Save Money and Enjoy Yourself

This summer I have been trying to save some money. It has reminded me how hard it can be to save. A few summers ago I came up with a strategy that has proved effective in helping me save. 

Saving is Hard

One of the chief reasons that saving is hard is the difficulty in forgoing short-term pleasure in pursuit of long-term goals. It is so tough to turn down coffee, a meal out with a friend, or fast-food on the way home. When we consider the magnitude of our savings goal, five dollars does not seem like much. The pleasure of a coffee seems more important than moving less than 1% closer to our goal.

However, as we all can understand in the abstract, those decisions will be the difference between reaching our goal and failing with a sense of regret. How can we overcome this attraction to immediate gratification?

My Method

Often times we attempt to overcome our short-sightedness by trying to convince ourselves to do the right thing. I think this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If you have set a savings goal, you have already convinced yourself that that is the correct course of action. You know that it is the right thing to do in your mind. It is your willpower that is lacking. Instead of trying to improve your willpower through more intellectual arguments, why not lessen the amount of willpower you need to make the right decision?

Developing willpower is an important endeavor, but in the meantime, it is important to still make as many of the right decisions as possible. 

Next time you set a savings goal, think of something that you really enjoy to spend money on. It should be something that you do approximately once a week. For instance, a few summers ago when I first developed this method, my local nine-hole golf course had a special summer rate of $6 for a round. 

Now take that thing you enjoy and think about it every time you go to make a purchase. I cannot tell you how many times that summer I considered buying an iced coffee only to decide that I would rather spend that $6 on a round of golf. The reality is that I probably used my strong desire to play a round of golf to save money two to three times a day. I only golfed once or twice a week. This obviously helped me to save a significant amount of money. Instead of asking myself to forgo all immediate pleasure, I directed my attention toward another short-term pleasure that I desired more.

Final Thoughts

This is not a comprehensive savings plan or a perfect method for everyone. However, it is a method that has been effective for me, and I think that it works with the natural state of our minds, rather than trying to force us to reject all pleasure. One of the pitfalls of this method is that you end up spending as much on the rounds of golf as you do on the purchases you are avoiding by thinking about the round of golf. This is why the success of this method relies upon choosing the right pleasure to fixate on. Choose something too expensive or too infrequent, and the draw of it will not be enough to keep you from the immediate pleasure of purchases. Choose something that you will purchase too frequently, and you will never reach your savings goal.

I hope this method helps you in your savings goals. If you end up trying this method out, let me know how it works for you!

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