Today at TILE … Who Am I?

May 10th, 2011

Today at TILE we talked about identity. How do you identify yourself – or others?  Is identity what is on the surface (i.e., are you a preppie or a skinny-jeans-and-ironic-glasses-wearing hipster)? Or does it run deeper? We talked about all of these things, and specifically about how they relate to a concept we really believe in at TILE – financial identity.

What is financial identity? In the past, financial identity might have been, “I am what I have in the bank” or “the number I need to be happy.” The dollar signs drove how people looked at themselves. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this really, but in today’s world it seems outdated. How can you identify yourself with a just number without understanding a lot of other things about yourself first?

At TILE, we believe there are many things that make up your identity – it’s what you do, what you care about, and how you act every day. And in the real world, these passions and actions are played out in the way you use your money. Combining self-awareness with an understanding of how money works – and how it can work for you – is what makes up your true financial identity.

Identity is particularly important to us this week because we are launching TILE’s Financial Identity Profile at the FinovateSpring conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. (We’ll be tweeting about it, so feel free to tune in @spendgrowgive). It’s a major innovation to our product and we’re very proud of it. It does show numbers – but numbers are only part of the story. The Identity Profile is all about you. This new page – which you’ll see immediately upon logging in – helps you understand your identity from a financial perspective. It helps you express your passions, state your mission, and learn about money (and your relationship with it) so that you can use it wisely – the way YOU want to.

What does this mean for the TILE community? Well, it’s a pretty big addition to your current SPEND.GROW.GIVE experience. As more young people start using TILE and spending more time there (TILE members spend an average of 10 minutes per visit now), we want to make your experience with us as positive as possible. Sure we want you to grow your assets, grow your earning power, and grow your knowledge – but we really want you to grow into a strong person with a clear sense of what makes you tick. Knowing that – combined with a real knowledge and understanding of money – will make you a very powerful and fantastic person.  So get in there!

- Amy

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