Re-authoring your Money Story

Money may be just a ‘simple thing or tool’ for you. But in your daily life, it works as a powerful archetype that constantly whispers: “What value really counts here?” Whether you choose between security or freedom, holding on or letting go, fun or obligations…. The Money archetype plays a major role behind the scenes. Often without you realizing it.

In this sequel to ‘Money is your inner Guide‘, we explore how your inner Value Compass becomes visible in all those small, quick decisions you make every day. From your work to your relationships and even to that one chore you never feel like doing (but that always ends up on your to-do list).

The Values Beneath Your Choices

When you understand the values that underlie your choices, something special is created: space. Space to choose differently. To feel what gives you energy. To break old patterns that may not even be yours, but come from your family story. And to finally see when the Money archetype supports you—or takes the lead too much.

In this article you will discover how to learn to recognize your value(s), why they sometimes clash, and how the Money archetype helps you to redirect your life. So that money no longer drives your choices, but you write the story. Would you rather actively work on it with others? Then join the Fantastic Friday Session in which the archetype Money is central.

Money as a Guide for Excitement and Choices

If you want to grow or have to make choices, it helps enormously if you are aware of the story you are telling yourself about Money. Your archetypes become visible when you have to make choices.

The Money archetype is about choices between:

Security and freedom
Independence and dependence
Holding on and letting go

The Money archetype shows exactly the tension between them. For example, if you’re in a job that doesn’t give you energy, and you’re afraid of losing the security of a steady salary, then your Money archetype is in the lead, rather than supporting you. We often think that money is neutral. Only a means. But the way you deal with money tells exactly what inner story you live around this archetype.

Don’t get me wrong: we all need the material Money to live. But how you get that money, there are many possibilities for that. Much more than you often think possible. The moment the material side of your inner Money is in balance with the immaterial side, money really starts to flow.

Balance between ‘Must’ and Fun

Your inner Money is the Compass when you make choices between what ‘must’ and the fun things. There are simply things in life that are less fun and that have to be done.

In my case, for example, ‘doing the housework’. I don’t like it, but I do get happy when it’s clean again. I really appreciate the latter and so I spend part of my weekend doing something I don’t like. So what I value so much may also cost me money… If anyone knows a cleaner… I keep myself recommended 😉.

But of course there are many more situations in which we feel we have to do something, while we actually enjoy doing something else.

Sense

If you have a lot of sense of responsibility and you regularly start doing the things that ‘have to’ and only then the things that you enjoy, you will get into a negative spiral. You don’t listen enough to your inner Money Compass, which beautifully shows what is of value to you: namely what you enjoy.

So this choice is not about ‘having fun’, or ‘doing something that has to be done’. It’s about the value that lies underneath and that is important to you. If it is clear to you, the step to either getting more pleasure in what you have to do by doing it differently, or looking for other solutions for what needs to be done, is much easier. You remember why you do it.

The light side: freedom and trust

Just like any archetype, Money also has a light and a dark side. The light side of the archetype is visible in your choices and in your behavior if you live from your inner values. You are then fully aware of what is really valuable to you. And that usually cannot be expressed in money.

Freedom is more of a feeling for you than something you do. Within your secure existence, for example in your job, you experience freedom, despite the frameworks within which you have to do your work. You realize that you, just as a human being, are invaluable and even the biggest criticism and the most negative feedback cannot faze you.

Money is a tool, not a yardstick for success

Money is a tool for you and not a yardstick for success. The appreciation for the things you do (or don’t do) comes from yourself and from your inner values. It comes from within and that gives self-confidence and you have that too.

Narratively, the light side of Money is a rich story: you dare to receive, give, invest and trust, both in yourself and in others.

The Shadow Side: Fear and Shortage

Every archetype also has a dark side. That is not a mistake, or a shortcoming! It is an imbalance in your behavior and the choices you make. When the Money archetype becomes too dominant, it takes on a life of its own and directs our choices from fear and lack.

You notice this, for example, because you are very fixated on material growth. Salary increase, bigger house, bigger car, etc. A salary increase provides pleasure for a while, but quickly turns into a desire for “more”.

But also, for example, if you let your own value be determined or influenced by the degree of appreciation that others give you. If your partner, or your manager, for example, does not appreciate you, or he or she does not show it enough, and that has a direct impact on your own self-confidence….. Then you live from the shadow side of your archetypal Money.

Your Saboteur is at work

In these kinds of situations, your inner archetype Money often enters into a bond with your inner Saboteur:

“I’m not good enough.”
“I am not of added value”
“My contribution is nothing”

These are all examples of thoughts you might have in that case. The shadow side of your archetype Money makes you feel insecure and the shadow side of the Saboteur takes it a step further by letting you have totally unhelpful thoughts. Do you want to know more about the light side of your Saboteur? Then read my article ‘Let that Shadow Side Work for You.’

Fear of commitment

Exactly the opposite is also a ‘shady money story’: If you are so convinced that you are (or should be) independent, chances are that you will hardly dare to enter into relationships. You don’t make the real connection with others, because that makes you dependent and therefore vulnerable. Or you spend all your time on your work, because you still need to have enough money so that you have bread on the table. You then live from fear. Fear of committing and/or fear of being financially dependent on someone else.

Again: that fear is not wrong! It is very good to listen to those kinds of signals in yourself. But if they get the upper hand, an imbalance does arise.

The Power of the Bonds

Archetypes rarely operate on their own. They often form ‘alliances’ with other archetypes. Sometimes with one different archetype, but sometimes even an entire cluster is created.

In the case of the Money archetype, for example, those bonds become visible in how you deal with saving or investing.

Creative with Money

Do you come from a family with money shortages, but did your ancestors enjoy what they did have and were they creative? Then the archetype Artist will make a bond with your archetypal Money in your life. You always have creative solutions, if you need something that you don’t really have the money for. You make your own clothes. You can make ‘something’ out of nothing. It always feels like you have enough and probably feels rich, even if your bank account shows something else, perhaps. In this case, the light sides reinforce each other.

Victim behavior

Do you come from a family where the lack of money constantly hindered them in who they were and in what they wanted to do? Was there always complaining about that? Was there sneering or jealous of people who did have something to spend? Are you not (sufficiently) aware of how this has affected you? There is a good chance that in your life the archetype Victim will make a bond with your inner Money. You don’t dare to stand up for what you are worth, for example in a salary negotiation or rate determination. You spend little or nothing. And you constantly live from a feeling of lack. In this case, the shadow sides of both archetypes reinforce each other. This attitude leads to different behavior and therefore a different result.

Re-authoring your story about Money

The Money archetype invites you to think about what is really of value to you. It shows what stories about value you tell yourself. These are often family patterns, recognizable in statements such as “I have to work hard, otherwise I have done nothing” or “First security, then freedom”.

To get to the heart of your story, you can ask yourself the following two questions:

What would you do if you had all the money in the world?
What would you do if you had no money?

These questions remove the material layer, allowing your inner drives to surface. By recognizing these stories, you discover when they are not helpful and you can rewrite them. At that moment, you have the gavel in your hands, and not the archetype.

To be continued…

Frédérique te Dorsthorst – de Muij
December 2025