FOR ALL COLOR Q PERSONALITIES, money itself is either a mirror of self-worth or a means to an end. But how we negotiate our salaries, manage our budgets, and save for important goals is very much driven by our primary and secondary Color Q personalities. Each Color has a different and unique competence when handling this all-important aspect of life. Your natural Color Q salary negotiating and investment styles have been researched by author Shoya Zichy for seven years with close to a thousand people. Some of her proprietary results are being made available for the first time, and only in this book.
Given a choice, Greens prefer to deal with other things in life. When supporting just yourself, you see money as a tool to further your own personal development and create aesthetic surroundings. The rabid pursuit of riches usually turns you off. If you are the breadwinner, however, your attitude and involvement change rapidly. People you care about depend on you, and you will learn what it takes to provide for them.
Greens approach money in one of two predictable ways—you are either focused or spontaneous. Focused Green/Golds take a disciplined approach to saving for significant life goals like retirement. Spontaneous Green/Reds are sporadic savers and planners at best and innately high-risk takers when investing. While Green/Reds seem unlikely ever to accumulate enough to retire, you are supported by your almost psychic ability to predict investment trends.
Both types of Greens develop warm, trusting relationships with advisors or financial planners, serving as excellent sources of referrals.
You want to hear how a company impacts people more than about its analytics before investing in its stock. Social investments are of particular interest to you.
Compensation When negotiating a compensation package, usually you do not push hard enough. If you like the job and the people and a reasonable number is offered, you’ll take it. This often means you have folded too early in the negotiation. You may even accept a salary lower than you want just to get the job.
Tips Don’t be so nice. Research what you are worth and practice negotiating, preferably with a Red friend. You have a right to expect reasonable compensation for the value you provide. The other side expects you to play the game, and you’ll leave money on the table if you don’t. It will never feel natural, but you can learn the game and play it well.
Compensation The money a job pays is not your top priority. Does the job help you grow? Does it allow you to express your creativity? Then lucky you, you’ve hit the jackpot, and whatever it pays you is icing on the cake. You expect people to notice your good work and increase your salary accordingly. Of all the Colors, you need the most practice before walking into a salary negotiation because you truly hate to argue, especially about money.
Tips As with the Green/Golds above, PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE with a tough-minded friend how to play the chess game of salary negotiations. Don’t accept the first amount they offer. Have a well-researched counter offer in mind. THIS IS THE ONE TIME IN YOUR LIFE WHEN IT’S OKAY NOT TO BE NICE. Make a list of things you could buy with the extra money you negotiate; this will provide incentive. If the salary remains low, suggest extra time off, a company vehicle, a private office, or free health insurance for your family instead. Use phrases like, “With my qualifications, I am expecting X.” You deserve to be compensated in a way that means something to you for the value you provide.
Reds are the risk-takers of the investment world, especially when you feel you have sufficient knowledge and disposable income. As in other areas of life, you like to operate by your own rules. You can become quite adept at dealing in the stock (and other) markets.
Your strength is picking up investment cues others miss. You’ll benefit from your acute powers of observation and the broad storehouse of practical knowledge you’ve accumulated since birth. These, combined with your above-average flexibility, create opportunities you pounce on with good timing.
More than other Colors, you prefer to invest in individual stocks rather than mutual funds unless handling family money. Advisors to you are a source of research, execution, and recordkeeping. Detailed planning just gets in the way of plunging into interesting investments.
Your savings account, if it exists, is likely to be starved for attention. You tend not to save. You simply don’t obsess about money and figure it will be earned as needed.
Compensation For you, tomorrow is another day to earn another dollar. It’s likely you have been through both rich and lean times. Your aggressive negotiating style works well in compensation discussions. In fact, other Colors come to you for advice before walking into salary negotiations.
Compensation You are a good negotiator, but your style is more relaxed than that of Red/Blues. You also feel tomorrow is another day to earn another dollar, and you can live on a lot of money or a little. You won’t, however, leave any money or benefits on the table during salary negotiations.
Blues use money as proof of competence. The higher your salary, the more competent the world sees you. More than other Colors, you understand money in the abstract as a flow rather than a stagnant resource. But Blue/Golds and Blue/Reds differ in their approach to money. Where Blue/Golds are disciplined savers, Blue/Reds typically are not.
In your favor, you are intrigued by complex asset allocation strategies that determine how much to invest in stocks, bonds, and other vehicles. You will benefit in real returns from this ability. Against you is your overconfidence. Because you are more likely than most to research and understand all the components of your portfolio, you forget that markets are not always rational.
Compensation You know exactly how much you are worth before you walk in the door to interview. You will drive compensation negotiations to their highest possible level, leaving no money or benefit issue unexplored. Other Colors come to you for advice before their salary negotiations.
Compensation You know what you’re worth, what’s available, and how to get it. You relax into the process and enjoy the give-and-take of it. Often the people with whom you’ve negotiated give you far more than they were intending and come away feeling good about it! You are perhaps the smoothest negotiator of all the Colors, leaving nothing on the table and agreeably removing the chairs as well!
There’s a reason your group was named the Golds! Money is extremely important to your sense of security. You are highly focused on saving and long-term planning and fully in control of your cash flow at all times. You abhor the misuse of money and rarely go into debt or squander the assets you have.
Your investments have to be well-researched, backed by a solid track record, and fully documented with concrete facts. As long as investments meet these criteria, you’ll invest directly in the market; but mutual funds are a popular option for Golds. You want your portfolio to be your passport to a worry-free future, and you are likely to achieve this goal early in life.
You have a limited tolerance for risk and volatility, favoring time-tested strategies. Fixed-income instruments like bonds and GICs make you comfortable in a portfolio balanced with blue chip stocks.
Financially, you are a meticulous record keeper. You can reconcile the accuracy of your accounts without the assistance of intermediaries. You prefer working with well-established firms, insisting upon advisors who are organized, consistent, and produce predictable results.
case study one
Betsy Howie
Betsy Howie is a Gold who boasts major successes in fields where most Golds fear to tread. She wrote and starred in the Off-Broadway play “Cowgirls”; she has acted in television soap operas and done numerous commercials for such corporate giants as American Express, Clorox, Monster.com, and Wendy’s. She also has done financial humor commentaries for National Public Radio.
Her Gold financial talents come through best however, in her most recent novel, Callie’s Tally, a humorous accounting of each and every cost of the first year of her daughter Callie’s life.
Compensation You are a focused and tough negotiator, having researched what you’re worth well in advance. Gold/Blues can be prone to “bag person syndrome,” the fear you will wind up penniless on the streets. Because you feel your security is on the line, you accept nothing less than everything there is to get.
Compensation Although you, too, have the “bag person syndrome” suffered by your Gold/Blue cousins, it doesn’t drive your negotiation process as strongly. Typically, you won’t push the envelope as hard at salary negotiations. Consequently, you may leave the bargaining table with a sinking feeling that you will not be making the money you deserve, unable to allay the lurking bag person in your mind.
Tip You are organized enough to have researched what the market pays for your skills, but are likely to accept a lesser amount after one counter offer. Role-play with a willing Gold/Blue, or any Red, to help you find strategies and phrases with which you are comfortable. A Red/Green is particularly likely to have a style you can emulate.