Money Motive Descriptions
NOTE: This page provides an abbreviated summary of the eight money motive styles. Be sure to read your additional report pages showing your top scoring personality styles for additional information and strategies. They will provide further guidance and strategies for integrating this information into your financial planning.
Prestige Motives seek achievement and a quality of life that provides them with the freedom to spend on upscale items and have success recognized. This causes them to avoid mediocrity – anything perceived to be of poor quality or image. This may drive a pattern of spending that leads to the stress of debt and eventual loss of adequate financial resources needed for future necessities.
Spontaneity Motives seek to be free from feeling constrained or deprived. Natural at embracing pleasure and living for the moment, this style may avoid internalizing the benefits of longer-term savings. This tends to drive an imbalance of impulse purchases or a lack of discipline in other money management decisions. If loss or debt occurs, it can cause a feeling of discouragement that perpetuates the cycle rather than making needed adjustments.
Peace Motives seek calm and freedom from conflict, yet they often feel conflicted about money due to their own clashing desires or goals. Peace seeking usually motivates a cooperative and flexible style. The preference to avoid conflict, however, may drive inconsistent choices with money. This can be in several categories: spending vs. saving; long-term vs. short-term; high vs. low risk tolerance; slow and consistent vs. rushed and unpredictable.
Simplicity Motives seek uncomplicated clarity and ease. They avoid details often due to overloaded schedules and perception of demands. With money management, this often drives shortcut methods that seem to work well in the short term, but may result in procrastination or errors over longer times. This motive pattern creates an impressive focus on many interests that compete with optimal money management.
Virtue Motives seek moral excellence, even superiority at times. They will typically avoid materialism and feel concerned that wealth creates negative consequences such as greed. The behavior this can drive is choosing more modest income and reluctance to grow higher net worth. Financial abundance may trigger uneasiness or guilt and cause actions that sabotage financial growth or security.
Security Motives seek certainty and protection in their financial matters. This will cause them to avoid loss and perhaps drive spending or investing decisions that are too narrow or limiting. Since absolute certainty or predictability is hard to come by, they’ll worry about loss at the expense of gain, or feel insecure even when things are going well. Security motives contribute positive traits such as pragmatism and discipline.
Control Motives seek authority to regulate or restrain financial actions that threaten their sense of order. Control styles tend to be organized and precise. Behavior is programmed to avoid perceived chaos or fluctuation in investments because it triggers uneasiness due to concern for maximum future preparedness. This will drive actions to avoid debt and breed reluctance to spend or properly diversify investments.
Growth Motives seek to increase their financial results, especially investment gains and creating a higher net worth. This may cause them to avoid low returns or proper diversification and drive their pursuit of higher returns. Growth motives are quite positive as long as they don’t need constant growth to feel satisfied. That can cause a pattern of losses from choosing poor investments that consistently underperform due to excessive risks.
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