If you’re a client of Dr. Kathleen Gurney, a psychologist specializing in money-related issues, she’d advise you to avoid situations that make you feel "poor", have coffee with those you want to emulate, and never leave home without a notebook.
According to Dr. Gurney, these are just some of the strategies to figuring out your money personality – a hunter, high-roller, producer, to list a few - and becoming money conscious, key if you’re looking to get out of debt.
Our average household debt hit new records last year - $96,000, according to a recent study. Roughly 30 per cent of this total is consumer debt. If we’re maxing ourselves out, and in many cases doing it mindlessly, it could only help to tap into a few of Dr. Gurney’s suggested strategies.
1. Create a Personality Balance Sheet.
Dr. Gurney suggests first assessing your personality as you would a balance sheet. Run through your traits and list them either as assets or liabilities. When you have your strengths and weaknesses staring back at you, you can see what is working for you and what isn’t. This is also a great exercise for couples who can see strengths and weaknesses of one another and play to those.
2. Eliminate any decisions requiring willpower.
If you were trying to lose weight, it wouldn’t be wise to keep chocolate-chunk cookies in the house - too tempting. Same logic applies to trying to get out of debt. If it requires any amount of discipline, or tempts you in the slightest, then get rid of it. Take the credit card out of your wallet, avoid the mall all together, have friends for potlucks rather than eating out.
