An adviser's guide to navigating rands, sense, and relationships

SANLAM'S 2025 Financial Confidence Index reveals that only 33% of South Africans say they don’t feel scared or self-conscious talking about money.

- JACQUES COETZER

This means almost two-thirds still find “money talk” awkward or taboo. With February celebrating the month of love, the conversation around how couples communicate about money feels especially relevant.

In that context, when couples fight about money, they’re rarely arguing about rands and cents alone. They’re dealing with past experiences, unspoken expectations, and often, entirely different Money Personalities: the deeply ingrained ways each partner thinks and feels about money. Sanlam identifies seven distinct Money Personalities - the Prepared Protector, High-Stakes Achiever, Adventurous Enthusiast, Calculated Planner, Relaxed Planner, Spontaneous Buyer, and Generous Guardian — each reflecting a unique relationship with money.

Financial advisers, this is where the job quietly shifts from technical expert to something that looks a lot like a referee, coach, and translator rolled into one.

Money Personalities, from the cautious Prepared Protector to the freedom-loving Spontaneous Buyer, show just how differently two people in the same relationship can experience money. Unless those differences are named and understood, they can affect the quality and sustainability of financial plans. If partners can’t talk honestly about how much they earn, spend, save, and invest, then even the best financial strategies can unravel.

Same team, different playbooks