The road to improving my finances is…ROCKY.  I’ve already stumbled, stubbed my toe and nearly fallen flat.  Affinity CEO Sandy Robinson, my financial advisor, gave me my first “assignment” – tracking my expenses for one month.  (Actually, she suggested a longer period. I set a checkpoint of one month.)  I was supposed to start mid-February. I started March 2.

To improve my financial position, Sandy suggested that getting a grip on what I spend money on, no matter how much, is important to understanding the overall picture of my finances.  Good point. I happen to be the type of person who can’t tell you the price of a half gallon of milk or what I spend weekly to fill the gas tank.  I’m not exactly a spendthrift. I just simply am not aware of what I spend on daily items.  I think there are a couple of reasons for this: 

• I’ve already got a lot on my mind with family & work, and
• My grandmother pointed out the cost of every single thing she bought, from a cup of coffee to the birthday presents she gave me. Annoying & boring. 

I was thinking about my lack of enthusiasm for tracking how I spend money. Clearly, I’m not wired to enjoy this. I started thinking about if my personality affects my finances.  So, I Googled “how does personality affect finances.” The search returned 10,600,000 results!  Turns out there’s an entire industry focused on finding the answer to this question.

I took a few online financial personality quizzes.  My favorite:  “What’s Your Money Personality” posted on MSN Money.  In less than a minute, I learned I’m The Innocent. People who fall into this category are described as:  “avoids paying significant attention to money, believing (or hoping) that life will work out for the best.” It appears I’m the financial version of Pollyanna.

What money type are you?  Take the quiz and let me know.