The Four Money Personalities I See in High Earners

How a person handles their money says a lot about who they are, what they believe in, and their overall approach to life. 

I manage money for high earners and multi-millionaires. I see four consistent money “archetypes” across this group:

• The Compounder
• The Cruiser
• The Spender
• The Independent

There is no right or wrong archeteype. You can be happy or miserable regardless of which type you fall into. The key is being aware which one you are and managing your life and finances in a way that aligns with the personality.

For example, the generic financial advice to get a job and then save 10% a year until 65 works well for a Cruiser but will feel heavily restrictive and out of alignment with an Independent. 

People can have aspects of multiple archetypes, but there is usually a dominant one that drives life and financial decisions. 

Let’s get into each.

The Compounder

Compounders view money as a game to be beaten. The highest score at the end wins. They’re constantly thinking about investing, starting new businesses, etc. It doesn’t matter if they have $3m or $20m in assets. Their goal is to at least 10x whatever it is they have now (and then 10x again after that).

The purpose of money is to get more money. 

A lot of very successful business owners and entrepreneurs are in this group. Done well, it leads to a life of heavy intellectual engagement and a prominent role in the community creating jobs and building the local economy. Taken to extremes you end up with Ebenezer Scrooge. You build a huge cash pile but end up having no one to share it with. You prioritized the money over relationships with your kids, friends, or your community.

Financial strategies developed for this group have a heavier weighting towards business management, tax and estate planning, and unique investment access. 

The Cruiser

These are the people where money seems to have no intrinsic value outside of supporting daily living needs. These are the millionaires you read about in popular financial media who still go to their 9-5 jobs, drive a Toyota and shop at Costco. 

Money is a byproduct of living.

They’re generally content with what they’re already doing in work and life and can’t envision doing something else. So they keep going down the same path year after year. Work a reasonable amount at job they mostly enjoy. Spend quality time with family and friends outside of work. Their brokerage and retirement accounts grow larger every year but they barely notice. 

They don’t think about money that often and are generally content with what they have. 

This is where the standard financial playbook works well. Get a good job you like and stay till 65+. Contribute to your 401k along the way, don’t take on too much debt, and have a simple estate plan in place.

The risk with this group is their money ends up creating problems down the line for other people. Not everyone is passive when it comes to money. Their children could end up fighting over the way the state distributes everything. Or they pass away and their husband gets remarried and a significant portion of the estate ends up going to the new wife’s adult children instead of their biological children.  

The Spender

These are the people who see money as something to be enjoyed. You can’t take it with you, so spend it while you’re alive. 

This doesn’t always mean buying extravagant things for themselves. The money can go to helping loved ones like covering the down payment for their children’s first house or donating to causes they believe in.

Money is what enables the good life.

But we all know the extreme versions of this. The spendthrift who takes on too much debt to fund a life they can’t afford and ends up broke or working well past 70 to support themselves.

I don’t see this version too often in my practice. Most of the people I work with are self-made through years of disciplined saving and investing rather than inheriting sudden windfalls. The muscles to build and maintain wealth have been well-established. 

Budgeting and asset bucketing plays a bigger role for Spenders than other archetypes. They often need a bit of help managing the cash inflows and outflows in a way that maximizes life enjoyment while mitigating the risks of running out of funds.

The Independent

The final group are the ones that treat money as an employee. They want their money to work for them and typically have a goal of building up their portfoio to support their desired lifestyle in perpetuity.

Money is infrastructure to this group.

These are the people who like to build passive income, think a lot about financial independence, and ultimately want to retire from the “have to work for money” world in order to spend their time pursuing their passions and have control over their time.

If you push too hard here you get the extreme versions of FIRE. 

People who claim money isn’t important, but the only thing they think or talk about is the marginal cost of everything and how to reduce it. Their entire life and personality ends up being about money. Life gets put on hold while they build up their nest egg. They miss out on lots of experiences and potential friendships along the way due to their excessive frugality.

Financial strategies for this group focus heavily on tax / fee optimization, cashflow management, and budgeting.

I’m 80% Independent and 20% Compounder

The interesting thing is about all these groups is that most people don’t know which they’re going to fall into until they’ve started building their wealth. 

I used to think I was primarily a Compounder. That the point of money was to beget more money. I wanted to have the most of it among my family and friends.

But once I started earning enough to start building up my savings and investments I realized I was actually much more of an Independent. It gradually became more important to me to be able to balance work, life, and family on my terms rather than getting a high score.

I started aligning my financial goals to creating a portfolio that could support our living expenses, giving myself the freedom to build a financial advisory practice the way I wanted to without having to sacrifice my vision for the sake of rapidly building revenue.

Which are you? If you’re not sure, feel free to reach out and I can help you figure out your money personality and how best to align your life and finances to who you are.

If you liked this post, you might also want to check out:

• The Time Value of Your Life
• Can You Afford to Take a Pay Cut for a Job You Love?
• What Worked: 9 Things That Made Me Financially Independent Before 40

Nathan
Founder & Lead Advisor
[email protected]

Kangpan & Co. is a flat-fee financial advisory firm specializing in helping mid-career professionals navigate the career, family, and financial tradeoffs that come with this stage of life. This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult a licensed advisor for help with your individual situation. Employees and clients of Kangpan & Co. may hold positions discussed in our content. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.