Financial Archetypes and How to Use Them

Seven Financial Archetypes characterize migrants ranging from those succeeding against all odds to those who are faltering despite having certain advantages in the Colombian context.

By Marisol Hernandez, Heather Odell, Shane Sullivan, and Rosemary Ventura under the supervision of Kim Wilson

In 2022, a team of Fletcher students – accompanied by their professor –  set out to understand the financial lives of Venezuelans living in Colombia. The team interviewed 88 subjects in Medellín and Cartagena, as well as another twelve respondents in Santa Marta. They interviewed Venezuelan migrants in various stages of resettlement, as well as Colombians. Their aim was to better understand the financial lives of people representing different economic classes and education levels. This information was then passed along to practitioners for programmatic use, and a subset of the data was published in December 2022.

The Journeys Project and the research team decided many of the respondents shared key characteristics that, depending on their environment, allowed them to flourish or struggle. Together they created composite profiles of seven different types of respondents, dubbing them “Financial Archetypes.” Journeys believes that NGO and government training programs may benefit from using these archetypes as a tool. Having evidence-backed examples will allow practitioners to brainstorm program opportunities to meet their clients’ specific challenges and have a baseline for later evaluations. To read more about the seven archetypes and tips for how to maximize the effectiveness of the examples, download the tool below.