Know Yourself, Know Your Money
A few notes and reflections from working through the book.
Money classrooms
The idea that the way your parents raised you shapes how you handle money. I sit somewhere between “anxious and closed” and “calm and closed” — which is to say I didn’t really learn to talk about money growing up, and got little education in how to manage it. Not much to draw on.
My money tendencies
Where I land on the book’s scales:
- Spender vs saver — spender
- Nerd vs free spirit — lean free spirit, with some nerd tendencies
- Experiences vs things — in the middle
- Quality vs quantity — quality over quantity
- Safety vs status — more status than safety
- Abundance vs scarcity — abundance
- Planned vs spontaneous giving — spontaneous
Where I want to moderate
- Saving: put a little aside each month and pay down debt.
- Investigating: take more time over spending decisions.
- Experiences: lean towards experiences a bit more.
- Quality: don’t default to the most expensive option every time — even down to a pair of gloves.
- Scarcity: keep more of what I make; spend less.
- Giving: decide who I want to give to, and commit to it.
On money and relationships
The relationship I most need to work on is the one with myself — being more deliberate about saving, and a little more conservative with spending.