Visualise Before Saving

We must save. We should save. We have to save. We tell ourselves that all the time. Yet, we struggle to save. The reason that saving is an uphill battle is because it is associated with a lot of negative emotions. It’s a trade-off. I know what I am giving up, but for what? It’s a loss. I can’t get the gratification I want now. It’s a sacrifice. I have to rein in my spending. Behavioural scientist Dan Ariely explains with an analogy. Imagine a bicycle you really want that costs $1,000. You can visualise your life with the bicycle, but it’s much harder to visualise what will happen to your life if you do not spend this $1,000. What we see, imagine and feel is spending, whereas saving is more abstract, non-emotional and far away. That explains our lack of motivation. As humans, we don’t do well with anything that has to do with now versus later....