Short-term Strategists – 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 financial personality type could 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 dive into the Short-term Strategist financial personality type. If you’re a Short-term Strategist, you’re likely a careful planner who prioritizes short-term financial gains over long-term budgeting. And that habit is likely especially true any time your financial situation changes. Generally, though, your plans tend to be a bit broader in nature, and you prefer to leave a few details out to be filled in at a later time.
Interested in taking the official, validated MBTI assessment? Through MBTIonline, you can:
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Let’s see what other traits Short-term Strategists 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 Short-term Strategists
As a Short-term Strategist, you have a lot of strengths when it comes to your finances. You’re a careful planner when it comes to your finances and probably at least somewhat interested in financial matters (it’s likely what brought you to this quiz!). Let’s go over some of the assets (see, what we did there?) of your financial personality.
Confidence is Key
You Short-term Strategists are confident in your financial abilities. Still, you often like to keep your options open before making a final decision, and like giving yourself plenty of time for research (we get that!).
Financial Flexibility
As a Short-term Strategist, flexibility is one of your top financial strengths. In this context, that means you’re more willing to switch up your plans if necessary, especially if/when your financial situation changes.
You also tend to focus your planning efforts on short-term gains, thinking about what you want tomorrow, versus outlining steps for long-term goals, such as retirement.
Interested and Engaged
As a Short-term Strategist, you have some interest in tracking your financial data over time. You want to be knowledgeable when it comes to financial topics, and may even enjoy the process of educating yourself on money matters. That being said, you may not need to dive in as deeply into every topic.
And if keeping tabs on your finances starts to feel like a full-time job, it might be worth checking out Marcus Insights: free financial tools & trackers on the Marcus app and on marcus.com. You can link your saving, spending, and investing accounts to be able to track your cash flow, visualize your spending by category and better understand your money habits – with just a few taps and swipes.
For Short-term Strategists in particular, being able to view your long-term financial accounts (i.e., saving, investment, retirement and loan accounts) alongside day-to-day accounts like checking could help give you a picture of both your short- and long-term finances.
Marcus Insights’ smart tools and trackers are designed to help you see your money clearly and make empowered financial decisions.
Expected Financial Challenges of Short-term Strategists
Every financial personality type has a few blind spots. Yup, even you, confident-and-engaged Short-term Strategists! Here’s what some of your trouble areas are and how you can begin to address them.
Over-evaluating and Missed Opportunities
Because you Short-term Strategists often want to do just a little bit more research, you may end up missing important deadlines. Particularly in situations where a quick decision is needed, your desire to evaluate all of your options means you might miss out on opportunities.
Does that sound familiar? To nudge decisions along, you could try creating a timeline for yourself to stick to in order to achieve a particular goal. Some tasks can even be automated.
Let’s say you’re asking yourself, “How much should I save this month?” In that case, you could set up auto-withdrawals from your checking to savings account. That way, you’re taking action and at least putting away something. Not to mention, you’re also tackling planning for the long-term (nice!) which, as we mentioned earlier, you may shy away from.
Tendency to Overanalyze
As a Short-term Strategist, you may find yourself mulling over things for too long, trying to research and play out all the different possible scenarios in your head. You might end up overanalyzing and second-guessing decisions when it comes to your finances.
In cases where you’re going back and forth, it might be helpful to seek the advice of a financial advisor. Even though Short-term Strategists tend to be confident and have a nice well of financial knowledge to draw from, working through a decision with a professional can help you choose what you want to do, sooner. Plus, a financial advisor could help out with some of the research efforts and they can help fill you in on financial information you may not be sure about.
Non-Committal Notions
Being a Short-term Strategist, you may be challenged to stick with one financial plan or tactic. You prefer to try various strategies and keep your options open (commitment-phobia is real) as you approach deadlines.
As we mentioned earlier, flexibility can be a strength for you. But this trait could also limit your ability to see any one strategy through to completion. This is another area where it might be helpful to consult a financial advisor, even if it’s just once in a while. They can help you commit to a decision and even offer advice about when it might be a good idea to wait instead.
Remember, when it comes to figuring out our financial lives, knowledge is power! With that in mind, you Short-term Strategists may find the following resources beneficial while organizing your financial lives and remaining confident in both your short and long-term plans.
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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.
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