Have you hidden financial information from your spouse (financial infidelity)? Are you overcompensating when sending money to your adult children (financial enabling)?

Do you purchase luxuries on credit when the impulse hits you (compulsive buying disorder)? Do you have a fear of budgeting (financial denial)?

These are the types of destructive behaviors that financial psychologists can help you identify and correct.

To get started, test yourself by taking a free test called the Klontz Money Behavior Inventory (KMBI).

Developed by author and associate professor Dr. Brad Klontz, Psy.D., CFP (tinyurl.com/yk47rv2e), the KMBI identifies "patterns of destructive financial behaviors and beliefs that may impede individuals from achieving their financial goals."

The test focuses on nine categories:

-- Compulsive buying disorder

-- Gambling disorder

-- Hoarding disorder

-- Workaholism

-- Financial dependence

-- Financial denial

-- Financial enabling

-- Financial enmeshment

-- Financial infidelity

You can take the test, which involves 50-plus questions, at tinyurl.com/3bw4b52p. Each question offers multiple selections for an answer, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, with four selections in between. You will receive your results by email.

The test's instructions state that "You will get the most value from the test if you read each statement and go with your first impulse," adding that "you must avoid falling prey to 'social desirability.' This is the psychological impulse that tells us that we must show our best selves." Your first impulse "is likely the best reflection of what is happening in your subconscious and what is driving your actual financial behaviors."

Your scores (ranging from one to six) will translate into a rank of low, medium or high, with low suggesting you do not exhibit the money behavior, medium suggesting you exhibit some characteristics, and high suggesting you exhibit many of the characteristics.

When you receive your results, you also will get detailed descriptions about the categories. For example, compulsive buying disorder is described as "a serious money disorder and is associated with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders, substance abuse, and a tendency to try to escape from or avoid stress. Compulsive buyers believe that the acquisition of objects will compensate for or neutralize negative feelings, which is just not the case."

You might be curious about the definitions for the other categories. Here are some additional explanations:

-- Financial Dependence: This "can take on many forms, including a dependency on partner, parents, trust funds or the government to take care of one's financial needs. It is a primary reason that victims of domestic violence return to their abusers, and a common source of conflict and frustration among family members."

-- Financial Denial: "Many of those who are experiencing financial stress attempt to cope by simply not thinking about money or trying to avoid dealing with it. Rather than addressing financial situations or problems, they try to ignore them."

-- Financial Enabling: Enablers "often put themselves at financial risk to help others. They have trouble saying 'no' to financial requests from children, friends and/or family members, and may avoid making clear arrangements for repayment of loans."

-- Financial Enmeshment: This involves "the blurring of boundaries between adults and minor children around money." It also includes "the 'use' of children by adults to bear unreasonable responsibility for, or worry about, adult financial situations."

-- Financial Infidelity: "Forty percent of Americans admit that they lie to their spouses about the details of their spending. Financial infidelity involves lying about, hiding, or omitting information about one's financial behaviors from one's spouse or partner."

Keep in mind, as the test points out, "Nothing contained herein constitutes investment advice," and the information "should be used in consultation with a qualified financial professional."

Still, the test can provide insight on your approach to how you view money and manage it, pointing out strong and weak points. From there, you can look into resources to help you improve your perspective when it comes to the way you handle financial issues.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

Do you have bonds in your investment portfolio but have not found a good way for tracking their performance? The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority offers an online solution to your problem -- with a caveat. FINRA cautions that "Individuals should not make investment or other financial decisions solely on the basis of this data." With that in mind, watch the short video on how to use the data center before signing up for a free (non-commercial use) account (tinyurl.com/yc8y7wfz). FINRA regulates the brokerage industry.

Called the Fixed Income Data Center (tinyurl.com/26b6fa7e), the online resource includes real-time data on bonds and other fixed income products, along with aggregate data on fixed income markets. It combines FINRA's Bond Facts page with its Market Data Center.

You'll be able to look up individual bonds with the Fixed Income Security Lookup search tool. To create a watchlist, sign up for an account using the FINRA Gateway (tinyurl.com/37wy2bm8).

Once you click on a bond, you'll be provided with information that includes coupon rate, maturity date, the last trade price, yield and date, price/yield chart and credit rating.

The Fixed Income Securities and Trade Activity section allows you to browse different types of bonds and securities. There are also sections on Market Statistics and Data Subscriptions (which is for "market professionals, academics and media outlets").

Beyond the numbers, FINRA also provides access to general information about bonds, which can be helpful if you are new to having bonds in your portfolio, or if you want to increase your knowledge of something in which you are invested.

The link "Basics to Know About Investing in Bonds" (tinyurl.com/2jnrjb55) will take you to a FINRA page that discusses the types of bonds (from U.S. Treasury Securities and Savings Bonds to corporate and municipal bonds, among others), buying and selling them, the risks involved (you might be surprised to find 12 risks, including interest rate risk, call risk and liquidity risk) and key terms.

If you are investing in bonds, you will want to understand yield and return.

Yield is the return on the money you invested in a bond. "Price and yield are inversely related: As the price of a bond goes up, its yield goes down, and vice versa," according to FINRA (tinyurl.com/2ucz69ey).

Two main bond yields are coupon yield and current yield. Coupon yield is "the annual interest rate established when the bond is issued that does not change during the lifespan of the bond," according to FINRA. It's also known as the coupon rate.

The current yield is "the bond's coupon yield divided by its current market price."

FINRA offers this example:

"[I]f you buy a $1,000 bond at par (often described as 'trading at 100,' meaning 100% of its face value) and receive $45 in annual interest payments, your coupon yield is 4.5%. If the price goes up and the bond subsequently trades at 103 ($1,030), then the current yield will fall to 4.37%."

Current yield comes into play if you decide to sell a bond before it reaches maturity.

Bonds are attractive to investors because they provide a "predictable income stream," typically paying interest twice a year, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor.gov site (tinyurl.com/mvambjx9). Bonds also can "help offset exposure to more volatile stock holdings."

Since bonds can serve an important role in your portfolio, you'll want to make sure to understand how they fit into your overall financial goals. FINRA's Fixed Income Data Center can be a big help in your bond research.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

If you are a seasoned do-it-yourself investor who lived through the dot-com bubble, the financial crisis and the coronavirus market, think back to 2000.

Say you invested $10,000 in an S&P 500 Index fund in January 2000. By March 31, 2024, your investment would have grown to $55,000 at a rate of 7.3% annualized -- but, not before dropping to $6,229 by the end of 2002. From March 2000 to October 2002, it was down about 45%.

The fund dropped again in 2008 (by 37%), its worst year since 2000, and again by 4.5% in 2018 and 18.2% in 2022. The fund's best year between January 2000 and March 2024 was 32% (2013).

A popular technology fund that I'll call the "Tech Fund" grew from $10,000 to $115,000 (10.6% average annual return), more than doubling the March 31, 2024, balance of the S&P 500 fund -- but not before dropping to $3,478 by the end of 2002, a decline of about 80% from January 2000. The Tech Fund's best year was 85% (2009); its worst year had a 51% drop (2002).

Both funds own Apple and Nvidia.

A 2000 investment of $10,000 in Apple dropped dramatically to $2,800 by the end of 2002, a decline of about 79% from its January 2000 price. Apple's best year during the January 2000 to March 2024 period was 201% (2004); its worst year was a negative 71% (2000).

Nvidia started the dot-com bear market quite differently. In 2000, Nvidia rose about 40% compared to a decline of 9% for the S&P 500 fund. Notably, 2001 (308%) turned out to be the stock's best year, compared to a decline of 12% for the S&P 500 fund.

But 2002 was Nvidia's worst year (down 83%), which wiped out the gains of the previous two years. However, Nvidia's 2002 balance ($9,809) still outpaced the S&P 500 fund's balance ($6,229). March 2000 was the peak of the dot-com bubble that led to the three-year bear.

Headlines such as "Stock Market in Steep Drop as Worried Investors Flee; Nasdaq Has Its Worst Week" (April 15, 2000, New York Times), caught investors' attention, continuing even as the bear was coming to an end: "S&P 500 Index Drops to Its Lowest Level Since 1997" (July 19, 2002, Bloomberg News) or "SCREAM! Hold On for a Wild Ride" (July 21, 2002, New York Times).

Major price declines occurred not just once during the dot-com bubble, but also throughout the financial crisis and the coronavirus bear market, and intra-year declines occurred every year. For example, eight out of 12 months in 2002 and 2008 were negative for the S&P 500 Index. In 2023, when the S&P 500 Index returned 26%, four months were negative. In 2019, when the S&P 500 Index returned 31%, two months were negative.

Even the savvy investor needs to really think about how he or she will react during declines. Should declines lead one to buy more, sell some or all, or hold on for a set or unknown period of time?

Personal situations dictate the most appropriate action. For example, a retiree whose living expenses are covered in full by Social Security and pension income with an inflation adjustment is in a very different position from a retiree who depends on his portfolio for cash flow.

The first retiree would have the luxury of investing aggressively if he thought in terms of leaving a legacy.

The second retiree would need to prioritize cash-flow management before deciding how to invest. This retiree would have been in a much more difficult position making buy, sell and hold decisions, especially during downturns.

No matter how you look at it, you can't help but see that emotion would play a role. What would you have done if you lived through this time frame day by day, without the benefit of hindsight?

In case you are wondering: $10,000 invested in Apple in January 2000 grew to $2.2 million (25% annualized) by March 31, 2024. A comparable investment in Nvidia grew to $10 million (33% annualized).

The data for this column comes from an online tool called Portfolio Visualizer (portfoliovisualizer.com). Give the free version a try.

Conflicts Disclosure: The author and her firm's clients own the investments discussed in this story, either directly or indirectly.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION