Trick Yourself into Getting Richer

[KiwiJo09]

Trick yourself into getting richer - Jun. 25, 2012

Interesting article

[scubatim84]

The interesting thing is I actually do personalize my savings accounts. I never thought about whether that increased the probability of me socking away more money into those accounts. Although our Large Purchase Fund has been pretty much empty for awhile, and I really want a big screen, so maybe I'll try the whole photo idea.

[chrisburke21]

I will have to try some of these tips. I have just wrapped a picture of Fiji around my credit card to try and curb my spending. I have always done the personalizing accounts. ING direct lets you name your accounts. One thing I would add is to automate your finances. Automatic deductions allow you to pay yourself first. Then you do not have to think as much about budgeting.

Chris

[scubatim84]

I will have to try some of these tips. I have just wrapped a picture of Fiji around my credit card to try and curb my spending. I have always done the personalizing accounts. ING direct lets you name your accounts. One thing I would add is to automate your finances. Automatic deductions allow you to pay yourself first. Then you do not have to think as much about budgeting.

Chris

Automatic withdrawals, especially for extra after-tax investing, can be great but I think it depends. If the person could do it on their own, I would never recommend automatic withdrawals, since I don't really think it's a good idea to entrust any company to automatically take money out of your bank account. However, if it's either that or the money will get spent instead, then lesser of two evils is definitely automatic deductions.

[rob62521]

We use many of these tips...hadn't thought about the photo wrapped around the credit card though. We have different accounts at the credit union to save up for many things like a Christmas club, a vacation account, etc.

[JoeP]

We name our accounts, and this helps partition money physically.

It is also possible to give yourself a virtual raise. We were able to do this by switching our auto and homeowners insurance, freeing up quite a bit of money. Additionally, we will be dropping our land line soon, freeing up even more. The result is similar to getting a raise, but unlike some folks who might find other ways to spend that new found money, we will be using this virtual raise to fortify our EF.

When this tactic is combined with an actual raise, the effect is powerful.

[Tonyall]

That was a pretty good article. A lot of it goes down to the fact that saving is as much about your mental outlook as anything. Some of the richest save nothing while those of limited means can often put a lot away over time.