Our Financial Personalities

There are many different financial personalities in my family. We are all related, but our views of money are very different.  Here is an overview of the different financial personalities in my family.

My Sister Marie is definitely the saver in our family. She lived in Toronto during her four years of her 2^nd university degree.  After she graduated, she moved to a smaller town where the cost of living is a lot lower.  Marie paid off all of her student loans in 1.5 years, while still saving money every month.  My sister’s cost of living is very low, and splitting it with her long time boyfriend makes it even lower.

Marie manages a large retail chain shoe store, and she loves her job.  She would eventually like to move into their design department; but for now, she is happy managing a retail store.  Marie is a minimalist to the extreme, even though she looks like a materialistic shopaholic. I am sure that she would splurge on items if she had to, but I have personally never seen her do it. Marie can find a good deal on anything, in any country.

My sister lives happily and has everything she wants; it’s just that she doesn’t want a lot.  She cooks rather than eats out, and never shops just because it’s a good deal, or because it’s on sale.

My Uncle Jamie is the total opposite of my sister Marie, even though they are both the youngest siblings in the family.  My Uncle Jamie has worked in every single industry imaginable from selling print advertising, running a small newspaper, and training children of the wealthy how to ride horses.  He also moves about twice a year, he never stays in one place too long.  Unlike Marie, stability is not a priority for my Uncle Jamie.

My uncle likes to have money, but he doesn’t focus his career around it. He does what he wants when he wants, because his personal happiness is his priority. One month he could be living on a small ranch, and the next could be living in a condo downtown.  Job stability is not important to my Uncle Jamie because he knows that there is always another job out there. My Uncle Jamie lives in the moment and does what makes him happy; money is a second thought to him. My mother thinks that her youngest brother Jamie is secretly hiding from creditors and that is why he moves around so often…but that is just a theory.

My Uncle Terrance is self employed and has been a millionaire at least twice in his life, meaning he had money and lost it, then had it again, and lost it again.  My uncle Terrance started his own construction company restoring and flipping houses back in the 80’s.  By the 90’s he has also restored and opened a restaurant.  In 2001 he had turned a little one bedroom lake front cottage into a 3 story home.  However, by 2005 he lost it all….again.  Now he is no longer self employed. He currently works for a movie studio building movie sets.  My father says that his younger brother he had all the right tools, but not right mind to manage the money.

My Uncle Terrance’s story proves that anyone with a good idea and strong work ethic can make millions.  However, keeping the money is another story. My father transferred one of my Uncle’s houses and the cottage into his name so that my uncle wouldn’t lose them when he declared bankruptcy.  My father thought that keeping the cottage and one home would help my uncle have a good foundation to start over after the bankruptcy was cleared.  However, my Uncle refused to sell them for the cash and ended up losing them to the bank in foreclosure.

With a big family, of course we are bound to have a lot of financial personalities.  Stay tuned for more updates on the different types of financial personalities in my family.

What are the different types of financial personalities in your family? Can you relate to my family?

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.