The way you act with money goes a long way toward defining your lifestyle. Recognizing your financial strengths, weaknesses and tendencies can help you to make smarter choices, identify blind spots and improve your sense of control over money matters.

Intuitive Bridge identifies these four money personality types:

* Money Martyrs. They’re generous to a fault, have trouble accepting assistance and don’t place much of a value on themselves. They can help themselves by being more assertive when negotiating wages and paying themselves before they help others.

* Money Burners. These free spenders think they’re entitled to everything that catches their eye and don’t realize where their money goes. They can counteract their impulses by instituting a strict budget that allows for plenty of discretionary buys.

* Money Ostriches. They stick their heads in the sand, pretending their financial woes don’t exist until their problems have grown so much that they’ve reached disaster levels. Ostriches need to force themselves to survey their financial landscape and take action.

* Money Freaks. Freaks are so focused on the intricacies of their finances that they fail to enjoy the benefits of their responsible behavior. This type of person tends to live a scrimping, miserable existence before leaving a ton of money to their heirs. Freaks need to detach, break some rules and find a way to enjoy doing so.

The post names a fifth type, the generally perfect Money Maven, who is responsible with money but immune to any of the above tendencies. I’m not sure such a type exists. I think most people see themselves as Money Mavens but they’re actually closer to one of the other four types. To find out which money personality is yours, forget about your own opinion and ask someone who knows you well.

How You Do Money is How You Do Everything: The 5 Money Patterns [Intuitive Bridge via Budgets Are Sexy]

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