How Your Enneagram Type Influences Your Money with Khara Croswaite Brindle, financial therapist, and Hannah DeGroot, LPC
This week on Enneagram in Real Life, Stephanie Barron Hall interviews co-authors Khara Croswaite Brindle, a certified financial therapist, and Hannah DeGroot, an LPC and Certified Enneagram Coach. Khara (SO3) and Hannah (SP3) share insights from their book, Your Enneagram and Money: Transforming Enneagram Edges into Financial Freedom. They delve into how each Enneagram type approaches financial beliefs and challenges, emphasizing that money is an emotional topic often overlooked in traditional financial approaches. The conversation highlights the importance of self-awareness regarding money beliefs and offers practical, type-specific tools for achieving financial wellness.
Khara is the published author of eight books who is passionate about turning pain points into possibilities. This means she loves talking about topics others wish to avoid, like leadership trauma, client suicide, and money shame. As a Social Enneagram Type Three Wing Two, perfectionist, certified financial therapist and serial entrepreneur who specializes in working with helping professionals, she is the co-author of the book Your Enneagram and Money: Transforming Enneagram Edges into Financial Freedom.
Hannah is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Enneagram Coach, Executive Coach and co-author of the book Your Enneagram and Money: Transforming Enneagram Edges into Financial Freedom. In her practice, she uses the Enneagram to help individuals find passion, motivation, and fulfillment in their personal and professional lives.
The book is out now! Your Enneagram and Money: Transforming Enneagram Edges into Financial Freedom: You can grab a copy of the book here.
🔗 Connect with Khara and Hannah!
📷 Khara’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kharacroswaite/
📷 Hannah’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/method.and.mind/
🔗 Connect with Stephanie!
💻 Stephanie’s Website: https://ninetypes.co/
📷 Stephanie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ninetypesco
🎥 Stephanie’s Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stephbarronhall
Here are the key takeaways:
Khara and Hannah dive into their backgrounds of finding the Enneagram.
Our guests share their process of finding their type and subtype
Explaining the importance of utilizing subtypes due to the nuance
They discuss their collaborative process as two Enneagram Threes (SP dominant and SO dominant).
How the Enneagram complements financial therapy.
Introducing their book and its practical structure.
Kara and Hannah provide a detailed breakdown of each Enneagram type's relationship with money and offer practical exercises.
Hannah encourages listeners not to avoid addressing their relationship with money, even if it feels uncomfortable.
Kara cautions against extreme financial advice (e.g., "save it all" or "spend it all")
How to connect with Khara and Hannah
Enneagram Types: Relationship to Money & Practical Steps
Here's a breakdown of each Enneagram type's relationship with money, along with the practical step for each shared in this episode:
Enneagram Type 8
Relationship to Money: Eights believe they'll do what they want with their money and can be controlling, acting as "financial gatekeepers." They are protective of their money decisions and may be unwilling to coordinate with partners or ask for help. They feel excited with a lot of money, but can become avoidant when money is scarce.
Practical Step: Money as a Partner. This exercise involves looking at money through the lens of a relationship, using a conflict cycle model. It encourages Eights to relinquish some control by inviting partners or financial professionals into their money work, such as having money meetings and seeking input on decisions.
Enneagram Type 9
Relationship to Money: Nines tend to avoid conflict, and since money can be a source of conflict, they often find it easier not to discuss it. Their passion for merging can lead them to be unaware of their own financial needs or wants, making avoidance easier. They can feel stressed or frustrated by money and struggle with big purchases or charging what they're worth.
Practical Step: Loud Budgeting. This involves setting clear financial boundaries and practicing how to articulate them confidently. Examples include drafting sentences to say "no, thank you" or "this isn't a priority" when faced with spending situations that don't align with their values, like splitting a bill unevenly.
Enneagram Type 1
Relationship to Money: Ones can believe there's a "right way" to spend or save money and may hold unrealistic expectations for themselves. They often experience guilt and shame, especially around debt, due to their strong inner critic. Sexual subtypes may focus more on how others spend money and struggle to take ownership of their own financial situation.
Practical Step: Word Association. This exercise helps Ones identify their black-and-white thinking and charged beliefs about money. By associating words like "savings," "debt," or "wealth" with immediate thoughts and judgments, Ones can gain self-awareness about the narratives holding them back and begin to shift their mindset or behavior.
Enneagram Type 2
Relationship to Money: Twos believe they must give their time or money, often exhibiting "noble poverty," where they find pride and satisfaction in financial sacrifice. Under-earning Twos might struggle to charge what they're worth, finding it easier to bill an entity (like insurance) than a person, and may resist raising their rates.
Practical Step: Attachment Styles with Money. This exercise encourages Twos to explore their relationship with money using the language of secure, anxious, or avoidant attachment. Reflection questions, such as "If money could respond to you and reassure you, what would it say?", help them personify money and understand their emotional connection to it.
Enneagram Type 3
Relationship to Money: Threes often equate money with success, tying their self-worth to their net worth. Money is generally important to Threes; they either constantly worry about not having enough or desire more. Self-Preservation Threes, in particular, may have a scarcity mindset and feel the need to stockpile or work harder, even when financially stable. Debt can feel shame-inducing as it signifies failure.
Practical Step: Warning Signs with Money. Inspired by burnout recovery, this exercise helps Threes identify triggers and internal shifts that indicate a financial "landslide." It prompts them to examine how their relationship with money impacts their relational, spiritual, and mental well-being, providing language and self-awareness to recognize when things are going downhill and what support they might need.
Enneagram Type 4
Relationship to Money: Fours can have a complex relationship with money, sometimes believing it's "bad" or "corrupt" and makes them inauthentic, while simultaneously feeling envious of others who seem happy with more money. They can be very specific about spending on things important or unique to them. Fours are highly aware of their feelings about money, experiencing anxiety, stress, excitement, grief, and shame.
Practical Step: Dear Money Letter. This exercise goes beyond simply writing a letter to money by encouraging Fours to explore if their relationship with money is abusive, anxious, or avoidant. The second part involves imagining what money would "write back," helping Fours externalize and process their charged emotions and internal narratives about money, done best handwritten for deeper connection.
Enneagram Type 5
Relationship to Money: Fives believe they need to "master" money and become competent with it independently, often isolating themselves in the process. Money is seen as a scarce resource (like time and energy). While worried about not having enough, some Fives also hold the belief that they "don't really need much," which is how scarcity manifests for them.
Practical Step: The Money Barometer. This exercise asks Fives to consider different amounts of money, starting with a no-strings-attached gift, and observe their emotional and behavioral shifts. It helps them identify the point at which money transitions from being "fun money" to requiring "adulting" or responsibility, revealing their underlying beliefs about scarcity versus abundance.
Enneagram Type 6
Relationship to Money: Sixes feel immense responsibility and pressure regarding money, viewing it as a means to achieve security. While they are future-oriented and may think about investments, under-earning Sixes might stay in secure but unfulfilling jobs for job security rather than financial success. Sexual Sixes can be more risk-taking and impulsive with money, struggling with saving, unlike self-preservation and social Sixes, who prioritize responsibility and may hesitate on purchases.
Practical Step: Paid Time Off (PTO) Account. For self-employed individuals or small business owners, this tool encourages Sixes to proactively set aside money to pay themselves for time off. This practice provides a sense of security and safety, covering periods of illness or other unforeseen circumstances, and promoting a healthier work-life balance.
Enneagram Type 7
Relationship to Money: Sevens believe money brings happiness and freedom, often inclined to see its positive aspects. They view money as a means to experience more. While future-thinking in many areas, with money, they prioritize instant gratification and immediate excitement over long-term saving. Self-Preservation Sevens are more concerned with financial planning and deals, whereas other subtypes focus on using money for experiences.
Practical Step: Fill Your Bucket Funds. This tool provides Sevens with a structure for managing their money. It's a values-based spending framework where income minus expenses determines discretionary "green light" money for joy-bringing activities. This anchors Sevens and helps them see if they genuinely have funds available for their desired experiences, encouraging alternative "dopamine hits" if not.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Your Enneagram and Money: Transforming Enneagram Edges into Financial Freedom by Kara Crossway Brindle and Hannah DeGroot
You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
This Week’s Guest Pick:
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Enneagram Resources for you!
Want to keep learning about the Enneagram? Grab Steph’s new book, Enneagram in Real Life! Find the book, ebook, or audiobook wherever books are sold.
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