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Laid Back Balancers – Strengths, Challenges and Leveling Up Your Personal Finance Game

January 26, 2021

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Created in collaboration with The Myers-Briggs Company, an authority on personality research and publisher of the MBTI® assessment, Marcus by Goldman Sachs has created a Financial Personality Quiz, to help you uncover your financial personality.

Whether we’re talking everyday spending or retirement planning, everyone manages their finances differently. And knowing your personality type can help you better utilize strengths and understand blind spots about how you approach financial management.

The quiz, co-created by Marcus by Goldman Sachs and The Myers-Briggs Company, highlights four different financial personality types: Confident Money Manager, Short-term Strategist, Value-Based Planner and Laid-Back Balancer.

Ahead, we’ll be doing a deep dive into the Laid-Back Balancer financial personality type. As the name suggests, Laid-Back Balancers are the most laissez-faire of the personality types, and money matters may come second (or third or fourth) to other areas of your life. If you fall into this category, you may also tend to make financial decisions based on personal values and see money as a tool that could be used beyond accruing wealth.

Interested in taking the official, validated MBTI assessment? Through MBTIonline, you can:

discover self-awareness
improve relationships and communication
find your ideal career with predicted career satisfaction
host a team development session and more!

Note, payment is required to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® and access courses and resources.

Let’s see what other traits Laid-Back Balancers tend to have, as well as what challenges you may face. And of course, we’ll offer some possible solutions that could help you tackle your blind spots!

Expected Financial Strengths of Laid-Back Balancers

Laid-Back Balancers tend to let your heart take the lead when it comes to money matters, with personal values playing a part in the decisions you make about your finances. Let’s go over some of the other assets (see, what we did there?) of your financial personality.

Relaxed Approach to Money

As a Laid-Back Balancer, you like to have a hand in managing your money, including having some interest in different strategies and financial tactics.

However, personal finance is not quite at the top of your to-do list, as it may be for other personality types. Meaning, you’re probably not going to give up coffee with a friend on Saturday morning to go through your bank statements. You also may not be quite as interested in the nitty-gritty daily management of money as the other financial personality types.

You may not follow a monthly budget, for example, because it could feel too restricting. That’s all to say that you’re interested in your personal finances to a point, but you’re likely more interested in money as a tool you can use, rather than accruing wealth just for the sake of accruing wealth.

Confidence (to an extent)

While your certainty on financial matters isn’t as strong as other financial personalities, you still tend to have confidence in your financial abilities. Though, you generally find long-term financial consideration less important than other aspects of your life.

Do-Gooder

You Laid-Back Balancers see money—and wealth in general—as a tool and tend to make decisions based on your personal values. For example, you might dedicate a nice chunk of your monthly income to charities or other organizations.

Expected Financial Challenges of Laid-Back Balancers

Every financial personality has a few blind spots. Yes, even you, confident and charitable Laid-Back Balancers! Here are some of the potential challenges you may come across:

Daily Disinterest

This probably won’t shock you, but one challenge you likely encounter as a Laid-Back Balancer is lower levels of interest in the small(er) details of money management compared to other personality types. (This goes along with the whole “laid-back” part of your personality!)

Like we mentioned earlier, while you like having a hand in managing your own money, money management over time may not really interest you. Which we get! Not everyone wants to be their own full time money-manager.

If that’s the case, it might be worth working with a financial advisor. They can keep tabs on all the stuff you prefer to gloss over like budgeting or savings goals. They can also make sure you’re not overlooking any important money considerations, like having a solid emergency fund or socking away enough for retirement.

Marcus Insights’ smart tools and trackers are designed to help you see your money clearly and make empowered financial decisions.

Learn More

Additionally, since Laid-Back Balancers sometimes have difficulty expressing their personal values, it might be worth finding someone who can help you figure out how to use your money to support the causes that matter to you.

You might also want to check out Marcus Insights, a free set of financial tools and trackers available on the Marcus app and marcus.com. Marcus Insights’ tools and trackers can help you optimize your money. You can track your cash flow, visualize your spending and better understand your habits. For Laid-Back Balancers, these easy-to-use tools can be particularly appealing since you’re not as interested in daily tracking and management of your finances but still want to be organized.

Missing Pieces

Broadly speaking, as a Laid-Back Balancer you like to keep tabs on what’s going on with your money, but you may not be up-to-date on all things personal finance. You also might get overwhelmed by the seeming complexity of money management.

If that resonates with you, don’t worry! This is a challenge you can work to overcome. You might start by doing some research about the topic in consideration (we have some good resources on Marcus.com). You can also check out the monthly snapshots from Marcus Insights — it can give you a glimpse of what you’ve earned, saved, spent and invested in the past months and help to make money management less overwhelming.

Making Decisions Too Late

As a Laid-Back Balancer, you might struggle with making decisions in a timely manner. This is likely due to you wanting ample time to research and make your decision.

We’re all for informed decisions (obviously). But waiting too long in certain cases can lead you to miss out on possible financial opportunities. What can help? For one, try setting deadlines. Working with a firm timeframe can nudge you to take action.

You can also look into automating certain tasks, like paying credit card bills. You could even set up auto-withdrawals from your checking to savings account to get started on that savings goal. This way, you don’t have to think about it every month but you’ll still be putting away something for the long-term (nice!).

Remember, when it comes to figuring out our financial lives, we’re in this together! With that in mind, Laid-Back Balancers may find the following resources beneficial when organizing your financial lives:

And if you’re interested in learning more about personality type? Click here to receive the free Ultimate Guide to Extraversion and Introversion eBook from The Myers-Briggs Company.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individualized professional advice. Individuals should consult their own tax advisor for matters specific to their own taxes and nothing communicated to you herein should be considered tax advice. This article was prepared by and approved by Marcus by Goldman Sachs, but does not reflect the institutional opinions of Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. or any of their affiliates, subsidiaries or division. Goldman Sachs Bank USA does not provide any financial, economic, legal, accounting, tax or other recommendation in this article. Information and opinions expressed in this article are as of the date of this material only and subject to change without notice. Information contained in this article does not constitute the provision of investment advice by Goldman Sachs Bank USA or any its affiliates. Neither Goldman Sachs Bank USA nor any of its affiliates makes any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or any information contained in this document and any liability therefore is expressly disclaimed.