Get Your Imagination On!
Our saving rate sucks! As a natural saver, I’m at a loss for how to get though to my friends who are not that without some money set aside for the future, said future looks bleak. Very bleak. I have a girlfriend who MUST be in debt. It doesn’t matter how many plans we make, how much progress she achieves in the short term, at the end of the day there’s a whopping balance on her credit card and no money in the bank. And that’s with me for a friend!
Clearly I’m not getting through to her. Some people you just can’t reach!
But wait, there’s hope yet.
According to research out of the University of Pennsylvania, having a good imagination may be the key to turning yourself from a non-saver into a saver. Turns out, when stuck in an fMRI machine and asked to imagine their future, people end up making better decisions about what to do with their money.
Turns out, rather than squashing our current desires, the key to setting aside a little sumthin’ sumthin’ may be to focus on the future outcome, using our imaginations to create those pictures with all the detail we can muster.
In another study from NYU’s Stern School of Biz, people who are able to imagine themselves in the future are better at setting aside some money to make that picture a reality. Turns out we have a tendency to see our current selves and our future selves as different people and, when we do, that can lead to our current selves being selfish. If we like what our future selves look like, if we feel close to our future selves as we would to a bestie, then we’re good at planning to keep that guy or gal happy. But if we don’t like what our future selves look like, if we have a sense that we barely know them, — BAM! — we spend their money!
Want to turn from a non-saver into a saver? Wish you could make yourself save more money? Make friends with your future self. Imagine what you’ll look like in the future, what you’ll be doing, how you want to be living, and get up close and personal with the future you.
Try this: Imagine yourself at age 65. Sit down and write your younger self a letter talking about your life at 65, what you have managed to achieve, and what you wish you’d done differently. Include an “if/then” statement like this:
“Hey there Baby Gail, look at all we’ve accomplished. Good going girl. But you know what? If you had skipped buying that Lexus and pouring all that money into the bank’s pocket for the loan, I’d be able to hang up my keys now, instead of having to wait until 70 to finally retire. It was a nice car, but based on the fact that it’s freezing cold outside, my arthritis is acting up and I’m bone tired from yesterday’s shift, I wish we’d gone with something a little less flashy and saved a little more instead.”
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