The whole concept of “saving” can present itself as a bit of a chore once you hit a certain age.
It once signified grasping on to your parentally-funded 50c canteen money up until Friday to splurge on 4 icy poles at once, eventually falling into a corn starch and artificial sugar-induced coma by the afternoon.
Then life hits, we become Big People and it can become a task we wholeheartedly avoid.
There’s the idea that saving means placing thousands away at once in a James and Lily Potter-esque Gringotts vault for your future spending.
However, like most other aspects of the Harry Potter universe, that is not the case.
You can adopt a “saving” mindset no matter where you’re at with your money – even if you’re not raking in Jay-Z-level cheques (which like, none of us are), there are so many habits to pick up that’ll help you manage your money and gain a better overview of your finances.
The reality is, it’s all about training your brain and much like developing a routine, it’s all in the practice.
So, with that in mind, we’ve explored a few no-brainer, minimal effort required psychological hacks that’ll change how deal with your dosh.
Value Items Based On Your Work Hours
Sometimes we throw money around so frivolously we forget we accrued it by working our dang fingers to the bone for the man.
Valuing items in terms of how many hours you worked to earn them will change your whole perspective on spending.
This habit definitely works best when it comes to more extravagant purchases or impulse buys – when the price of a new jacket (that you’ll probably only wear for one season, let’s be real) equates to a whole week of work, it’s way better for the environment and your wallet to maybe reconsider the purchase.
Now, we’re not saying that spontaneously treating yourself is off-limits but taking some time to choose items that you actually love and know you’ll get great use out of will get you into the habit of being super-mindful about what you’re buying.
Automate All Yr Savings And Bill Payments
Overthinking anything is a productivity killer.
Every day we’re overwhelmed with a variety of money-focused decisions we have to make because we’re, unfortunately, ~adults~.
Whether it’s paying rent, bills, buying groceries and contemplating whether you’ll actually use your Creative Cloud subscription eventually, it places money-related stress front-of-mind, leading to rumination on the dollars flying out of our pockets.
One of the best ways you can trick your brain into calming the heck down about your cash, giving you a clearer space to understand your finances, is to automate bill payments and regular savings transfers.
Humans are unfortunately weak-minded creatures – when we have the agency to actually enter our accounts to pay bills the tendency to procrastinate kicks in and we end up spending that money on something else.
Automating payments will save you a lot of mental struggle because the choice to get essential payments out of the way is literally made for you.
Banks like Bankwest provide customers with options to customise their savings account to schedule payments, as well as schedule transfers from transactions accounts to your savings accounts every payday to build up savings.
The “Zero Out” Method
This one is great for the hyper-organised amongst us.
Once you’ve tucked into bed each night to do a routine pre-sleep scroll, “zero out” your transaction account – basically, if you’ve got $67 in your transactions account at the end of the day, send $7 over to your savings account, rounding back to the nearest tenth.
If you’ve got a particular saving goal in mind, this can be an effective everyday action to get into – on the surface, $7 doesn’t seem like heaps, but it’ll really hit different once you start to see your little pile of money grow week on week.
Putting aside small amounts like this could help you understand the value of saving in a whole new light – adjust your brain when spending regularly to understand the value each dollar has.
This method could get you in the know about how much money you have each morning, and starting out on a nice ~round~ number is an easy way to track spending if you’re a maths-numpty like me.
Manifest Your Dream Luxe Life
We know you’ve absolutely heard about the power of manifestation from your Co-Star loving friends a million times. I hate to side with the superstition peddling numpties in our lives, but it works.
Turning a financial goal into something you want to achieve rather than a task you must achieve makes it so much more fun, and frames saving as less of a sacrifice or burden.
Because money can be an inherently stressful thing, switching our mindset to one of positivity can help you shift your focus and attract those big bucks.
Of course, all these tips don’t take your objectives or financial situation into account and you should seek relevant professional advice. Terms of use apply for Bankwest app.
