FAQs

There’s no formal training or certification required to use Money Habitudes or to guide others through it. The program is very intuitive and adaptable.

That said, if you’re a professional planning to use Money Habitudes with clients, our certification process will help you utilise the cards more effectively within your practice. 

You can purchase Money Habitudes cards in bulk and they can be branded with your logo on the box. These are great for internal use at staff training and workshops, or external use as promotional material, gifts to clients, or as a donation to support non-profit programs in your community.

Yes. One person can only use each deck at a time, but the cards are durable and can be used as many times as you wish over time.

Yes. To get the most the most accurate information and the most value from the activity, each person needs to sort all of the cards in one box. When a couple is doing the cards, each person should have a deck. This way, each person can sort the cards simultaneously and look at their results at the same time. This provides the easiest and most effective way to begin the money conversation.

Because sorting the Money Habitudes cards is an activity that people do on their own, groups and classes can falter when only part of the group can play at a time and others have to wait. The whole process tends to run more smoothly when everyone can play at the same time and discuss the results as a group.

However, the Guide for Professionals offers suggestions of other activities that can be used with large and small groups when you don’t have enough decks of cards for each participant to have his or her own.

Money Habitudes isn’t intended to serve as a psychological or financial instrument with which to diagnose individuals or to dictate a course of action. Nonetheless, evaluations of Money Habitudes by organizations using the product with diverse groups report that clients overwhelmingly report that their results are accurate and insightful.

The six Money Habitudes categories that we use to describe people’s attitudes and habits around money are based on the most common patterns that were found in research in psychology, finance, addiction and behavioral economics at the time Money Habitudes was developed. Since then, research in the new field of neurofinance has affirmed and reinforced these interpretations.

While the game was being developed, Money Habitudes cards were tested among multiple focus groups including people of different ages, financial means, and education. They were also revised based on feedback from 32 professionals throughout the US, representing a wide range of financial professionals, therapists, human resource staff, and educators. They have been reviewed and used in many different cultures around the globe. Money Habitudes was revised in 2014 based on feedback from Utah State University research into the validity of the statements used in the product and feedback from the field. The latest version was also edited to ensure that the text was at a fifth-grade reading level, to ensure that people of all ages and reading levels could participate.

While individuals can use Money Habitudes on their own, the program is primarily used by a wide variety of professionals for client work, workshops and group activities, classes, self-assessment, staff training and more.

This includes financial advisors and educators, relationship counsellors and facilitators, teachers and youth leaders, therapists, social workers, coaches, and institutions such as companies and universities.

Here are some ways professionals use Money Habitudes:

• Initiate a meaningful way to talk about money between a professional and his or her clients, without needing to ask probing, personal questions.
• Gain insight on how to successfully approach a client by identifying triggers that will be relevant or motivating to develop and stick to a financial plan.
• Make the connection between a client’s emotional relationship with money and how it may be affecting other life issues such as career, relationships, and self-esteem.
• Icebreaker activity for classes or workshops.
• Training activity for institutions to help advisors or other consumer-facing professionals build sensitivity by better understanding their own and others’ money personalities.

A  Habitude —a combination of habits and attitudes—describes the ingrained thoughts, feelings and behaviors that influence our decisions and actions. Money Habitudes helps people have the money talk by helping them discover and explore their subconscious motives and biases.

At the most basic level, Money Habitudes is a card game. One is presented with 54 different statements about money (for example: “When I go shopping, I have to buy something” or “I will spend a lot of time and energy to get a better deal”).

You decide whether you agree or disagree with each statement by sorting the cards into three piles:

1. That’s me
2. Sometimes, it depends
3. That’s not me

The pattern of answers reveals each person’s unique Money Habitudes personality profile. From there, Money Habitudes provides advantages and challenges for each of the Habitudes categories, as well as areas for growth, and suggested discussion topics. Money Habitudes helps people not just by providing instant insights about their own money personalities but also by opening up a frank and constructive conversation about money, their beliefs, and how those beliefs affect their lives and their finances.

For more details on exactly how the game is played, check out How to Play.

Money Habitudes is an activity designed to help people have the money talk and understand their underlying financial biases and motivations.

The whole point is to make money fun so people can relax and engage more quickly. Money Habitudes was written with language that is non-judgmental, lacks jargon, and is free of gender bias. There are no right or wrong responses, so there are no winners or losers. In addition to the game itself, Money Habitudes comes with suggested conversation starters and activities.

The goal is to get people talking openly about money, to discover their own underlying habits and attitudes about money and gain insights into how these influence financial, relationship, career, and personal decisions.