--- title: 'The Secret to Saving More Money Has to Do With Your Personality: Study' description: New research indicates that, across the income spectrum, people save more money when their goals match their personality traits. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 497 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Personal Finance - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2023-03-01T21:11:46.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T14:37:16.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - News word_count: 462 canonical: https://money.com/save-more-money-personality/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Collage of investing / personality images](https://img.money.com/2023/03/News-Investing-personality.jpg) Stashing away cash is no easy feat — you have to overcome the psychological hurdle of sacrificing pleasure now in order to help your future self. Luckily, new research shows that there *is* a way to get better at [saving money](https://money.com/how-to-save-money/). Analysts at Columbia University and the University of Colorado at Boulder recently discovered that people save more when their goals match their personality traits. ## What the research says The researchers set out to see whether it’s easier for folks to save money when their goals are aligned with their dominant personality traits. Their [report](https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-amp0001128.pdf), published this week in the journal *American Psychologist*, specifically looked at the “Big Five” personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The findings are based on a massive two-part study. - The first experiment analyzed savings data from nearly 2,500 U.K. participants. Their savings goals — which were broken down into 16 categories, including [saving for retirement](https://money.com/saving-retirement-harder/), for a [rainy day](https://money.com/how-big-rainy-day-savings-account/), for a [down payment on a home](https://money.com/5-ways-to-afford-down-payment/) or "for no particular reason" — were compared to their Big Five personality traits. The results showed that those who set personality-aligned goals for themselves saved more money across the board. - “For example, individuals high on the personality trait agreeableness are characterized by their pro-social desire to help others,” the researchers wrote, “and therefore, saving money to help provide for family members may be more gratifying and motivating for them.” - The second part of the study included more than 6,000 low-income U.S. participants who were taking part in a $100 savings challenge through the nonprofit app SaverLife. Researchers divided participants into five groups and sent separate motivational emails to four of those groups (and no emails to one of the groups). - Of the five groups, the one that received motivational emails matched to their personality had the highest success rate by a notable margin — with 11.4% meeting the $100 savings challenge. - They were also 3.57 times more likely to meet their savings goal than those in the control group. Overall, study participants with goals already aligned with their personalities saved more money across the income spectrum — and were able to meet new [savings goals](https://money.com/get-good-with-money-savings-strategy/) when motivational reminders were tailored to their characteristics. ## The takeaway People want to save money, but existing [research has shown](https://hbr.org/2011/01/how-to-keep-those) that desire alone is often not enough. Strategies such as writing down your goal, automating your savings or telling friends and family about it can help keep you on track. But now we know the type of savings goal — as well as how the goal is framed in relation to your personality — can be just as important. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/save-more-money-personality/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Saving Money", "item": "https://money.com/saving-money/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Secret to Saving More Money Has to Do With Your Personality: Study" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/save-more-money-personality/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/save-more-money-personality/", "name": "The Secret to Saving More Money Has to Do With Your Personality: Study", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-03-01T21:11:46.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/save-more-money-personality/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/save-more-money-personality/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T14:37:16.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Secret to Saving More Money Has to Do With Your Personality: Study", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/03/News-Investing-personality.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Investing-personality" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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