The Accumulator

The Accumulator

When clients come into my office, usually the #1 underlying question is “Am I making the right decisions with my money?”. When people ask this question, they are usually wondering if it is better for them to fund a Roth vs. a regular 401k or what strategies they should be using to reduce taxes, etc.  Over my years of financial planning experience, I have found that it just as important to understand what drives our financial decisions as it is to understand the “right” financial decision to make.

There are times when a client knows they aren’t making the right financial decisions and sometimes they already know what they should be doing. In these situations, I believe it is more important for the client to know why they are making their current decisions so they can change their behavior.

I have been learning about a money personality assessment called Sacred Money Archetypes. An archetype is a theme or pattern of our behavior. It impacts our life stories, beliefs, motivation, fears, and courage. When we better understand our money archetype if can give us direction in making decisions so we can be more empowered to make meaningful decisions with our money to enhance both our personal and professional lives.

There are eight distinct money archetypes. Over the next few months, I am going to write about each of these archetypes. This blog discusses the Accumulator archetype.

You Know You are An Accumulator If:

• You tend to judge others for their money habits
• You feel a great connection – love, joy, happiness – about saving money
• You’re likely to be frugal, overthink purchases or insist on only buying things on sale
• You are driven to save out of fear of being dependent or losing personal freedom

Accumulators have a strong inner banker which attracts respect and appreciation. There are many great strengths of being an accumulator. Accumulators are usually very conscientious, trustworthy, and disciplined. They are financially responsible and able to save easily which means they are usually successful at creating financial independence. Accumulators can be very secretive because they lack trust and aren’t always generous. They can become obsessive or compulsive about their money. The also can feel guilt about their money and have doubts about investing.

If you believe you are an accumulator you can ask yourself the questions:

1. What is your frugality keeping you from doing or becoming?
2. Imagine for a moment that nothing is going to happen that will diminish your savings for the next five years. How would this change the way you live?
3. What are three investment that you could make that would expand your vision?

I encourage accumulators to challenge themselves by saying ‘yes’ to opportunities because opportunities create wealth.

Stay tuned for my next blog about The Connector money archetype.

Please reach out to me at pwa@keatinginc.com if you would like access to take your own free Sacred Money Archetype.

Any opinions are those of the author and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete.  Expressions of opinion are as of this date and are subject to change without notice. Sacred Money Archetypes is an independent organization and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Raymond James.