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Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions
Yep–it’s that time of year again. You’ve probably read several financial New Year’s resolutions and maybe even have your own list going in your mind at this point. So rather than add to the cacophony of promises you are making to yourself right now we thought we’d share a few interesting ideas that could help you actually stick to some of those lofty goals you are setting. Here are a few of our favorites:
1. Visualize Your Gray Hairs Now
A recent study in the Journal of Marketing Research bears the academic title, “Increasing Saving Behavior through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self”. It basically suggests that if you picture yourself at retirement age, you will better be able to identify with your future self and, as a result, you will be more likely to make sacrifices today for the octogenarian you will become.
Need a little help imagining what you will look like? Check out the Face Transformer at the University of St. Andrews website which will let you upload a photo of youself and transform it into an old person. Then keep the photo next to your desk to remember to put a little money aside for those golden years.
2. Tie Saving & Investing to Your Other Resolutions
There’s a lot of talk about how to better use incentives to get ourselves to do things we don’t really want to do but that are good for us. Gympact is a new website that asks you to make specific workout commitments. If you stick to your workout as promised you will get paid, but if you don’t, it will cost you money. It’s a pretty draconian setup, but the spirit of it is right on.
One way to tie your saving and investing to your New Year’s resolutions is to pay yourself every time you don’t stick to one of your other resolutions. Missed your workout today? Doh. That’s $10 to your savings or investment account. Couldn’t resist that cheesecake at dinner? That’s definitely a $20 offense. And we like the idea of paying yourself much more than paying others.
3. Get Others to Help
Letting others in on your New Year’s resolutions makes those goals feel real. You can use a website like Stikk.com to announce to your friends and family just about any goal or resolution you’ve made. Of course, for your financial resolutions, you can also use GoalMine to set them up and share them.
Weights image via keertmoed
People image via Adam Jones, PhD
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