Teaching Tip:  This “Life Values Quiz” can be taken in class if computer connections are available, or if not, it should be assigned as an outside the class exercise.  If not all students have computer connections, but you as the instructor do, you can pick out two or three students to do the quiz in class.  Then, in front of the class, work through the quiz with them as they answer the questions, discussing their responses as you go along – then view the results as a class.

In Chapter 1 of Turning Money Into Wealth we introduce the 10 Principles of Personal Finance, and Principle 9 on that list is Mind Games, Your Financial Personality and Your Money.  This principle focuses on the fact that because of the way we are wired, we all have built-in biases that we don’t know about that have an impact on how we make our financial decisions. If you understand these biases, you can control them, and if you recognize what your financial personality is, you can take it out of the process and avoid some of the pitfalls you’d otherwise be subject to.

The purpose of this exercise is to give you some insights into your inner, social, physical, and financial life values.  Why is this an important exercise?  Because without an understanding of your life values, you can’t gain an understanding of your finanical personality.

The “Life Values Quiz” was put together by Smart About Money.org National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®), an independent, nonprofit foundation which for more than 30 years has been committed to educating Americans on a broad range of financial topics and empowering them to make positive and sound decisions to reach their financial goals.  The “Life Value Quiz” scores you on inner, social, physical, and financial life values, and while you get a score, there is not a correct or incorrect score.  The point is to gain a better understanding of how and why you make the decisions you make.

Class Assignment and Discussion:

1. Take the Life Values Quiz.  What were your scores?  Be prepared to share them with your class.  Did your results surprise you?
2. As a written assignment: Take the Life Values Quiz.  Print out your scores and write a one page paper on whether or not these results seem to make sense, use some examples from your recent behavior to support your opinion.