“I don’t really ‘do’ budgets. Too restrictive."

The only thing we love more than money is avoiding it.

We each have a unique way we self-sabotage our finances, but I’ve found we generally fall into 1 of 6 buckets.

This Money Personality series will explore each one. We’ll cover:

• What each personality is like

• How it’s impacted by its money foundation

• Actions to take to fight its worst money habits

This week, let’s meet The Runner.

This week, meet:

➡️ The Runner
➡️ The Foundation
➡️ The Way Out
➡️ Budget Bites

The Runner

Type: The Runner

Money Philosophy: Active Running

The Runner refuses to restrict. To avoid either burying themselves in debt or, worse, regulating their spending, they attempt to make as much money as possible. If you work all the time and make a ton of money, you can just hope all the bills will figure themselves out, right?

What you’ll catch the Runner saying:

• “Dinner’s on me.”

• “It doesn’t really matter how much it costs.”

• “No, I don’t really know how much I made last month. Enough, I guess!”

• “Eh… I don’t want to deal with this.”

• “It’s alright, I’ll just work some overtime.”

The foundation

Along with the personalities, there are also 6 Money Foundations.

Your money foundation is what you saw happen with money in your family as a kid — and more importantly, how that’s shaped you as an adult.

The thing is, the 6 personalities don’t each have a corresponding foundation.

Your foundation isn’t a prescription for your type — you grew up THIS way, so you were bound to turn out THAT way as an adult.

But it’s more like understanding a motivation — you grew up this way, and that informs why you turned out the way you did.

So let’s look at the 6 Money Foundations AND how a Runner could spring from each one.

Your foundation finishes the sentence:

Growing up, money was…

1. Fun, because we had plenty.

   The Runner got used to a life with “enough” money, so they feel they have to keep it up.

2. Scarce, because we didn’t have a lot.

   The Runner grew up with a lot of restrictions based on money, so they’ve vowed to not live that life as an adult too.

3. Elusive, because my family was bad with it.

   The Runner didn’t have a great model for money, so all they really know is they never want to hit the bottom of the barrel.

4. Stressful, because it caused a lot of fights.

   The Runner saw money as a source of conflict, but they’ve learned as long as you have ENOUGH of it, what is there to fight about?

5. Encouraged, it was a game to be played, a reward to be won.

   If money was a game, the Runner wanted to WIN. How you spend it matters less than how MUCH you get.

6. I don’t know. We didn’t talk about it.

   The Runner never heard money discussed, so they don’t care to discuss it.

The way out

As a Runner, you don’t want to restrict. You want to focus on “having enough,” not on cutting back.

So how does the Runner fight this tendency?

Values.

The Runner’s values are broad.

“I value being able to buy whatever I need or want without worrying about it.”

But what happens when you narrow down those values?

You start to learn that you don’t REALLY want everything you “want.”

We spend money all the time on things we don’t care about — takeout meals, kitchen gadgets we use once, jewelry we never wear.

This is the path toward ending the Runner’s struggle: the more they can identify true WANTS, the more they can also identify non-wants. Then tracking & cutting costs suddenly becomes freeing, rather than restrictive.

Action: When a Runner starts expense tracking, two things are vital:

1. They’re EXPENSE TRACKING. Not budgeting. A budget is going to feel restrictive and useless. The first step is awareness, not control.

2. When expense tracking, identify a priority level to each purchase. I use the labels “essential,” “have to have,” “nice to have,” and “shouldn’t have.”

Take the time to look at what you’re spending on.

You’ll be surprised about what truly doesn’t matter to you.

Budget Bites

💸 Runner or not: Hopefully you’re not this bad with money?

🤖 AI: What’s the opposite of artificial intelligence?

🍌 Groceries: Visualizing how much 2 people bought in 5 years

🔗 Capitalism: A lesson to radicalize us all

“Wait, I need MORE”

A couple things happening in the Meet Your Money world:

• More budget breakdowns and real talk on finances here on the newsletter & on socials. Completely free, always.

• Budget Club. Twice monthly. Currently at my house. With my friends. You’re not invited. (I hope to make this a recurring, free, online event soon… Stay tuned!)

• And coming soon — templates and 1:1 consulting time for those who need a little extra nudge.