spirit — The Storyteller — The Oasis — The Ambassador — The Contrarian — The Spark — The Rock
The Adventurer (8.3% of Americans)
With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and new experiences, Adventurers live a try-anything-once life. Their carefree attitudes lead them to not be devastated when those experiences don’t go their way.
This carries over to their finances, where they’re known to keep a loose grip, take risks and spend to gain those new experiences, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad with money. Adventurers need to fund their excursions, so they’re always using cutting-edge financial tools to track their income and spending, and pay bills.
The Guardian (14.1% of Americans)
Consistency and routines are the name of the game for Guardians. They live inside their wheelhouses and are the ones you can count on to get things done.
Like accidentally super-gluing your fingers together, it takes great pains to unstick Guardians from their budgets. Surprise expenses aren’t a problem for them because they have contingency plans for every emergency.
The Architect (14.6% of Americans)
Detailed blueprints for every area of life are a defining trait of Architects. Calling them meticulously organized would be a gross understatement. They thrive in the microscopic details.
If you asked Architects to break down their finances, they’d know, offhand, where all their money lives, right down to the penny. They have such control over their finances because of their extensive planning, uncompromising negotiating skills and refusal to accept anything but the best, be it prices or quality.
The Free Spirit (8.5% of Americans)
Free Spirits don’t take the road less traveled because that would still be a road. Where they go, they don’t need roads. Their spontaneity and composure amid chaos make them great friends and traveling partners.
Finding Free Spirits stressing out about their finances is as rare as finding a dolphin worrying about its tax return. Their record keeping may cause weak-willed CPAs to faint, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad with their finances. They simply prioritize their lives a little differently and are confident it will all be fine.
The Storyteller (14.7% of Americans)
Storytellers aren’t simply the life of the party — they’re a whole party unto themselves. They love people, and their enthusiasm and energy is so contagious that it’s hard for people not to love them back.
Storytellers can get so caught up in the great times they’re always having that dealing with the details of their finances can easily fall to the wayside. Impulsive social spending — think drinks for the whole bar or day-of plane tickets — can be an issue, but they don’t think twice about it as long as they’re having fun.
The Oasis (7.2% of Americans)
As an Oasis, you keep your social life locked up as tight as your finances. You keep to yourself and prefer alone time to big social gatherings. You enjoy getting together with your close-knit group of friends but shy away from people you don’t know. Your friends might say you’re quiet and deliberate because you don’t speak much, but when you do, it always benefits the conversation. You never speak to hear your own voice.
Oases keep their finances under lock and key. They aren’t known to splurge on some gadget merely because it’s shiny and new, but if they did, they’d dwell on the impacts to their finances for much longer than the time it would take for the newer and faster version to be released.
The Ambassador (5.6% of Americans)
Who you gonna call? Unless you’ve got a ghost problem, you call Ambassadors. They’re the emergency contacts, moving helpers and airport picker-uppers of the world. Easing the stress of others’ lives is where they find real joy.
Ambassadors continually think the best of people, so they’re very trusting with their money. They trust others to manage their money, and loan money freely without expectations. While this trust can get them into trouble, they’re happier to have helped than they are mad at the loss.
The Contrarian (7.1% of Americans)
No matter what we try to say about Contrarians, they never believe us. They know themselves so well that getting them to try something different is met with staunch resistance. With their independent thinking and general dislike of authority, they either help create a new and better world or burn it down.
Contrarians do what they feel is best for their finances, no matter what. Banks, financial planners, friends and family members don’t know what’s best for them. Only they do. This is both good and not good. They can miss new, possibly better ways of doing things, sure, but at least they aren’t making bad investments solely on the words of others. It’s a tricky balancing act, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Spark (8.9% of Americans)
With the many ups and downs of life, Sparks feel them all. And feel them hard. They aren’t strangers to wearing their emotions on their sleeves, and everyone around them knows this.
Sparks’ bank accounts look a lot like their emotions — there are a lot of ups and downs. Being so in tune with their emotions can cause them to spend more impulsively, but they have so much passion that if turned toward their finances, they take great control. It all depends on where they direct that fire.
The Rock (11.2% of Americans)
Like Stonehenge and all great stone monuments, Rocks are stable and built to last. Levelheaded and thoughtful is how they approach life, never letting situations or emotions take control. They seldom find themselves surrounded by drama.
Rocks’ money also stands the test of time. By controlling their emotions, they plan well, stick to that plan and avoid impulsive spending. And even if an emergency arises to disrupt their finely tuned finances, they stay calm and are always quick to rebuild it.
Share your money personality with others! Download or save your money personality’s image to share it on your social networks.
