When a crisis hits, do you stay calm and collected, or do you launch yourself down a rabbit hole of worry and worst-case scenarios?
When the stock market spirals downward, do you shrug and stay the course, or do warning bells explode in your brain?
When news of the pandemic hit, was your first instinct to form a calm and reasoned action plan, or rush to the store to buy months of supplies?
Your personality influences your reactions to these scenarios.
Personality traits influence our thoughts, feelings and responses, which affects how we manage our money and investments.
What personality traits are we talking about?
The Big 5 Personality Traits are conscientiousness, agreeableness, introversion/extraversion, openness, and emotional stability.
Once we understand how the Big Five personality traits influence us, we can make better-informed, less harmful financial decisions.
For example, if you’re highly agreeable, you might say “yes” to an expensive outing with friends (once the pandemic is over) because that’s what everyone else wants. But is it what you want?
If you’re low on emotional stability – a personality trait that can make or break your financial success – you might make rash decisions in the heat of the moment.
Today’s guest, Dr. Sarah Stanley Fallaw, has a Ph.D. in applied psychology and is the founder of DataPoints, a research firm based on the science of building wealth.
What links between personality and money management has research uncovered? We discuss this topic in today’s episode.
(Dr. Sarah Stanley Fallaw is a two-time guest of the show. We first interviewed her about The Next Millionaire Next Door, the book she co-authored with her father, Dr. Thomas Stanley – author of The Millionaire Next Door.)
You’ll enjoy this episode if:
- You’re curious about what your personality type is and how it influences the way in which you manage your money, especially during times of high stress and anxiety
- Your personality traits seem to spell disaster for your financial life and you’re sick of fighting against it and want to work with it
- You feel like everything is out of your control and you have no idea what to do to regain it
- You feel like everything should be in your control and you feel trapped by guilt
- You loved our previous interview with Dr. Fallaw
Resources Mentioned:
- Personality Assessment Quiz
- Understanding Great Investors – DataPoints white paper
- DataPoints.com
- The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
- The Next Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas. J. Stanley and Sarah Stanley Fallaw
- Your First Rental Property Enrollment
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