"You have $900 in your checking account!" the email said. Actually, if emails had sound, I would say it SCREAMED. It was four days until my personal finance self-help book, It's Not About the Money was scheduled to be published. The email was from my bookkeeper, who was wondering where she ought to get some additional funds, given the bills she needed to pay. I usually like to keep at least $20,000 in this account, and the rest stays invested. Just a week before the account had had $22,000 in it.
I felt shame and embarrassment. What kind of financial expert could let his bank account get below $1,000? Next, my worry and anxiety kicked into high gear, sending chills of fear down my spine. This was the hallmark of the money type I call the Guardian, who is generally alert and prudent, but sometimes, like now, has excessive worry and anxiety even if his overall financial situation doesn't justify it.
So I did what many Guardians do - I went down to the dining room table and pulled up Quicken to crunch the numbers. The first thing I noticed was that the Pleasure Seeker was alive and well. My wife had recently thrown me two 40th birthday bashes, one which was an intimate dinner with close friends, and one which was a dance party extravaganza. We had purposely decided I shouldn't see the bill (mimicking the Innocent, the money type I least embody), but as I sat there trying to make sense of our sudden financial freefall, it couldn't help but jump out at me - the parties had cost as much as the average wedding! But the Pleasure Seeker really did get a lot of joy out of them. Having this knowledge actually relaxed the Guardian's concern a bit. At least there was an explanation.
Next, I added up our savings, and computed that in 2007 we had saved over 20% of our after-tax income, and in 2008, would likely save over 25%. So the Saver, who seeks security and abundance through the accumulation of money, and which is my most dominant money type, was able to relax and know that we hadn't shattered our financial future.
As my eyes scanned the profit and loss statement, I first noticed the gross income line. Given that we have a very successful business, why wasn't it higher? I thought about this for a few minutes, and recalled that 2007 was my last year of buying my way into equal ownership with my partner in our company. The Empire Builder within me had helped to create a business which could help people on a national scale, and had grown my family's financial net worth dramatically over the last few years. But only a fraction of this value was showing up in my checking account.
My eyes then got to clothing. How could we have spent $13,000 on clothes? Last time I looked, we were spending about $400/month for a family of four. I pulled up the detailed transactions, and saw that $5,000 of this line item was a work wardrobe overhaul I had done in September. I recalled how stale and out-of-date I'd felt my clothes were, and how hip and stylish the new Zegna clothes made me feel. These motivations for my spending came directly from the money type I call the Star, who spends, invests, and sometimes gives money away to gain recognition or self-esteem.
Lastly, I calculated how much money we'd given away during the year. It amounted to more than 10% of income, and included some causes very near and dear to my heart. This giving, sparked by compassion and generosity, is the hallmark of the Caretaker.
A Seat at the Table
In going through this exercise, I realized that every one of the eight financial archetypes had a seat at the table. This was both good news and bad news. The bad news was that none of them was really getting to run the show, to get his 'fix'. Were I still being ruled by the Saver and Guardian, I would always know how much was in the account, and would be maximizing our savings through frugality and workaholism, at the expense of any kind of pleasure or generosity. If the Pleasure Seeker was the only signer on the credit card, we would've been in debt long ago, thanks to my love of international travel, gourmet Italian food, and high-end home theater equipment. The Star never would've stopped at $5,000 of clothing, the Caretaker would love to be giving away everything except the bare minimum necessary for a simple life, and the Empire Builder would have authoritatively told all seven of the others to figuratively go back to their rooms while he built the business even bigger. When we remain unconscious of our unconscious money type, it's like a four year old runs our financial life. The beliefs and strategies about what we should do with money are so unquestioned that we often find ourselves in extreme patterns with money, and have few tools to break free of them.
The good news is that by giving each of the money types a seat at the table, I was able to cultivate the most balanced financial year of my life. This awareness was immensely gratifying, because I knew that none of my unconscious tendencies had managed to dominate the others. It took a cash flow crunch to force me to become aware of this balance, but thankfully, the Saver and Empire Builder had stashed away plenty of money with which I could fill the hole.
Brent Kessel is the author of It's Not About the Money (HarperOne 2008) and the co-founder of Abacus, a nationwide financial planning firm with a focus on sustainable investing.