With so much self-reflection going on these days – hello, COVID quarantine– it was just a matter of time before we turned the looking glass on our financial habits. After all, lifestyle writers and social media influencers have determined that we all have fashion types, love styles…heck, there’s even Team Over or Under TP Roll. Money is one of those things, like religion or politics, that everyone feels strongly about, one way or another. Our monetary personas don’t necessarily correlate to the amount of money we earn, inherit or have. In fact, these quirks and attitudes have very little to do with our wealth status. Some of our attitudes come from upbringing or our early experiences with money, but they are easy to see in how we spend money, how we save it, if we like it, love it or hate it. The money gurus at BigThink have narrowed these financial personalities to five categories. Where do you fit into the picture?

THE BIG SPENDER: Meet Roddy Gotrocks

He never met a shiny bauble he didn’t love – or want. He’s impressed by possessions. He wants the biggest, newest, right- off-the-line everything. He knows all the poshest people, travels to only the in-est of In Places. He’s got a Rolex smartwatch, a pair of diamond socks, gold-plated bathroom fixtures throughout his impressively appointed tiny house, all on the grounds of his McMansion. He’s got a yacht, a Lear jet and a racehorse – so he’s got land, air and sea covered. Barbers visit HIM to give $500 haircuts. He has been known to shower his friends and family with outrageously expensive gifts. Sometimes his income doesn’t quite meet his exquisite taste, which is starting to become a problem. He finds it hard to part with his possessions, except to replace them with a newer, hipper version. Or two.

THE SAVER: It’s Sukie Pennywise

Sukie is frugal, sometimes described as cheap, even. She’s never picked up a tab in her life, in fact she pulls out her dollar store calculator at every girls’ lunch to analyze the check and be sure everyone pays their fair share, especially if there’s a two-for-one entree involved. She saves her junk mail, cuts it into strips and writes her grocery lists on them. She has the first dollar she ever made, tacked up behind her four-year supply of one-ply TP. She’ll buy anything, if it is marked down enough or if she has triple coupons for it. She learned her craft at her mother’s knee, while helping lick and stick Green Stamps into booklets. She considers herself a semi-professional couponer, and a trip to the supermarket takes several hours and an army of her friends, but only costs $8.43. Her bathroom is papered with 12-foot grocery receipts, and she can’t have guests because her spare bedroom holds her buy-one-get-one stash. How many toothbrushes DOES one need, after all? She’s never taken a vacation that wasn’t deeply discounted, even if the locale was not her first choice. She got a bargain… close but no DisneyWorld. Her quality of life may be impacted by her refusal to spend money.

THE SHOPPER: Sukie’s little sister Polly P. Mallrat

She’s here for the thrill of the hunt. Her frugal upbringing inspired her not to save, but to shop. She doesn’t care how she does it, online or in-person. She has carts open at all times on Amazon, Target.com and Etsy. She loves holidays, mostly for the shopping opps. She’s got two sets of credit cards, one for buying and one for paying off, and alternates to keep creditors at bay. Sometimes she has to do some fancy maneuvering to juggle what’s due when. Her picture is up in every ladies’ shoe department in the mall as a frequent flyer. Polly has been known to clutch her credit card and run from sales ladies bearing scissors. She has negotiated divorce settlements based on credit limits. She hardly sleeps at night, but when she does, she dreams of the Great Discount Sale in the Sky, whose pearly gates she’s entered bearing a platinum AMEX.

THE DENIER: Enter Sheldon Sage

Sheldon is into transcendental meditation, Earth shoes and living an all-around hippie life. Money simply doesn’t exist for him. He doesn’t understand the concept of personal financial worth. He only deals with money when he has to and barters for most everything he needs. He has five-gallon water bottles full of pennies. He also lives off the grid, makes his own clothes, and rides a 35-year-old Schwinn he got for his tenth birthday. He believes in higher consciousness and home-brewed Kombucha. He keeps chickens, but couldn’t bear to kill them after he gave them names. He eats a lot of eggs, or sells them to his neighbors. He doesn’t know the balance of his checkbook, doesn’t even know if he still has a checkbook. He enjoys using an abacus for any math problems he comes across that stretch beyond the calculating power of his fingers and sandaled toes.

THE INVESTOR: He’s Scott Hottentot

Scott loves money. The smell of it, the feel of it in his hands, the flutter of bills against his cheek. Not the things it buys, necessarily, but MONEY. The more he has, the more he likes it. He loves to invest it, to watch it grow. To nurture it. He thinks of nothing else, watching the investments he’s made like a nervous teenager on prom night. Of course, he might wear that ancient coffee-stained tie every day, but he is confident his fiduciary freedom is growing with each market day. He might want to spend a little to get the transmission fixed in his ‘87 Datsun, just so he won’t have to put out coins for the bus to work, or for his sake and the sake of his co-workers, burn the caffeine-splotched tie and buy a new one. Maybe one with the image of a $100 bill on it.

Sure, these personas are over-the-top examples, but you may one day find a little too much Roddy, Sukie, Polly, Sheldon or Scott creeping into your attitude towards cash. When that happens, take some advice from our financial expert, Chad Courtois of Advantage Assets in Lafayette. “We all have a certain financial character dominance, but from time to time there is a little bit of Roddy, Sukie, Polly, Sheldon, and Scott in all of us,” he explains. “That’s where a financial coach comes into play. Like with every top athlete, he or she may carry the commitment and skill, but they need a coach to help them fine tune and coordinate their talents to reach their peak performance to win. The same holds true in the financial game of life: finding a coach that can help you reach your peak performance and win financial peace!”