Have your ever stopped to think about how you view the role of money in your life? We all have different attitudes about the importance of money, and those attitudes play a huge role in determining how we manage our finances.

It might sound kind of touchy-feely to sit down and think about your relationship with money, but doing so is an exercise that you may find very enlightening. In this article, we’ll look at four basic attitudes that many people hold when they consider the importance of money and financial control. It may be helpful if you take a second to consider whether any of these attitudes and beliefs resonate with you.

Money as the security blanket
How do you view the role of money in your life? If the first words that come to mind are “security,” “protection,” or “safety net,” then you probably think the role of money is to guard against financial chaos and maintain your general well-being. Most people who hold this attitude about the importance of money are savers, choosing to squirrel away as much cash as possible and live frugally.

Money as the fairy godmother
But not everyone’s a saver. Some people think of money as a magic fairy godmother, a force that makes dreams come true. People who tend to equate money with wish fulfillment don’t place much importance on stock piling cash in a savings account; they have more of a ”you can’t take it with you” attitude. They see the role of money as allowing them to live life to the fullest.

Money as the entourage
People who equate money with status and success are also likely to be spenders — BIG spenders. For many people, the role of money is to make us look good and feel confident, comfortable, and happy by association. For these people, money is like a rock star’s entourage; it’s something to be greatly desired because it strokes your ego.

Money as the pizza delivery guy
For others, money isn’t about ego — it’s simply about getting by. For those people, the role of money in life is like the pizza delivery guy: it shows up just in the nick of time and provides the food they were so desperately hungry for. People who relate to this money scenario may not feel they are in financial control and may worry about money availability between paychecks.

A little from column A, a little from column B
When you understand how you view the role of money in your life, you can use those attitudes to discover which beliefs are affecting your money control in a positive way and which ones are destructive. If, for example, you think of money as your entourage, you may feel like you’re happy now, but might have anxiety about affordable living in retirement. From this example, you can see that each money attitude we’ve mentioned has its benefits and drawbacks. 

And you may not relate 100 percent to any of these categories, but it’s likely that something from each may have struck a chord with you. People tend to find that their attitudes about the role of money change depending on the situations they find themselves in over time. 

Separate how you feel about money from how you spend it
The point of taking stock of the way you view money is to help you discover the way you feel about finances as opposed to the way you manage money. When you tune into your feelings, an understanding and awareness of those feelings can help you set new financial goals to make your money work better for you.