What is your spending personality type?

Werewolf, Vampire or Medusa? Find out which of these personality types you are when it comes to managing your moolah.

You’ve made plans with your friends to go for an extravagant meal to reward yourselves after a tough week at school. But your wallet is light and your bank balance low, as you’ve run through your monthly allowance. Does that sound familiar?

Many young people today choose to ignore their spending habits, which ends up being detrimental to their finances and lifestyle, said Mr Lawrence Tan, content lead at the Institute for Financial Literacy (IFL), which is part of Singapore’s national financial education programme MoneySense.

Figure out which of these spending personality types you are, then get insights on how to face your cash flow challenge.

The Vampire

You’re headed to a party, but realise you’re way short on what you plan to splurge on food and drinks. This is when you contact your emergency fund – your parents.

With easy cash transfusions on tap, you are a financial Vampire. Drawing on others to sustain your lifestyle needs, you never have to think about your expenditure or budgeting.

Miss Vinette Sim, 19, a student at Temasek Polytechnic, admits as much. Her parents give her a minimal monthly allowance of $200 for food, but she can freely ask them for more funds to spend on other areas, such as clothing. “Even though I try not to overspend, being able to ask for more money has made me a bit indifferent to my spending,” she said.

Mr Tan advised those who fit into this archetype to think about how they can stay responsible and accountable for their own money. Consider how people’s sources of income are finite, he urged.

“Regardless of your economic background, sometimes your carefree expenditure might instead end up being less financially sustainable for your parents,” he said.

The Werewolf

You have a savage, uncontrollable spending habit – and routinely leave your bank balance in shreds.

This describes Miss Evelyn Aman, 19, a student at Temasek Polytechnic, who describes her mindset as “buy now, worry later”.

“I get my allowance at the beginning of each month – this is when I spend more and I’m less money-conscious. But towards the month’s end, I’ll realise I’ve overspent in the first few weeks and drastically cut down on my spending,” she said.

Break this self-sabotaging “boom and bust” cycle. Use an expense-tracking or budgeting app that shows your net balance at a glance, so you keep your overall expenses on a leash.

Mr Tan said Werewolves can also use free and available templates such as the Net Cashflow Tool by MoneySense, which provides a spreadsheet table for you to fill in and track your basic inflow and outflow.

Tracking your spending will also help you see if you’re sacrificing what’s important to you – say, eating organic – due to overspending on frivolous things, like yet another pair of sneakers.

The Loch Ness Monster

You usually spend within your means, but when you rear your head, you make a big splash – and send your savings plummeting to rock bottom.

For instance, instead of a cheaper seat at the Eras concert, you splash out on a VIP ticket as well as a lush stay at Marina Bay Sands.

This describes Miss Emma Kong, a 19-year-old student from Temasek Polytechnic, who said: “Whenever I try to save money, an artist always announces a concert and I get tempted to buy their concert tickets.” She has already gone to concerts by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Bruno Mars in the first half of 2024.

Mr Tan described the habits of the Loch Ness Monsters to be “based on emotive drivers and impulses driven by self-satisfaction or the need to project an image to the people around you”.

“There’s also nothing wrong with having a Yolo mindset, especially during the exuberance of youth, as long as the associated expenses are considered and planned ahead.”

He advised growing a cash pool that is solely allocated to big-ticket buys and spending beyond this. This way, you don’t have to scrimp on your daily necessities when impulse strikes. Replace any “buy now, pay later” habit with a “save now, buy later” for big purchases.

If something appeals to your emotions, take a step back and think about how you’d feel about this purchase in six months, he said. To avoid buyer’s remorse, he also advised a self-imposed cooling-off period before any major purchases.

“I have friends that delete shopping apps that they regularly use just so that they have the time it takes to download the app again as their own cooling-off period, to contemplate the purchase. If it works, it works!”

The Medusa

Food, fashion, personal care, entertainment, transport, health and fitness. Competing demands for your cash swirl around your head, clamouring for attention.

You’ve tried to tame your expenses by setting a budget for yourself, but because you haven’t set clear priorities, you easily overspend on non-essentials, leaving insufficient funds for crucial expenses like bills or savings.

Miss Eunice Angelica, a 20-year-old student from Temasek Polytechnic, identifies with the Medusa archetype.

“I often find myself having to choose between spending on clothes or food, but I usually spend on both. Because of this, I end up exhausting my monthly allowance and using some of the savings my parents have put aside for me instead,” she said.

Mr Tan says it’s not about eschewing spending on a variety of things, but without knowing where your money’s been going, you can’t priorities and budget for what you want in life.

Take these steps if you are a Medusa: Download tracking applications to keep an eye on your expenditure for each category, and reflect on your choices.

It may help to keep your reflections in tangible forms, such as writing them down on paper or in a Notes app, so that you have more visual reminders of how you spend in each category. This will help you better understand your spending habits.

Tracking your spending will also help you see if you’re sacrificing what’s important to you – say, eating organic – due to overspending on frivolous things, like yet another pair of sneakers.

The Centaur

You set a tight budget, and the mere thought of busting this gives you anxiety.

Mr Goh Choon Kee, a 21-year-old student at Nanyang Polytechnic, is big on financial discipline, and believes that it is important to only spend on what you need and save for the future instead.

But a Centaur’s incredibly frugality, down to the last cent, comes with sacrifices.

Mr Goh said: “I often find myself eating the same cheaper options over and over as compared with my friends on campus, or even skipping lunch to do schoolwork because it also relieves my wallet.”

He was pleased to see a significant increase in his savings a few months after he decided to cook meals for himself instead of buying take-out.

“I also align my subscriptions to a tight monthly budget of $16, going to the extent of cancelling them if they exceed it,” he added.

Mr Tan said Centaurs are believers in the Financial Independence, Retire Early (Fire) lifestyle movement, which has seen an increase in popularity over the years.

The movement entails living frugally in your youth and adulthood in order to retire earlier than the conventional working adult.

He commended young people who have racked up a savings rate of 60 per cent to 70 per cent, adding that the number is not alarming as the lifestyle expenses of most young people are covered by their parents. 

But he had a word of caution: “Are you sacrificing your current employment, your lifestyle, your moods and relationships because you’re so incredibly frugal?”

And there may be consequences in the future. For example, the emotional toll of an austere lifestyle might make you moody with your friends and affect your relationships.

In the long run, there are also health concerns that come with the lifestyle of eating the cheapest options, such as instant noodles, instead of healthier but more expensive food.

For the aggressive Centaurs, Mr Tan recommends segregating savings from your spending pool.

In the short run, this gives you more freedom with your budget, after you’ve met the set quota in your savings account.

When you enter the workforce, a separate savings account can even become your long-term investment account. Coupled with a high interest rate, this account will be able to give you better returns as an adult.

If something appeals to your emotions, take a step back and think about how you’d feel about this purchase in six months, he said. To avoid buyer’s remorse, he also advised a self-imposed cooling-off period before any major purchases.

The Sage

Wise and discerning, you draw on experience and knowledge to make sound financial decisions.

You probably manage your finances similarly to the “20-30-50” method that Mr Tan recommends: Allocate 20 per cent of your allowance or disposable income towards savings, 30 per cent towards wants, and 50 per cent towards needs.

This balanced approach tends to be more sustainable in the long run, as it lets you enjoy life while also saving for the future or a rainy day.

Manifest mindful spending

Regardless of your current spending personality type, you will meet external pressures – influence from peers and the media, for instance – and internal challenges, such as unrealistic expectations about your spending or saving.

Mr Tan encouraged increasing your financial literacy.

If you want to learn from financial experts, bookmark the IFL’s events page and join its free online talks or workshops – there’s one every day. For instance, the upcoming Stretching Your Dollar on April 25 and Financial Habits And Behaviours on April 29 are useful for young people.

For something more in-depth, learn at your own pace at IFL’s Financial Learning Academy’s free self-learning platform at finlearnacademy.sg. Mr Tan recommends the Financial Habits And Behaviour course, as well as Building Financial Resilience.

His parting advice: “Don’t overwhelm yourself with long term financial worries – start by cultivating good money habits. Most importantly, after setting your personal goals, you need to take action!”

Article repurpose from The Straits Times by Gabriel Ramsey Ranasinghe