What is Your Spending Personality – and Should You Change?

Image Credit: Flickr

Lots of people choose to spend their cash in different ways. There are those who want to make a big statement about how much they spend, those who are exceedingly careful with every cent and those whose spending you don’t really notice.

Which one do you think your spending patterns most resemble? And do you think you should change?

Here are the three personalities laid out.

Flash with Cash

This spending personality is all about high priced purchases, lavish gifts and a sense that there will always be more. Unfortunately, if this sounds like you, disaster may be on the horizon.

If you aren’t careful to budget and spend within your means, you could end up in serious debt, bringing your current lifestyle crashing down. If you have already racked up credit card debts and taken out payday loans to cover your costs, you need to think about curbing your spending and paying those debts off as soon as possible.

Lots of people are lured in by the promise of credit but if you aren’t thinking about the future, it’s likely that this debt will mount up quickly and spiral out of control. If you are worried that you can’t repay your debts, look for the best credit card debt relief company to help you rearrange your finances and get your spending back under control.

Or try taking some time as a Penny Pincher.

Penny Pincher

Unlike those who like to flash their cash, penny pinchers are incredibly good at saving and will avoid debt. Though they are very good at squirreling away their earnings and keeping their living costs low, they do run the risk of living to save money rather than living life to the full.

Saving for a specific goal like a holiday or a house is a great way to budget your money and achieve goals within a set time frame. However, this shouldn’t mean that you can’t have fun in the meantime. Penny pinchers should relax their savings a little bit and remember that money is there to exchange for amazing experience, not to sit in a bank account doing nothing.

Sensible Spender

The sensible spender falls somewhere between the Flash and the Pinchers. You know that you should spend some money to enjoy your life but also have a set budget that means that you don’t get into bad debts and can save a little each month.

Everyone should aim to become a sensible spender, though many of us only arrive here via the first two personalities. When you first start earning, blowing your first paycheck is almost mandatory but you will inevitably spend the following month as a penny pincher as a result.

It’s likely that you will cycle through these spending personality types, spending lavishly while you are on holiday, perhaps, and then having a no-spend week when you return. What is important, is that the Sensible Spender becomes a baseline for you to return to.

Balancing the books is the best way to achieve a balanced lifestyle. And the sooner you learn how to do that, the sooner you will be able to live life to the full again.