5 Personality Traits That Lose You Money

The distracted

A similar segment -- 7% of those surveyed -- were "distracted" personalities, many of whom are in their late 40s or early 50s and likely to be married with young children.

"Caught up in the complexity of modern life, they tend to not focus on financial planning, thinking of retirement as being far off and even hard to imagine," is how the Allianz study describes them.

They tended to have the highest income level of those who took part in the survey, the second-largest level of investible assets and live in more expensive homes in metropolitan areas. Although many saw their net worth drop significantly as a result of the economic downturn and cut back on spending, most have not changed their financial plans or reevaluated their overall financial strategy.

Allianz found that respondents displaying this personality trait expect to retire in their early 60s but would prefer to do so in their early 50s. Most are counting on getting full Social Security benefits and they rely on 401(k) plans more than any other group.

"They are worried that their savings will not be adequate for retirement, but they don't have a plan for growing those savings," the study assesses. "This group plans to live in the present and externalize big decisions -- for example, wanting government to solve the country's financial problems."

The positive trait this grouping exhibits is that they are open to working with a financial planner and either already do so or plan to. "They recognize the need to invest smarter, but have not yet made the commitment to do so," the study says.

Whereas the 'overwhelmed' have given up on trying to develop a financial strategy, this group just never seems to get around to it.

"They are the lowest users of financial advisers," Libbe says. "We think about the 'distracteds' as people who make a lot, but they are just putting money away wherever and however [strikes them]. They really don't have an overarching strategy, because they are too distracted with day-to-day things to get around to getting their financial house in order."