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What’s Your Money Belief? Take Our Quiz to Find Out

Maria Lin
Posted on Oct 31, 2011

woman smooching piggy bankEver wonder why one person is a big spender, another is a big saver, and yet another wants to stick her head in the sand about her finances?

Well, what we believe about money impacts how we handle it.

Underneath our potentially negative money behaviors (spending too much, hoarding, anxiety) lie our foundational money beliefs. If you can figure out what you believe, you’ll be one step closer to tackling your money woes.

A famous study conducted by Kansas State University and the Klontz Consulting Group examined our core money beliefs. The researchers argue that we have become so ingrained with the idea that having money is important, we no longer question why. Perhaps what we are truly seeking is an increase in self-respect, or security, or freedom, or love, or power.

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The researchers identified four core beliefs. These money beliefs are usually established at childhood, and while they go unexamined for most of our adult lives, they drive our financial behavior and habits. Don’t blame everything on mom and dad, though—a look at two siblings’ financial habits shows that the same upbringing can be processed differently by two different personalities.

Grab a pen and paper and take our quiz (a modified version of the test from Klontz’s study), and see which belief pattern fits you. Answer instinctively and completely honestly—you’re not answering to impress anyone, but to see what may be holding you back from total financial health and freedom.

It’s common to hold more than one belief, and sometimes our beliefs reflect the current financial season we’re in. So feel free to revisit this test every now and then to see how you’re doing.

Score each statement from one to five, one meaning you strongly disagree, and five meaning you strongly agree.

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    • Tricia Drake

      Can’t find the link to the quiz . . . ??

      • Anonymous

        Sorry Tricia, we’ve taken the quizzes off the site because they are causing issues after we made some updates last night. We’re working to resolve this as soon as possible. Please check back later today!

    • Linda

      Where’s the quiz????

    • Jaime

      No quiz.  
      ???

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1255682852 Melyssa Fratkin

      Adding up your totals in each section is always going to equal 15, if you’re adding 1+2+3+4+5. It doesn’t make any sense.

      • Anonymous

        Hi Melyssa,

        We’re actually asking you to score each statement from 1 to 5. So, if you strongly disagree with all the statements in a section, you can give all the statements 1, giving you a total score of 5 for that section. Or if you strongly agree with all the statements, you could give them all 5, giving that section a total of 25. So you could get anywhere from 5 to 25 for each section, depending. I hope that clarifies it for you!

    • Riverolowen

      Little question but a majority of financial stress occurs from the stress of having children.
      The cost of raising a kid from birth to age 21 is $250,000, and often much more. In normal times most parents are ill equipped for that expense, much less in times like this. Further, many of these breeders are not going to stop at one child, but like rabbits they become serial hatchers. You can be certain that not many of these are achievers, who if they have a degree beyond high school choose to accomplish something other than change diapers.

      It is time to consider priorities, and understand that the biological clock is a fools myth.
      Beyond that, ladies, your significant other really does not care for or about kids.

    • mrsyell

      Unfortunately this quiz didn’t help me at all. I scored 19 in the three categories A: Money Avoidance, C: Money Status, and D: Money Vigilance. Not sure what that means. :/ I’m also pretty disappointed that I couldn’t fill it out online and that I had to do it by hand. 

    • http://www.facebook.com/AshleyVictoriaBurton Ashley Burton

      This was a great eye opener, I am SO glad you considered my feedback on the need for quizzes! I am keeping a money journey and have been for some time now and so this was great to record in my money journal. I wish I had an online format to keep a money journal, what an idea!

    • Serendipity776

      That was interesting.  I was raised to make every penny count and not be extravagant.

       I scored low on the questions.  My high was b 9 and my low was c 5.

      I was very saving but my husband wasn’t, but we did ok.  We paid for our home.

      We are trying to get situated to help our children by buying lottery tickets.  We both feel we will win.  We like to gamble but we know when to quit at the casino and only go once a year.

      • Jo

        Money is important for you to have control of  your life.  If you have no money you are at the mercy of many kinds of people.  If you are very extravagant you will never have anything even if you have money unless you prioritize putting money where you can have independence.

        My mother told me to figure the bills for each month.  Add extras like birthdays and vacation.  I added taxes, phone etc.  Then she said to divide it by 12 and that is how much you will need to put aside for your bill each month.  This keeps us from being ‘rich’ one month and not having enough for the next month.

         

    • JEX

      Odd results – apparently, I’m both highly money avoidant and money worshipping, nearly as money vigilant, and not at all money status.  I do not recognize any of the money-avoidant behaviors in myself and therefore have a hard time accepting that they are correlated to the quiz questions in section one.  

    • Lalajuliet

      wow, this test was right on….if I really take a look at myself, this quiz was true, I couldn’t care less about money worship, status or avoidance but I do tend to be money vigilant. this quiz made me look at myself in a realistic way because I would have said I was none of these things!

    • JulesElise

      I don’t really agree with the test I think there is more to it then that. My high points were money avoidance and worship which seem to opposite of each other, with worship yes money would solve my problems as in I could finally go to school full time, and avoidance said I thought I didn’t deserve and might not may attention to my finances but I check them everyday I just know the job I choose is about doing what I love, its pay is higher then what I am making now, but it just isn’t the more important thing on my list.

    • Geminiacal

      Wow – these score are incredibly incorrect for me.  Somehow I scored 39 on Money Avoidance, but that could not be farther from the truth!  I am a Certified Credit Counselor!  I track my spending and can tell you how much is available in my accounts as well as the credit card balances that I pay in full monthly.  Anything I have financed – student loans, car loan and mortgage – I have paid off early.
      This quiz really missed the mark for me.

    • Ann

      They are incorrect for me also. Vigilance and avoidance are my two highest scores. How can you explain that? Furthermore, I am married. My spouse makes a lot of decisions that affect both of us, but over which I have little or no control. This was not reflected in any of the questions. I qould like to see the statistical validity of this “quiz.”

    • Leonardo_roseann

      I appreciate the quizz  about what’s your money beliefs.I find great practical financial lessons. 

    • Deanna

      To the disappointed commenters below, I would like to add that the quiz was about how you “feel” about your money, not necessarily how you “behave” with it. You may be doing all the right things or someone else may be more in control, but how do you actually feel. I think the quiz was revealing. For me it suggested that I am money vigilant and that being too careful may be a detriment. However, I’m recently single and my new limited income and the carryover of too much debt is the driving force. Also, as a single woman I believe that care is wise in not letting others know in-depth details about my finances, especially new friends and dates because I’m not the only one with financial hang-ups!! Overall, I thought it was a valuable quiz.

    • Nyshirazgirl

      I took the quiz and it did really give any solutions on what to do other than find a financial advisor.

    • BAA

      They’re referring to “Money Vigilance” as a BAD thing? My Father went through the depression…so other than a mortgage I have no debt. Don’t see a downside to that one…

    • BAM

      Yeah, the quiz doesn’t really take life experiences into account. I scored high on Money Worship, mainly because I’m a struggling single mom on a tight budget. Of COURSE more money would make my life easier and solve most of my problems. Most of my problems come from not having enough money to pay my bills! If I had more money, we could live in a safe neighborhood with better schools, I could have a job that I actually enjoy instead of one that pays enough but drains me emotionally, I could afford a car instead of walking places, I could afford a babysitter and a social life, I could see my friends and family more . . . Money wouldn’t make me happy, but it sure would alleviate a whole lot of stress and anxiety.