If your money could talk, what would it say about you?

Better with Money and creative agency like minds have a shared vision and mission to help people feel better about their money and are working together to change the conversation employers are having with their employees about their financial wellbeing. In this article like minds explains their philosophy and starting point for the money conversation.

‘If your money could talk, what would it say about you?’ probably isn’t a question you’ve really given any thought to before, but at like minds we believe that understanding our relationship with money is the starting point for improving our financial wellbeing.

Did you know that around 30% of people find their finances ‘very’ or ‘quite’ stressful?*

That means almost a third of us find ourselves worrying about money, in some way or another. Whether we realise it or not, it’s having a significant impact on our mental health and wellbeing both at home and at work. More employers are beginning to realise the impact that money worries is having on their employees, affecting stress, absenteeism and their ability to make the most of the £s they earn. We believe that unless we help employees to really look at their relationship with money, this isn’t likely to change.

One thing is for sure, none of us feels neutral about money. There’s so much more to it than hard cash. We make value judgements all the time about our money and it can stir up really strong emotions in people so it makes sense to try to unravel why we feel like we do and why we can or can’t save.

So whether you find yourself a thrifty saver, an avid spreadsheet budget-er or a spender, you’ll have a certain relationship and approach towards money.

Money personas

At like minds we’ve been busy investigating how people relate to their money by thinking about it as an actual relationship – one where you could have a conversation and discover what your money would say about you if it could talk. We’ve found that it’s the perfect way to help people open up about their money – how they feel about it, how they spend it or save it – and to think about it differently instead of in hard cash terms. It reveals more about ourselves, our money beliefs and the emotion that lies behind many of our financial decisions than getting someone simply to look at their bank balance.

With the help of Jump Research we’ve found that people generally tend to fall into four different types of relationship:

1. Love me and leave me (When it comes to your relationship with money, it sounds like you’re not always sure where things are headed)
2. Just good friends
3. Going steady
4. Soulmates

For example, people who are ‘just good friends’ with their money tend feel pretty neutral towards money. It doesn’t make them worry overly much, but then again it’s not really ‘happily ever after’ either. They’re usually good with their budgeting and play it quite safe. They aspire to more long-term money commitments and goals, such as buying a house or having enough extra cash to treat themselves but aren’t quite sure how to take that next big step.

Finding out your money persona is just the start, knowing what to do with it is the next step.

The like minds approach

What we really want is for people to feel better about their relationship with money on a long-term basis. We’re talking to companies about how they can start to change the conversation they’re having with employees about their money and part of that is our financial wellbeing digital platform called Money Minded™.

Using our research into attitudes, behaviours and emotions around money we have developed a relationship quiz which will help people to identify what their relationship with money is most like based on our four money personas. From this, we guide people towards both practical content for understanding more their money, and an exploration of the psychology of money to create better awareness of why we do what we do and the decisions we make when it comes to money.

Of course, we don’t just want the conversation to stop there. Our content is designed to help people through any money worry from all different walks of life – from debt management, to saving for a home, having your first child and beyond…

If you’re interested in finding out more, then get in touch at hello@likeminds.uk.com, or visit us at www.likeminds.uk.com.

*Research commissioned by the mental health charity Mind in 2013.