Finance:Money habitudes

Money Habitudes is a personality tool used in the fields of financial education, financial planning, therapy and relationship counseling and career coaching. It addresses the psychology of money and has elements of being a financial personality test, ice breaker and conversation starter.

Designed like a card game, it uses a system of six different money personality types to help people understand their money habits and attitudes. These are Security, Targeted Goals, Status, Selfless, Free Spirit and Spontaneous. (These names change slightly in different versions of the assessment.) Like a scale, each of the six categories has nine statement cards associated with it; the strongest tendency would be agreeing with all nine statements in a category while the weakest possibility is a category where one has not agreed with any of the statements. The money type names are derived from positive financial traits; other money personality systems use money types named for areas of financial improvement. Also, while other money personality systems define a person as being only one type, the Money Habitudes methodology characterizes people as a combination of multiple money types.

Created by Syble Solomon, the first version of the assessment tool was released in 2003. It has been revised multiple times. Different versions include assessments for adults, young adults, teens and Spanish-speakers.

For creating Money Habitudes, Solomon received the Mary Ellen Edmondson Educator of the Year award from the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education as well as the Smart Marriages Impact Award from the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education in 2009. The instructional game was named a personal finance book of the month selection in 2011 by the Washington Post, the first time a non-book was so recommended.