Nice Guy? Forget About Getting Rich

Nice guys finish last, right?  Now, nice people do it with money, too.

 According to a new study, agreeable people who place less value on money (count me in, unless you're talking about spending!), guess what?  Are at a financial disadvantage.

As newswise.com reports, nice people may be at greater risk of bankruptcy and other financial hardships compared with their less agreeable peers, not because they are more cooperative, but because they don’t value money as much, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
“We were interested in understanding whether having a nice and warm personality, what academics in personality research describe as agreeableness, was related to negative financial outcomes,” says Sandra Matz, PhD, of Columbia Business School and lead author of the study. “Previous research suggested that agreeableness was associated with lower credit scores and income. We wanted to see if that association held true for other financial indicators and, if so, better understand why nice guys seem to finish last.”
Matz and her co-author, Joe Gladstone, PhD, of University College London, analyzed data collected from more than 3 million participants using two online panels, a national survey, bank account data and publicly available geographic data. Their analyses investigated whether the reason agreeable individuals were more likely to experience financial hardship was because of their more cooperative negotiation style or instead the lower value they assign to money.
I know for me, money is nice but it doesn't make me happy, like my husband (or maybe he's just grateful we're not yet on the streets).  
“We found that agreeableness was associated with indicators of financial hardship, including lower savings, higher debt and higher default rates,” notes Gladstone. “This relationship appears to be driven by the fact that agreeable people simply care less about money and therefore are at higher risk of money mismanagement.”
The researchers also found that agreeable people were not all equally likely to suffer financially, with income playing an important role in the relationship between agreeableness and financial health.
“Not every agreeable person is at equal risk of experiencing financial hardship,” Gladstone adds. “The relationship was much stronger for lower-income individuals, who don’t have the financial means to compensate for the detrimental impact of their agreeable personality.”
Interestingly, the researchers were surprised to find that even when agreeableness was measured in childhood, it still predicted greater financial hardship later in life. The research included survey data from a cohort study, following the same individuals over more than 25 years.  
Could it be that those of us who value friendship, compassion, yes, agreeableness, above all else are putting ourselves at a severe disadvantage?  I think I'd rather have friends than money.  But come see me in five years.  It may be under a bridge.



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