The quiz, based on a survey of 500 people by Auckland University of Technology finance researchers, identifies five types of money personality among New Zealanders.

Those who fall into three of the categories – ‘enterprisers’, ‘realists’ and ‘minimalists’ – are served, among other topics, articles on financial advice and what financial advisers do.

The other two personality types ‘socialites’ and ‘contemporaries’ and ‘realists’ receive information on topics such as goal-setting, saving and budgeting.

The research focused on traits that give insight into financial behaviours, such as money management skills, spending and saving perceptions, and investing attitudes.

Of the groups most likely to seek or use financial advisers, the enterprisers (28.6%) are future oriented, enjoy looking after their finances and are proud of being money-savvy. Their top goal is to maximise savings and make a return on investments.

The minimalists (33.7%) are conservative with risk, naturally frugal, and confident with their saving ability and money management. They tend to save for a shorter-term goal.

The realists (7.9%) are very conservative with risk and value money highly but are not confident with money handling. The most introverted group, realists monitor their finances but do not enjoy money management. Their goals tend to be shorter-term savings and building financial resilience.

Enterprisers, minimalists and realists tend to be older than socialites and contemporaries.

Socialites (19.5%) enjoy managing money and taking financial risks, having nice things and sharing their wealth with others. These are our most outgoing group with goals that trend toward shorter–rather than longer-term objectives.

Contemporaries (10.4%) tend to identify themselves as spenders, engage in impulsive emotional spending, and are generous even when they cannot afford to be. This group does not enjoy managing money, preferring to ‘live for today’, but may be facing financial hardship –building financial resilience is their goal.

The research found that personality traits can play a key role in determining a person’s financial behaviours and outcomes. For example, an extroverted person is more prone to impulse purchases, while those who are more conservative may avoid taking risks and miss out on opportunities to invest and see their money grow.

Dr Ayesha Scott, AUT senior finance lecturer, says for the Retirement Commission the quiz is a fun way to engage and a gateway tool to financial literacy.

“Ultimately we want to shift the dial but it’s a struggle to get people thinking about retirement in a meaningful way. With the cost of living, it’s difficult to continually ask people to think about the long term when they’re worrying about today, so this is paying more attention to the psychological factors, confidence and whether people want to think about money from the get go.

“Our long term aim is more sophisticated decision making, product use and understanding of how we’re actually saving for the long term.

Jo Gamble, Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission’s Research Lead, which runs Sorted, says it was critical that the research was simplified to make the quiz an easy experience for users.

“We were focused on getting the quiz down to the fewest number of questions and possible personalities, while ensuring the outcomes remained valid,” she says.

“We ended up with a great result – through 17 questions users can get a clear picture of their money personality. The quiz can be done from start to finish in five minutes.”