Bethany and Scott Palmer, financial consultants, believe that the way couples handle their financial investments is critical for maintaining happiness in their relationship.
Although this issue may not be the primary one in a man and woman with solid values and foundations, it’s worth reading the Palmers’ guidance so we can avoid making basic mistakes and prevent some moments of upset. In fact, financial questions are one of the biggest causes of divorce, so awareness and action is only prudent.
These are the 5 money personality “types” the Palmers have identified and how each one can affect his or her love relationship:
The false saver
This is a person who is never going to lack money, since in her mind it’s the way of keeping what she already has. But this person can become overly attentive to sales and discounts. She only buys something when she sees that the product is dropping below its usual price, and that satisfies her interiorly. But marketing can sometimes make those “discounts” just a sale strategy and not a real savings.
Why do we say she is “overly attentive to sales”? Because there are moments in life when we have to be magnanimous, generous, and magnificent, meaning that we should give money knowing that it will be used on something material for the good of others. The “false saver” becomes selfish because she does not anticipate those types of expenses.
In love, the danger of wanting to be a big saver is that this type of person can become stingy when it’s time to pour out generosity in the heart of another person. She can exhaust someone who is used to receiving material gifts, because this type of temperament doesn’t like to spend a single dollar on them.
The spender
He prefers to live in the moment, and create memories with singular experiences, even though they may cost a lot of money and he may have to take out a loan to cover them.
He gets excited whenever he buys something new.
He loves to show others that he likes them, and he does it through physical things. If a spender comes to your house, he will probably come with something that shows he was thinking of you: flowers, a book, a bracelet you mentioned one day.
In social life, the spender will pay for a round of drinks at the bar.
But on the flip side, this type of person can sometimes be unaware of how much he is really spending. That’s why he can sometimes get a bit of a fright when he sees his expenses on his credit card statement every month. He is always at the limit of his finances, and that means he can sometimes even feel tempted to lie or hide his expenses from his partner.
If it’s possible to stop this impulse, it would be much better, so we have to know how to choose the train of life that we want to take so that we don’t get passed by. And we have to run away from occasions that could lead us to spend beyond our means.
The risk lover
This type of person loves new ideas and unexplored possibilities. Risk lovers are visionaries, entrepreneurs. They follow their intuition. They can move very fast when something interests them.
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The risk lover has to show responsibility. She can sometimes blindly forget whether something is really good for her or for her relationship, and not be fully aware of the risks.
If she is carrying out various projects, she has to stick to a calendar of steps and a budget, and try to foresee all possible scenarios.
Risk lovers tend to be impatient and don’t listen to everything they should. They need to be warned about this tendency they have so that they can learn before it’s too late. Above all, they have to take care of their relationship with their family and friends if they don’t want to lose their trust or cause damage.
The security seeker
This type of person plans in minute detail so that everything will go as foreseen. He doesn’t leave anything to chance. Before making a decision, he investigates all possible options (which could take months).
Security seekers are not boring, but they will never put their credit card at risk if they don’t have a clear idea beforehand of how they are going to cover that expense when it’s time to pay up.
The danger of the security seeker is that he becomes a seeker of certainties, someone who never takes the definitive step because he’s not studied the matter enough and is afraid to take any risks.
In the end, these people tend to be pessimists because they always suspect there could be a bad situation they hadn’t thought of.
The unworried one
The unworried type of person is not concerned about money so much as they are about relationships. They have enough money to live on, but it doesn’t excite or motivate them.
One danger is that they can be unconcerned about what their spouse or business partners do with money, and that can become a serious problem, especially in a marital relationship that requires them to manage joint activities.
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This article was originally published in the Spanish edition of Aleteia and has been translated and/or adapted here for English speaking readers.
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