Discover Your Financial Personality: Take The Test

Who doesn’t love personality tests and quizzes? A few weeks ago, when I was the size of a blimp and squidged up on the sofa waiting for Thrifty Baby II to appear – think Violet Beauregarde with a Boardwalk Empire boxset – I ploughed through what felt like half of Buzzfeed. (In case you are wondering: the results came in and I am NOT VERY POSH. On the bright side, it turns out that I am an expert at identifying strange kitchen utensils. Result.)

My favourite personality quizzes are the meatier, psychometric ones. Have you ever taken a Myers Briggs personality test? You answer a set of detailed questions and get a four-letter label. The label indicates one of 16 personality types and, once you know yours, you can read detailed descriptions and advice relating to different areas of your life, mainly careers and relationships.

The thing is, over the years I have noticed that none of these tests – seriously, none of them – cover personal finance and money. I have always thought it strange, given that your approach to money and your financial continence (or lack of) will have as marked an effect on your life as your approach to career progression.

So I perked up when Aviva asked if you guys would be interested in trying out a new Financial Personality Test. This has been launched as part of the insurer’s new #SaveSmarter web resource, which aims to improve the nation’s saving habits.

Here it is:

Sit down and settle in to complete this test. There are 34(!) multiple-choice questions.

The Financial Personality Test probes your spending and saving habits, with straightforward questions like this one:

However you will be also be asked questions of a different bent, such as this one:

At the end of the test, you find out which Financial Personality Type you are. There are 10 different types in total, and each one is labelled as a different superhero, with a defined strength and weakness:

The 10 financial personality types have been created by Future Foundation, a consumer trends agency, from a research sample of more than 5,000 UK adults.

Here is mine: Turbo Saver!

According to the Financial Personality Test, I’m a fiscal Buzz Lightyear: “Saving money – not to mention the world – comes easily to you. Whip on the costume, pull on the mask, fire up the rockets and deliver your cheesy punch line. You zoom around the internet loading up with secret knowledge and your high-tech organisational gadgets are your weapons of efficiency. When it comes to launching your savings into the stratosphere there’s one way only and that’s your way. Right?”

Apparently my superpower is confidence: “You really are very good indeed at this money thing, but your sheer audacity could mean you’re missing out on opportunities.”

My nemesis is over-confidence: “That moment when you realise your friend’s financial advisor has helped them save more than you…”

(Is that code for SMARTARS£? I think it is. Ah well.)

I’ll be posting more about this next week. In the meantime, please can you do something for me? I’d like to put a post together with some thoughts and ideas tailored to some of the most common Financial Personality Types amongst Miss Thrifty readers.

So if you take this test, can you let me know – via email, comments, Twitter or Facebook – what Financial Personality Type you are? Thank you.  🙂

Take the Financial Personality Test.

This post has been sponsored by Aviva. At present I pay a monthly subscription to Mailchimp, to keep the Thrifties mail-out up and running and looking respectable, and I’ll be putting this sponsorship fee towards that.