Maverick, Sceptic or Perfectionist – what’s your financial type?

Scottish Widows launches psychological tool in bid to help UK with its financial behaviour.

A unique new psychological tool is being launched today to help the UK get to grips with its attitude towards money. To help people better understand why they behave the way they do with money, Scottish Widows has teamed up with personality expert Pat Knightley to create the ‘Personality Profiler’, which can give you an insight into your personality and how it affects your attitudes to finance.

Despite frequent warnings from the Government and financial experts over the past decade, the nation’s attitude towards money remains a worrying concern. Not only are we saving less as a nation, we are also spending more. Research by Scottish Widows has shown that the percentage of people in the UK saving adequately for retirement dropped from 55% in 2005 to 46% in 2006, however 42% of households are carrying over credit card debt from the previous month and 23% are running an overdraft.

Mike Hoban, Customer & Brand Marketing Director at Scottish Widows, says: “The Personality Profiler is based on a recognised profiling system and is a genuine attempt to help people understand why they behave as they do with their money. Recognising and accepting what motivates our financial behaviour is the only way to maintain a rewarding relationship with money that will last for life.”

Centred on nine behavioural types, the Personality Profiler is based on the Enneagram system – an established personality model that helps identify and understand individual character traits. Whether you are a ‘Sceptic’ and always save for a rainy day, an ‘Adventurer’ who flies somewhere warm at the first sign of one, or a ‘Maverick’ who expects a year-long summer, your life-long relationship with money can be as complicated and individual as you are.

Pat Knightley explains: “We each can act differently around money because of who we are, what motivates us, and the passions and emotions that drive us. Behavioural strategies we learn as children to gain love, recognition and reward are often carried on into adult life, causing us to go round in circles and revert to ‘type’ when stressed or under pressure. If you’re unhappy with the way you manage your finances, you need to understand the reasons behind your actions and discover how to break old habits.”

To find out more about the Personality Profiler, take the test and learn how it might help you alter your attitude towards money, log on to scottishwidows.co.uk/personalityprofiler