Re-wire Yourself to Make Saving Easier

‍Saving money. For many of us it can be a tiresome effort that can range from being inconsistent to non-existent (that’s unless you’re already great at it!), but there are some great ways to re-wire yourself to make saving easier.

With support from a fantastic TED talk, here we discuss some psychological tricks that can help you save. 

Let’s get into it …

According to one study (thanks to TED), environmental queues around us can heavily impact how much and how consistently we save, in fact it’s one of the biggest factors. As you’ll see in the video below, presented byWendy De La Rosa, a US based behavioural scientist, something as simple as viewing your income on a weekly basis can help you budget more effectively than if it were presented in monthly increments (that’s a solid tip if you’re in the middle of creating your budget).

Although the dates and geographical references in the video aren’t quite right for us here in Australia, the tips held within it are founded on research and can work amazingly well.

The key is that saving isn’t just knowing how to open and manage a savings account, but rather, knowing how to convert your best intentions into real savings.

The first tip is a good one – think of your future self so that you make plans to save in advance. This generally creates a situation where you want to meet a commitment you’ve made to yourself. The alternative is waiting until you have money to save, and simply placing some of it aside, which as you’ll see doesn’t garner the same level of savings results. It’s proven through science!

A good method of making and meeting a commitment to your future self (aside from a decent budgeting spreadsheet), is to use an app that’ll help you commit to your savings plans. It’ll become a kind of binding contract with yourself.

One great example App is MoneyBrilliant. It does quite a bit, but the key for us is the savings goals and budget tracking feature. Although it isn’t free, it’s super worthwhile.

MoneyBrilliant Features include:

• Set savings goals, budgets and track progress.
• Syncs to Australian bank accounts –including superannuation and investments.
• Automatic categorisation for transactions.
• Automatically finding the cheapest gas and electricity deals based on your usage data.
• Track tax-deductible expenses.
• Push notifications and personal insights.
• Backed by Westpac, offering bank-level security and encryption

We’ll leave the rest to Ms De La Rosa and her TED talk:
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At this point, you’re hopefully planning your path to saving like a champion, but if you’re looking for powerful strategic advice and help with your budget and financial plans for the future, the Attune team is here to help. Let’s build you a bright financial future – give the team a call on 1300866 113 or send us an email to start the conversation. You’ll be glad you did.