The Accountant
What:
The Accountant deals with financial stress by counting every penny. You have spreadsheets for your spreadsheets. You knows when any number in your net worth changes. For some people this is a fun way to live - but it can get too consuming and can be a way to try to exert control over stress in an unhealthy way. It can also lead to valuing money over relationships or opportunities.
Trademarks:
Did I mention spreadsheets? Finance Apps, Reddit Forums, Alerts, A one year, five year and ten year plan. A mood that goes up and down with your bank account or the market.
Pitfalls:
The pitfalls of The Accountant are if your tracking becomes too much, your mood is tied to your net worth or the market or how close you are to your goals this week. Thumb pain from constant refreshing on your investing apps and bank accounts, An inability to sleep or be present with others because you are obsessing over how much this costs/ how your money is doing, relationships that suffer because whimsy, fun or just unplanned spending cannot be tolerated.
How To Work With It:
Create A F-It Fund:
Like a Fun Fund - but a bit different - because you probably have a fund for every hobby. This is a way to experience the fun of unplanned spending or extravagance or spontaneity within a limit that still feels safe to you. Give yourself a bit of money each month to not really care about.
Schedule Your Nerd Outs:
If you are glued to the ups and downs of your money - schedule when you have check ins. Sometimes constant monitoring can feel like control when it is actually crazy-making. So pick a few times a week to check in or a certain time every day and schedule monthly or quarterly sessions with your long term strategies (alone or with your significant other) to give quality attention to your money. This can help you have necessary conversations instead of just doing a bit of freaking out every day.
Create Some Process Goals:
The accountant probably has some target goals (debt paid off by this date, this amount of savings by age 40 etc. ) but it can also be helpful to create process goals and not outcome goals. So shift to thinking about your quality of life, how you feel about money and consider thinking about changing the metrics you use to be about progress and not perfection.
