What is your Money archetype?

Most people have a complicated relationship with money. To cut a (very) long story short, here is the reason: Feelings and experiences from the first years of our lives often create limiting and self-destructive patterns of behaviors.

Examining how these early experiences affect our current money decisions is one of the best things we can do to improve our relationship with money.
While this may sound complex at first sight, there is a relatively simple way to approach this topic thanks to the concept of archetypes, that we can apply to Money.

What are Money archetypes?

There are 8 basic archetypes (or models) which describe how people unconsciously behave and manage their money.

After reading the following descriptions, most people find themselves intuitively in one or more of the archetypes of money, and can validate this intuition by taking a  quiz that I make available to everyone on request. By understanding your active archetype(s), you will discover the reasons for potential internal conflicts, and take the first step toward a healthier relationship with Money.

Ready?

Here is, in my own words, a brief description of the 8 Money archetypes that we also revisit during our Money Conversation Cafes and which have been originally described by Deborah Price  in "Money Magic: Unleashing Your Potential for True Wealth and Prosperity". You will note that I tend to use "he" when I refer to an archetype, mainly for consistency purpose. Do not get caught up by the masculine gender. It could equally be a female.

The Innocent
The Innocent archetype takes the ostrich approach to money matters. The Innocent archetype often lives in denial, buries his head in the sand in order not to see what is going on around him. Easily overwhelmed by financial information, he relies heavily on the advice and opinions of others. The Innocent archetype is probably the most trusting archetype and behaves "like a child" in the sense that he has not yet learned to judge and discern the motivations or behaviors of others. Although this feature can be very endearing, it is also dangerous for an adult in the real world. We all begin our life with the candor of an Innocent. However, as we grow over time, most of us develop trust in ourselves and others, based on experience rather than naivety.

The Victim
The Victim archetype tends to live in the past and blames his financial difficulties on external factors. The Victim often has many excuses for why he does not succeed better, and the excuses are all based on a series of beliefs and stories that I call "personal mythology". This does not mean that things have not happened to the Victim ... Far from it! More often than not, a person with a very strong Victim archetype has been abused, or has suffered great losses. The issue is that this pain has never been dealt with, and it is precisely this suffering that has turned against the Victim. Thinking that he has suffered enough, the Victim is still looking for someone to save him. Of all the archetypes I work with, the Victim is the most reluctant archetype to open the door to its potential. It is as if, at one point, the Victim had decided that his "story" was much more interesting than their future, (whatever that future may be) and preferred to repeat endlessly the tragedy of his past.

The Warrior
The Warrior archetype sets out to conquer the world of money and is generally considered successful in business and finance. The Warrior is a wise, focused and decisive investor. Although the Warrior listens to his counselors, he makes his own decisions and relies on his own instincts and resources to guide him. He is also cautious, and in general the archetype getting the best results.

The Martyr
The Martyr archetype is so busy dealing with the needs of others that he often neglects his own. Financially speaking, he usually does more for others than for himself. However, the "gifts" of the martyr come with conditions and he is disappointed when others do not meet his expectations. The main characteristic of martyrdom is attachment to one's own suffering. The Martyr tends to be a perfectionist and has high expectations of others and himself, which on a positive side, makes him capable of doing great things. He is also the classic archetype of compassion that leads him to want to save and care for others often at his own expense.

The Fool
The Fool archetype plays with a totally different set of rules. A gambler by nature, the Fool is always looking for a way to make money fast. The Fool wins relatively often because he is willing to roll the dice often and take bets. An adventurer at heart, he gets carried away by the enthusiasm of the moment without worrying about details, easily distracted and lacks the discipline necessary to stay "in the game" in the long run ... which turns against him sooner or later.

The Creator-Artist
The Creator-Artist archetype finds it difficult to live in the material world and often has a conflicting relationship with money. He appreciates money for the freedom it gives him, but has little or no desire to live in a materialistic world. The Creator-Artist often identifies himself too much with the inner world and can even despise those who live in the material world. His negative beliefs about materialism prevent him from getting the freedom he so desires, for fear of not being genuine and authentic.

Since it is almost impossible to attract something that you resist, the Creator-Artist constantly struggles for financial survival. It's not because he lacks talent or ambition. The Creator-Artist is rather stuck in a self-limiting belief system, based for example on the idea that money is devoid of spirituality.

The Tyrant

The Tyrant archetype accumulates money and uses it to manipulate and control others. Although the Tyrant can have everything he needs or desires, he never feels completely at ease and at peace. The greatest fear of the Tyrant archetype is the loss of control. A Tyrant is often an underdeveloped Warrior with a strong need for control and dominance. Unlike the Warrior, that we described before, who is rather caring for others, the Tyrant is purely driven by self-interest.
The Tyrant, is not as rich as it seems. He usually has everything that money seems to be able to buy and never has to worry about paying his bills, but he misses a lot of things that money cannot buy. He is often very fearful and rarely experiences a sense of accomplishment: what we call a feeling of "chronic inadequacy".

The Magician
The Magician archetype is, in a sense, the "ideal" archetype. Armed with the knowledge of the past, the Magician made peace with his personal story and understands that his power lies in his ability to see himself as he is, and to live a life in accordance with himself. Unlike the Creator-Artist who has difficulties combining the inner and outer world and whose relationship with money can be considered conflictual, the Magician perceives the inner world as a place of spirituality. The external and material world is for him only the expression, the reflection of this inner world, that is why there is no internal conflict for the Magician archetype.

I hope that the description of these archetypes has aroused your curiosity. Before concluding, I would like to clarify one point that may cause some confusion. Archetypes do not describe a personality types. Archetypes rather describe trends, attitudes and habits that we adopt in a totally unconscious way, without thinking about it.
In other words, if reading this article or after attending a Money Conversation Café, you feel close to the description of the Martyr or the Creator-Artist, it does not mean that you ARE a martyr or a Creator-Artist, but that, when money is involved, you tend to adopt behaviors and attitudes that correspond mostly to the Martyr or the Creator-Artist.

In reality, we are all a unique combination of these 8 archetypes (some just being more developed than others). The archetype (or archetypes) active in your life at this moment is the starting point of a possible personal transformation. By becoming aware of your beliefs about money, and the personal story behind your unique combination of archetypes, you will become aware of patterns and behaviors that may hinder you. As you move forward, you will understand money issues differently, look at them from a different perspective and behave in way that works better for you.