A lot of us move through life, spending money without giving it a second or third thought.  

If you want to know anything about anyone, watch how they spend their money. Time too, but that one is harder to track precisely. 

Every cent spent is a declaration about who you are, how you want to be seen, and your thoughts about yourself and your world. If money reflects identity, are you aware of what is driving the decisions you make? It usually comes down to four common drivers.

• Learned behaviour – Since you were a child you have been absorbing the world around you and the lessons you see become your foundation. The way you saw how people approached money, what they bought, and how that influenced how they interacted with each other. That laid the foundation of what you understand of money and how you will approach it in life.
• Identity – The way you see yourself, good or bad, will definitely turn into how you make money decisions. If you see yourself as not being enough, you might spend to reinforce that message or do anything necessary. If you see yourself as a provider, your money behaviour will reflect that.   
• External perception – There is the hidden you, and the you you want to be perceived by the world. Every single one of us spends to manage perception, that is normal. However, doing so unconsciously can hurt us in the long run. The negative aspect of this is status spending or spending to impress others. This becomes a slippery slope. Trying to impress anyone is almost impossible, because you usually have to keep doing it indefinitely and you always need to up the game. 
• Survival – Here we act from a place of past trauma, often with the goal of avoiding a repeat of some situation that caused us harm in the past. This might make us tight-fisted and hoarding money to protect ourselves. It can also manifest in living in the moment with no consideration for a long-term future. 

One, a combination, or all, drive most of us. Doing it unconsciously is where we might be getting into financial hot water. 

Take a look at the day to day purchases you made over the last month, and the big purchases of the last five years. Do a little soul-searching and ask yourself – what was the driver behind this spending? You can take it a little further and ask – does this reflect who I want to be?