A New Money Behavior Quiz

Abstract

This study reports on the development of a new questionnaire to measure money behaviors devised by the Financial Times (London). In all, 402 participants from diverse backgrounds, who were recruited online, completed the 29-item questionnaire. Six a priori money types were identified by financial experts, who did not know the salient psychological literature. The internal reliability of the factors was modest and there was some evidence of sex differences. Exploratory factor analyses failed to confirm the six-factor model, but did provide an alternative and interpretable typology. Further step-wise regression analysis showed the simple question: “Are you a spender or a saver?” was strongly related to almost every factor. Gender, age, and self-perceived wealth were also consistently correlated with the money types. Implications and limitations are discussed.