A new study has identified New Zealanders’ most common money personalities, finding Boomers are more likely to be ‘Minimalists’, while Zoomers tend to be ‘Socialites’ or ‘Enterprisers’.
Sorted has launched a brand-new Money Personality Quiz using insights from research conducted by finance experts at AUT Business School. The first study of its kind to identify the financial personality traits of Kiwis.
The research found that personality traits can play a key role in determining a person’s financial behaviours and outcomes. For example, an extroverted person is more prone to impulse purchases, while those who are more conservative may avoid taking risks and miss out on opportunities to invest and see their money grow.
Dr Ayesha Scott, Senior Lecturer in Finance at AUT Business School, says the quiz has the potential to help empower New Zealanders to take control of their financial behaviours.
“If we understand our own personality traits, we are better placed to devise strategies that accentuate our positives and minimise our negatives. Sorted’s Money Personality Quiz can help people get a better idea of what they need to do to build financial resilience and security,” she says.
The research surveyed New Zealanders to identify five common money personalities and their characteristics. It focused on traits that give insight into financial behaviours, such as money management skills, spending and saving perceptions, and investing attitudes.
Five personality types were identified: the Contemporary, the Realist, the Minimalist, the Socialite, and the Enterpriser.
The Enterprisers (28.6% of sample group) are future orientated. They enjoy looking after their finances and are proud of being wise with their money (e.g., not spending or giving when they cannot afford to). Their top goal is maximising their savings and making a return on their investments.
The Minimalists (33.7%) are conservative with risk, naturally frugal, and confident with their saving ability and money management. They tend to save for a shorter-term goal.
The Socialites (19.5%) enjoy managing their money and taking financial risks, having nice things and sharing their wealth with others. These are our most outgoing group. Their goals trend toward shorter- rather than longer-term objectives.
The Contemporaries (10.4%) tend to identify themselves as spenders, engage in impulsive emotional spending, and are generous even when they cannot afford to be. This group does not enjoy managing money, preferring to ‘live for today’, but may be facing financial hardship – building financial resilience is their goal.
The Realists (7.9%) are very conservative with risk and value money highly but are not confident with their money handling. The most introverted group, Realists monitor their finances but do not enjoy money management. Their goals tend to be shorter-term savings and building financial resilience.
Dr Scott says each personality has its own strengths, with no one personality necessarily being better or worse. “There are no good or bad money personalities – each one has strengths and weaknesses,” she says.
The research findings have been brought to life in the new Money Personality Quiz tool on sorted.org.nz, which is available free online for users to find out their own money personality.
Jo Gamble, Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission’s Research Lead, which runs Sorted, says it was critical that the research was simplified to make the quiz a fun and easy experience for users.
“We were focused on getting the quiz down to the fewest number of questions and possible personalities, while ensuring the outcomes remained valid,” she says.
“We ended up with a great result – through 17 questions users can get a clear picture of their money personality. The quiz can be done start to finish in five minutes.”
The quiz is presented in a new interactive design, with tarot-style game cards displaying the user’s personality and where they sit on different traits. Users are also served tailored content that aligns with their personality type to help them engage with their money more.
Visit sorted.org.nz to take the Money Personality Quiz and find out your money personality.
Notes:
About Sorted
Sorted is a free service run by Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission, the government-funded, independent agency dedicated to helping New Zealanders get ahead financially. As New Zealand’s trusted personal finance site, Sorted has the information needed to tackle debt, plan and budget, save and invest, dial up your KiwiSaver, plan for retirement, protect what’s important, and manage a mortgage. Providing tools, guides and blogs, Sorted can help no matter where you are at when it comes to money.
AUT Money Personality Research
The survey developed by AUT included 54 questions in total, covering nine personality traits that have been shown in the academic literature to impact financial behaviours and decision making, and financial wellbeing. Responses were collected from 500 New Zealand adults over the age of 18. The sample broadly reflects New Zealand’s population in terms of ethnicity, although the resulting sample contained an underrepresentation of NZ Europeans, a slight over-representation of Māori and over-sampled male respondents (59% versus 41% female).
About the Sorted Money Personality Quiz
The Money Personality Quiz asks 17 questions to measure confidence, risk preferences, money values and more. To identify a user’s money personality, responses to each question are modified from the original study to be a binary scale (for most questions), and the tool assigns a score representing the probability of that item for each money personality. Visit the Sorted website for more on how the tool works.
