Do you ever wonder what underlies your tendencies to make, spend, save, give or even whittle away money?
Much like with food and relationships we also have inbuilt patterns when it comes to financial decision-making. Given that around 90% of our actions are performed at a subconscious level, this means the vast majority of our money choices are made by default vs design.
Deborah Price, Founder of the Money Coaching Institute, developed the concept of the 8 Money Archetypes to illustrate how this unconscious mindset operates in relation to money. The archetypes are designed to be ‘teachers’, revealing to us hard-wired beliefs and patterns that stem from our early childhood and life experiences and influence how we think, feel and behave around money – to which we are mostly unaware.
The great thing about the money types is that they are not fixed. By bringing awareness to them and their source, we have the power to transform them. Money Coaching provides a pathway and process to facilitate this transformation and help us to realise our financial potential.
Most people are a combination of three to four money types and have one or two dominant types. It can be helpful to understand the money types of others around you, too, particularly in relationships as having vastly different money mindsets can be the source of much conflict when one or both are unaware of their personal tendencies.
A description of the 8 Money Types is below. Which ones do you relate to most? If you’re unsure or just a little curious, take our free Money Quiz to find out.
- The Innocent – Head in the Sand Approach to Money
Innocents are often avoidant when it comes to money. Financial information and decision making can be overwhelming for the Innocent so rather than tackle it on their own they rely heavily on the advice and opinions of others. Innocents can be the most trusting of the money types as, much like small children, they haven’t yet learned how to judge or discern the motives of others. As a result, they can be vulnerable to being taken advantage off. We all start out our money journeys in life as Innocents.
- The Victim – Blames it on the Past
Victims are prone to living in the past and blaming their financial woes on external factors. They often have a litany of excuses for why they’re not more financially progressed or successful than they are. More often than not Victims have suffered at the hand of life, and because they haven’t fully processed their pain it has turned on them. As a result, Victims can seem powerless (and may appear to others as Innocents), often seeking financial support from others. However, this can be a ploy (often unaware) to get others to do for them financially what they don’t wish to do for themself.
- The Martyr – Always Puts Others First – Resentfully
Martyrs can be so busy taking care of others’ needs that they often neglect their own, financially and otherwise. However, Martyrs do not always let go of what they give and are repeatedly let down when others fail to meet up to their expectations. In this respect they have formed an unconscious attachment to their own suffering.
The Martyr moves between two distinctly different energies: one that seeks to be in control and control others and the other being the wounded, often very needy, child. They tend to be perfectionists and have high expectations of themselves and of others, which makes them quite capable of realizing their dreams because they put so much energy into needing to be right.
Like Victims, Martyrs often struggle with their attachment to negative experience and this often keeps them from realizing the deep wisdom that lies within.
- The Fool – A Gambler by Nature
The Fool is often looking for a windfall of money by taking financial shortcuts. A combination of the Innocent and the Warrior, the Fool often has difficulty seeing the truth about things much like the Innocent does. Also an adventurer at heart, the Fool can get caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment, paying little attention to the detail.
The primary difference between Fools and Innocents is that Fools are relatively fearless in their endeavours and remain eternal optimists regardless of the circumstances. In this manner Fools are like Warriors in that they seem to always land on their feet and are not easily defeated. The Fool also sets out to conquer the world but is easily distracted and lacks the discipline of the Warrior.
The Fool does possess some remarkable qualities that if mastered make her quite capable of becoming a Magician e.g. they live very much in the moment and are quite unattached to future outcomes. Most of us could learn from this characteristic of the Fool.
- Creator/Artist – Has a Love/Hate Relationship with Money
Creator/Artists often have a conflicted love/hate relationship with money. They love money for the freedom it buys them but have little or no desire to participate in the material world. The Creator/Artist often overly identifies with the interior world and may even despise those who live in the material one. Their negative beliefs about materialism only create a block to the very key to the freedom they so desire.
Creator/artists most fear being inauthentic or not being true to themselves. They are constantly struggling for financial survival, not because they lack talent or ambition but rather because they are stuck in a belief system that disempowers their ability to manifest money. The Creators/Artists who work to integrate the spiritual with the material world will find an end their struggles.
- The Warrior – Master of the Money World
The Warrior is generally seen as successful in the worlds of business and finance. Warriors are adept investors, focused, decisive, and in control. Although Warriors will listen to the advice of others they make their own decisions and rely on their instincts and resources to guide them. The challenge for Warriors is that they have difficulty recognizing the difference between what appears to be an adversary and a worthy opponent. A worthy opponent should be embraced as an opportunity to put down the sword and welcome the potential for growth and transformation. The world is filled with Warrior types, who run the gamut from enjoying the sport of business and the skillful art of negotiating to those whose single-minded intent is simply to win at any cost.
- The Tyrant – The Over-Developed Warrior
Tyrants are often overdeveloped Warriors who have become highly invested in their need for control and dominance, which is based out of a fear of loss of control. While Warriors are often heroic in their true concern for others’ welfare, they are purely self-interested. Throughout history, the Tyrant has emerged as the ruler who dominates and destroys with no sign of remorse.
Today Tyrants are often the political leaders, businesspeople, or family figureheads who use whatever means necessary to win at all costs. They can be master manipulators of both people and money. Perhaps it’s because the Tyrant type is often the most financially successful image we have in our society that so many of us believe that money is the root of all evil.
Despite their apparent financial ‘success’ Tyrants are very fearful and rarely feel any sense of fulfilment as they suffer from a condition of chronic ‘not-enoughness’.
- The Magician – Trusts that All Will Unfold as Intended
The Magician is the ideal money type. Fully awake, aware of herself and the world around her the Magician knows how to transform and manifest her own financial reality. At our best, when we are willing to claim our personal power, we are all Magicians. Magicians know the source of power to manifest lies in their ability to tap into their innate higher power. With faith, love, and patience, the Magician simply waits in certainty with the knowledge that all our needs are met all the time.
When you read about the 8 money types which ones resonated the most? If you’re not sure or more than a few stood out, take our money types quiz to help narrow down your types further.
Remember, the money types do not represent WHO you are as much as WHERE you are at a point in time. They have been devised to act as guides to help us better understand our financial beliefs and behaviours so that we can begin transform them and unleash our personal and financial potential.
If you would like to learn more or are ready to step into greater personal and financial empowerment, then book a discovery call with me today.
