In Chapter 1 of Personal Finance, Turning Money into Wealth, we introduce Principle 9: Mind Games, Your Financial Personality, and Your Money.  That principle points out how behavioral biases can lead to big financial mistakes. In effect, your mind can get in the way of good financial decision-making.

Could that really be true?  In his current best seller, The Money Code, Joe John Duran proposes three “money minds” which control the ways in which we spend, save, and think about finances.  Once you understand your financial personality, or “money mind” as the author calls it, you can use its strengths and, with an awareness of its deficits, avoid financial mistakes that you might otherwise make.

To help you determine what types of behavioral biases you might have, the author has put together an online financial personality quiz.  This quiz doesn’t take long, and at the end you’ll be classified a protector, a pleasure-seeker, or a giver.

Class Assignment and discussion:

1. Take the Money Minds Financial Personality Quiz.  Were you classified as a protector, a pleasure-seeker, or a giver?  Does this make sense to you?  Be prepared to discuss this in class and give some specific examples of actions that are consistent with your financial personality.
2. Repeat question 1, but instead of discussing your insights in class, write a one- page paper that discusses why you fit or do not fit the assigned financial personality.  Also give some specific examples of actions that are consistent with what you feel is your financial personality.