Know Your Money with Bronwyn Waner and Craig Finch
Know Your Money with Bronwyn Waner and Craig Finch
134. How Your Personality Type Shapes Your Money Habits
Ever wonder why you handle money the way you do? Or why your partner's financial decisions sometimes seem completely baffling? The answer might lie in your personality type.
We welcome back Joni Peddie from Resilient People Bounce Forward to explore the fascinating intersection of the Enneagram personality system and financial behaviour. Joni breaks down how each of the nine Enneagram types approaches money differently—from the perfectionist Type One with their clear, rigid thinking about what's financially "right or wrong" to the adventure-seeking Type Seven who might spontaneously fund a music festival trip to Mongolia without considering tomorrow's responsibilities.
The conversation goes beyond mere categorisation to offer practical insights. We discuss how Type Twos often struggle with financial boundaries, frequently supporting extended family at their own expense. We explore how Type Threes view money as a performance metric, while Type Fours might prioritise their passions regardless of practical considerations. Particularly enlightening is Joni's advice for helping procrastinating Type Nines make financial decisions by connecting those choices to their deeper values and timeline-specific goals.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is its focus on relationships. When partners have different Enneagram types—like one focused on security while the other prioritises enjoyment—financial conflict often follows. Joni offers strategies for finding balance, creating timelines that honour both perspectives, and using self-awareness as the foundation for financial harmony. As she beautifully puts it, "Self-awareness is the beginning of wisdom."
Ready to understand your financial behaviours on a deeper level? Listen now, then connect with Joni on LinkedIn to continue your journey of financial self-discovery. Your relationship with money—and possibly your partner—might never be the same again.
Please subscribe to our podcast or have a look at our website
www.growthfp.co.za
hello everybody, welcome to know your money.
Speaker 2:I am bronwyn weiner and I'm craig finch and we are from growth financial planning. We hope you enjoy our podcast hello everybody.
Speaker 1:We have joni petty back. Um, joni, will you just explain a little bit about your company and what it is that you do? And in today's episode we are going to be explaining how finances and Enneagram can marry each other and merge together, which is super exciting. So please take us away.
Speaker 3:Sure. So my business is Resilient. People Bounce Forward and I help people in terms of self-managing and working in teams, predominantly in corporates how to work in effective and high-performing teams. So the Enneagram is one of the things that I do and many other resilience modalities, including emotional intelligence modalities, including emotional intelligence, awesome stuff.
Speaker 1:And you said you have a program that incorporates finances per Enneagram number. Can you describe them on a very light lens, not boxing anybody? Yes, yeah, but maybe just explain that to us a little bit if people are interested.
Speaker 3:I can Were you going to ask a question.
Speaker 4:Not quite yet. I thought I heard you breathe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3:Okay, he's breathing and he's alive. So, yes, bronwyn's words are spot on, because we're really in danger of boxing people here with Enneagram and their money, because there are up to 54 variations per each of the nine Enneagram types. So if someone doesn't know the Enneagram, it's nine personality types. There's nine layers of psychological health. Each type has a wing which is on the circumference of the circle, and then each type has three subtypes. So someone looking after their money, self-prez, might be like, you know, risk averse and let me hold on to it and let me make sure I've got enough money. Someone being more a social subtype might be hey, let's, you know, holiday now. Worry about, you know, school fees next year. So it really depends a lot on their subtype. So I'm going to whiz you through the Enneagram, but your point of not boxing is a very important point. So nothing should be taken to heart here. There's much more specificity per type. That will be more illuminating for people. So let's start wherever. Now I feel like starting with the one. So the type one is the perfectionist or the reformer, or the standard bearer. Different Enneagram schools have different names and they definitely are clear thinking, very objective. Is this right, is it wrong Polarity thinking and they might be quite rigid in terms of what they want to do with their money or what they don't want to do with their money. So that rigidity can be there but invariably they will know what they want. It's a clear thinking type. Type twos like you, bronwyn, you may want to give all your money away. Yes, like you, bronwyn, you may want to give all your money away. Yes, I actually have a lot of people in corporates who come to me for Enneagram coaching and a lot of them speak about black techs, where they, sadly, they've got their degrees, they're well educated in high profile jobs, but they've got a lot of siblings and cousins and second and third cousins who they're putting through school or whatever and they literally are spending their entire salary giving money away very hard and very hard because they just lean into it automatically. So it's quite hard for them to put up boundaries and they need to put up boundaries. They've got their own nuclear family as well.
Speaker 3:The type three the achiever, that's me. It really very much depends on your subtype, so you might be the kind of person who you know you've got certain goals you want to achieve and actually money is related to that when I started my first business I'd left. I met Craig when I was still at Unilever and I'll never forget being quite scared about starting my first business and saying to my advertising agency friend, who was my great friend from Unilever. I said to her, like how will I know if I'm performing when I start my own business? Like no one's going to do a performance appraisal Bear in mind I was, goodness gracious like 24 at the time and she said, joni, you just go to the ATM that gives you the performance appraisal. I'm like cool, I'll do that as often as I like. So the three you know, it's kind of it will be linked to what they want to achieve.
Speaker 3:The type four will sink into whatever their hobbies or their desires. So they will, you know, if they really want to be writing lyrics for music or whatever, it just doesn't matter. If that's their intense passion, that's where their money's going to go, you know, and it might be quite divorced from the realism of saving for children's school fees. It's like this is what I want to do. The top fives are great investigators, so they are going to be like you know, let's look at this structured finance. What's like this is what I want to do. The top fives are great investigators, so they are going to be like you know. Let's look at this structured finance, what's that? Let's look at bonds. You know all sorts of things that I would never touch. So they would be researching all of that and know a lot about that.
Speaker 3:The sixes are can be riddled with anxiety, so they will often be on the safer side of what are, you know, safe and saving and not spending on themselves even. But it depends on their subtype. The sevens, again depends on their subtype. So this is kind of just more fun. Tongue in cheek, is they going to go like there is one hell of a big music festival in outer Mongolia and I'm off there and bugger everyone else and everything else and I'm going to take 10 of my closest friends because that's what we want to do. So it's like you know what's exciting and enticing.
Speaker 3:And then the eights are quite strategic. They are quite forward thinking. They're like where am I going? You know, let's make sure. And they're very competitive. So you know, whatever returns I'm getting, I better get blimmin' good returns and, strategically, where I'm going. So they'll back a horse and then they're going for that horse and if they fail in terms of that money strategy, they fail forward. It doesn't matter. Okay, boom, dust myself off. There's no kind of worrying about it, because there's a next horse to back and there's a next competition to win, and then we'll end on the type nine. The type nine could procrastinate. So they're very good, they're beautiful, at the top of the Enneagram here the pros, the cons, the what ifs. Maybe we should look at this, maybe we should wait a while I still gotta think about this so they could tend to procrastinate.
Speaker 1:Okay. And how would we help them like, say, they're in that procrastination which would be like a dysfunctional nine in money? How do we help them pull on another area to make that decision like to be a seven? How do we do?
Speaker 3:Excellent. So the nine how you would help them is to pull on the top three, because that's the integration point. So you would say to them you would say right, it's okay to be deliberating this because obviously, when people are deliberating the last, it's okay to be deliberating this because obviously, when people are deliberating, the last thing they want to hear is catch a wake up, let's go. So deliberate it. But if you are looking to achieve this because your twins are about to leave school and they want to go and study at Harvard, then we need that bucket of money and therefore, you know you're looking at this sense of achievement or this big happening in life. This is when we'd need a cutoff date to make that decision, to achieve that pot of money over there. So it's putting on their plate something that's very relevant to them. They really want to get over the line and that has then got the timeline attached to it Awesome.
Speaker 2:But if you, as a client, understand your level, your number, it'll be incredible.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Like, if you are procrastination or you're happy-go-lucky and you're going to take a chance, you're going to realize the implications of that as well. And all the other amazing, exactly, exactly. Yeah, that's really.
Speaker 3:So when you understand yourself, self-awareness, the beginning, exactly, exactly, amazing. Yeah, that's really so. When you understand yourself, self-awareness, the beginning of wisdom, you'll go like, okay, how is this playing out in my relationships? How is it playing out in my money? How is it playing out in my sense of adventure and joy in life? How is it playing out in yeah, in my, you know, thinking about my old age. So it's really it's very, very important that you understand your temperament. And then, craig, you know, if I take it to a conversation we've had previously is how is your partner's type? Very different, because if you're planning for old age together, you know what are you planning to do and how are you going to approach that money story, you know.
Speaker 2:On, the same track, not on a different track, and you can come at both places because the one might be. God-orientated, get to a time. The other one might listen to me, but have some fun on the way and you need to have balance. Yeah, exactly, exactly, and they've both got good perspectives.
Speaker 1:So how do you marry those two?
Speaker 3:and how do you dance between the two and how do you maybe say you know that fun on the way is going to happen in the next three years or this year or not, so you timeline that as well. But agreement around that is so jolly important and the insight around it.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly that's amazing. Everybody should do this, Joni.
Speaker 3:Yes, everybody should.
Speaker 3:It's amazing, I can honestly say these are strong words, but it is life changing to understand your temperament Absolutely, I have found. When I started studying the Enneagram, I'm happy to say I was quite dysfunctional. I actually left the first seven-day course when they described the type three. They were doing a whole day on it and I'm like this is looking in the mirror. It's a bit tough for me. Yeah, anyway, after a few tears I went back and it's been a journey of really great understanding and now when I see myself tripping myself up with my own blind spots, I'm less kind of self-flagellating and I laugh about it and my whole family will laugh about it. They go like you're a bit of a three on steroids today, mom, and we really do joke about that in our family because problem sharing is problem halving and also it's good old Brene Brown, clear is kind and kind is clear. You can be very clear with your partner and your children. It's just everybody levels up there, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And how do people get hold of you or our listeners if they want to make contact with you?
Speaker 3:The easiest way I find these days. I'm prolific on LinkedIn. So Joni J-O-N-I, peddi P-E-D-D-I-E, I write on LinkedIn six or seven days a week on whatever kind of tickles my fancy and just send me a message on that, and I'm very diligent about reading my messages Perfect.
Speaker 1:I'll add it into our bio. Warren, did you have any questions?
Speaker 4:No, I was just going to comment on how funny it was when she talked about the two opposing people and marrying it together. That's kind of where I'm at, my wife and I. I mean, she just wants to enjoy life and spend, and I'm the opposite, as you know already. So yeah, I think we could value from.
Speaker 1:But both are important. Exactly, you know how do you meet in the middle.
Speaker 4:I'm in that, but I don't, sometimes not in the middle, sometimes slightly more in one side, because the middle is still us being poor. Yes and no, because if you embrace life and enjoy it a little bit more, no, no, no For Curse the Middle is no for Curse the Middle is we can't afford Finn's school fees. That's the middle.
Speaker 1:Well, that's not the end.
Speaker 4:No, no, trust me.
Speaker 2:So we need to have a session with you, joni, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much and it's enjoyable. It's enjoyable and it's enjoyable. It's an education of how you can come together and there may be just stages where you say, you know, finish school fees now, and then there's a stage of you know play. So it's kind of how do you put those milestones down which is helpful for personal growth? Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I even remember, sorry. Last thing, I have this questionnaire that I ask couples to complete about certain goals, and some of the goals are like retirement, leaving a legacy, saving for something, and the one person on the, the one couple, wrote number one is holidays and the other partner didn't even take holidays. Yeah, and it just shows it's almost like that same lens that you're saying and just that awareness helped them now save for that and it's not something that's going to be tough.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:So just awareness is key, I think yeah, thanks, joni.
Speaker 2:Joni, amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Speaker 3:What fun, all three of you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this podcast and would like to subscribe, please visit our website wwwgrowthfpcoza. The information we have provided in this podcast is our personal opinion. For more detailed information, please discuss your financial situation with a financial planner.