There are five major financial personalities: investors, savers, shoppers, debtors and big spenders. Often, most people fall into several of these categories or none. A lot of financial experts believe knowing your Spending Triggers will enable you to determine your financial personality. Finding out your spending triggers will not only help in determining your financial personality, but it will also help you improve your financial behaviour.

The first step to controlling your spending triggers is to identify them. Here are some common spending triggers:

Spending Trigger 1: I deserve it…

Spending triggers can come masked behind a simple thought process; I deserve it. Thoughts like ‘I do everything for everyone. I should do something for myself’ or ‘I worked extra hard this week. I should treat myself to a good meal in a restaurant.’

Spending Trigger 2: Sales start soon! Hurry!

Marketers and advertisers know that creating a sense of urgency can seal a sale. A lot of people’s spending trigger fall under this category, especially people who often do not know what to buy. Another similar one is ‘for a limited time only’ as creating a sense of scarcity is a great way to sell.

Related: Effective Ways to manage Household Budget

You find out that you tend to buy stuff on sale not because you need them but because you do not want to miss out on a great deal. Major spending trigger!

Everyone is doing it!

This spending trigger can also be described as living social media life. Sometimes we want to do stuff because someone on Facebook or Instagram is doing it.

Sometimes you go through your Facebook feed, and you see that a friend is holidaying in Hawaii and then all of a sudden you want to go on a holiday. Another example is seeing a group of friends doing a home makeover, and you all of a sudden want a makeover for your home. Social media could be your spending trigger.

Now spending triggers are not necessarily a bad thing IF you can control it. Here are some ways to control spending triggers;

A lot of triggers are closely related to your emotions. The key to tackling your trigger could be to identify the emotional state that causes your overspending. When you know this, you can take steps to change the emotions or your response to it.

Additionally, you can learn to indulge for less. Instead of overspending on stuff like manicure and facials, you could learn to go the DIY way.

Furthermore, you could just discipline yourself and not spend money at all. With time and discipline, the struggle to spend in a particular manner just goes away.

The holiday season is around the corner and you’ll definitely need to save money to get a little something for yourself. Now would be a good time to start identifying and combatting your spending triggers.

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