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Have younger siblings? Chances are you're more interested in intellectual, cognitive careers -- such as medicine, law, accounting and engineering -- that offer larger paychecks than your younger brothers and sisters have. They may be drawn to artistic and outdoor-related careers.


Besides determining who gets the window (or the middle) seat, your birth order also has a lot of pull with your finances. Derrick Kinney, an Ameriprise financial adviser at Derrick Kinney & Associates in Arlington, Texas, says your birth order can affect your relationship with money and how adeptly you manage your credit score. Being the oldest, the youngest or somewhere in between can affect how high your credit score might surge or how much debt you're likely to rack up.


First born

Firstborns are typically fiercely responsible, says Dr. Soroya Bacchus, a psychiatrist in Los Angeles.

"They're the most punctual about paying bills, because they love to be seen as stable and dependable," says Bacchus. "They won't let financial details like payment due dates and avoiding unnecessary over-the-limit fees fall through the cracks."


"Thirty-five percent of your FICO score is based on paying bills on time. So being responsible helps your credit score," says Chris Dlugozima, a certified consumer credit counselor at GreenPath Debt Solutions in New York.



Temper your traits: Instead of setting an unrealistic long-term goal like tripling the amount you put into your 401k every month, Kinney suggests setting attainable short-term goals.

Middle children



Bacchus says it also makes middle children prone to secrecy. "Inventing" ways to a pay a bill or to afford an impulse splurge can create the need to cover up -- or ignore -- financial troubles.

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A secretive side can mean middles are more likely to hide financial troubles such as unpaid bills and accounts sent to collection from their spouses. They believe they can fix the problem themselves. Dlugozima says when a middle child and his spouse seek a mortgage or loan together, a middle's in-the-dark mate may be blindsided with a rejection because of the money-hiding middle's secret poor credit scores.



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Baby of the family

Bacchus says babies of the family are very social and tend to prioritize dinners out with friends, latte runs and trips to the mall over budgets. This sometimes leaves little or no money to pay bills.

It's tough for those youngest in the birth order to spot these activities, which are the first ones to cut if you're in a budget crisis, says Kinney. "A social youngest child will have problems learning to value saving long term over the instant gratification of a social event," he says.


Temper your traits: Look for ways to spend less while still being social. Go for coffee instead of dinner, or rent a movie with friends instead of having dinner and a movie out.

"Start a 'social fund,'" says Rachele Cawaring Bouchand, a certified financial planner and the director of financial planning at Clark Nuber P.S., a CPA firm in Bellevue, Wash. That way it'll be easy to see how much money you spend on social outings.

Only children

Only children and firstborns tend to share most birth-order-related traits. "Like firstborns, only children are perfectionists who are generally very responsible," says Bacchus.

But in addition to paying bills on time and generally having a good (or great) credit score, Bacchus says only children also tend to seek approval from superiors and people older than they are.



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