Identify: Understand Your Financial Patterns
Explore how your beliefs, habits, and emotions shape the way you make financial choices.
Financial wellness starts with awareness. This section helps you uncover the emotional and behavioral factors that influence how you spend, save, and plan, and build strategies to help you achieve your goals.
Which describes your relationship with money most accurately?
Security
Money helps you feel safe, secure, and in control
Spontaneous
Money encourages you to enjoy the moment
Status
Money helps you present a positive image
Carefree
Money isn't a priority, you just let life happen
Giving
Money helps you feel good by giving to others
Planning
Money helps you achieve your goals
Learn more about your money personality and strategies to build your financial wellness
Why this matters
Understanding your money mindset builds self-awareness and reduces shame. Financial wellness starts with recognizing where you are, not where you think you “should” be.
Additional Resources and Support
University Resources
- CashCourse Mindful Spending Worksheet: Complete this downloadable worksheet to explore some of the motivations behind your purchases.
- Drop-in Peer Financial Coaching: Sign up for a session with a peer financial coach to explore tips and resources that are tailored to your financial needs.
Other Resources
- Financial Well-being Assessment: Measure your current financial well-being and learn steps you can take to improve it with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's financial well-being assessment.
- Free Online Behavioral Economics Course: Learn the principles of behavioral and how behavior influences spending.
- Money Timeline & Journal: Guided worksheet to help you explore how past experiences, feelings, and beliefs that influence your financial behaviors.