3 psychological tricks to help you save money | The Way We Work, a TED series

Translator: Penny Martínez Reviewer: Alicia Ferreiro

Todos sabemos que aforrar é importante

e é algo que deberiamos estar facendo.

E aínda así, en xeral, aforramos cada vez menos.

[Como funcionamos]

Sabemos o que debemos facer.

A pregunta é: como o facemos?

E iso é o que vin a aprenderlles.

O seu comportamento de aforro non depende do listo que sexa

ou de canta forza de vontade teña.

O que aforramos depende das claves ambientais que nos rodean.

Déixenme darlles un exemplo.

Fixemos un estudo no que, nun grupo,

amosábamoslle á xente os seus ingresos mensualmente.

Noutro grupo, amosamoslle á xente os seus ingresos semanalmente.

E atopamos que a xente que vía os seus ingresos semanalmente

administraba mellor os cartos durante todo o mes.

Pero é importante saber

que non cambiamos a cantidade que recibía a xente,

senon tan só o ambiente no que entendían os seus ingresos.

E indicios ambientais coma estes causan un impacto.

Non vou compartir con vostedes trucos que xa saben.

Non lles vou dicir como abrir unha conta de aforro

ou como comezar a aforrar para a súa xubilación.

O que vou compartir con vostedes é como cubrir a distancia

entre a súa intención de aforrar

e as súas accións.

¿Prontos?

Aquí vai o número un:

aproveite o poder do compromiso previo.

Básicamente, pensamos en nós mesmos de dúas maneiras diferentes:

o noso ser presente e o noso ser futuro.

No futuro, somos perfectos.

No futuro imos aforrar para a xubilación,

imos perder peso,

imos chamar máis aos nosos pais.

Pero moitas veces esquecemos que o noso ser futuro

é xustamente a mesma persoa que o noso ser presente.

Sabemos que un dos mellores momentos para aforrar é coa devolución de impostos.

Así que fixemos unha proba A / B.

No primeiro grupo, enviamos un texto ás persoas a principios de febreiro,

agardando que fose antes de presentaren os impostos.

E preguntámoslles:

"Se recibe un reembolso de impostos, que porcentaxe desexa gardar? "

Esta é unha pregunta moi difícil.

Non sabían se ían recibir unha devolución ou cantos cartos serían.

Pero nós fixemos a pregunta igual.

No segundo grupo, preguntamos á xente xusto despois de recibir a súa devolución,

"Qué porcentaxe desexa aforrar?"

E isto foi o que aconteceu.

Na segunda condición, cando acaban de recibir a súa devolución,

querían aforrar preto do 17 por cento da súa devolución.

Pero na primeira condición, ao preguntar antes de que presentasen os impostos,

as taxas de aforro aumentaron do 17 ao 27 por cento

cando preguntamos en febreiro.

Por que?

Porque se están comprometendo vostedes co seu ser futuro,

e por suposto o seu ser futuro pode aforrar o 27 por cento.

Estes grandes cambios no comportamento do aforro

viñeron por mor de cambiar o ambiente da toma de decisións.

E queremos que poidan aproveitar ese mesmo poder.

Así que tómense un momento

e pensen nas formas nas que poden compromenterse co seu ser futuro

para algo que saben que hoxe será un pouco duro.

Rexístrese nunha aplicación que lles deixen tomar decisións de aforro con antelación.

O truco é: vostede ten que ter ese contrato vinculante.

Número dous: use momentos de transición para a súa vantaxe.

Fixemos un experimento cun sitio web

que axuda a adultos maiores a compartir a súa vivenda.

Publicamos dous anuncios en redes sociais,

dirixidos á mesma poboación de 64 anos.

Nun grupo dixemos: "Ei, estás envellecendo.

Está listo para xubilarse?

Compartir casa pode axudar ".

No segundo grupo, fomos un pouco máis específicos

e dixemos: "Tes 64 anos, vas para 65.

Está listo para xubilarse?

Compartir casa pode axudar ".

O que facemos nese segundo grupo

é resaltar que están a pasar unha transición.

E de súpeto,

vimos que aumentaron as taxas de inscrición

cando resaltamos iso.

En psicoloxía chamamos a isto o "efecto novo comezo".

Sexa o comezo dun ano novo ou incluso dunha nova tempada,

A súa motivación para actuar aumenta.

Así que, agora mesmo, apunte no seu calendario

o día anterior ao seu seguinte cumpreanos.

Identifique o que quere facer financieiramente.

E comprométase con iso.

O terceiro e último truco:

obteña control sobre as compras pequenas e frecuentes.

Fixemos algúns estudos diferentes

e atopamos que a compra número un da que a xente se arrepinte,

tras as taxas bancarias, é comer fóra.

É un gasto frecuente que facemos case todos os días,

e é un pozo sen fondo.

Un café aquí, un burrito alí ...

Suma e diminúe a nosa capacidade para aforrar.

Cando vivía na cidade de Nova York,

mirei os meus gastos

e vin que gastaba máis de USD 2000 en aplicacións para compartir auto.

So now that I was 4,000 dollars in the hole, I did two things.

Era máis que meus gastos en vivenda en New York.

E prometín facer un cambio.

The first is that I unlinked my credit card

Ao mes seguinte, volvín gastar USD 2000,

from my car-sharing apps.

sen cambios, porque a información por si soa non cambiou o comportamento.

Instead, I linked a debit card that only had 300 dollars a month.

Non cambiei o meu ambiente.

If I needed more,

E agora que tiña un burato de USD 4000, fixen dúas cousas.

I had to go through the whole process of adding a new card,

and we know that every click, every barrier, changes our behavior.

We all know that saving is important

and is something that we should be doing.

And yet, overall, we're doing less and less of it.

[The Way We Work]

We know what we need to do.

The question is: How do we do it?

And that's what I'm here to teach you.

Your savings behavior isn't a question of how smart you are

or how much willpower you have.

The amount we save depends on the environmental cues around us.

Let me give you an example.

We ran a study in which, in one group,

we showed people their income on a monthly basis.

In another group, we showed people their income on a weekly basis.

And what we found was that people who saw their income on a weekly basis

were able to budget better throughout the month.

Now, it's important to know

that we didn't change how much money people were receiving,

we just changed the environment in which they understood their income.

And environmental cues like this have an impact.

So I'm not going to share tricks with you that you already know.

I'm not going to tell you how to open up a savings account

or how to start saving for your retirement.

What I am going to share with you is how to bridge this gap

from your intentions to save

and your actions.

Are you ready?

Here's number one:

harness the power of pre-commitment.

Fundamentally, we think about ourselves in two different ways:

our present self and our future self.

In the future, we're perfect.

In the future, we're going to save for retirement,

we're going to lose weight,

we're going to call our parents more.

But we oftentimes forget that our future self

is exactly the same person as our present self.

We know that one of the best times to save is when you get your tax return.

So we tried an A/B test.

In the first group, we texted people in early February,

hopefully before they even filed for their taxes.

And we asked them,

"If you get a tax refund, what percentage would you like to save?"

Now this is a really hard question.

They didn't know if they would receive a tax refund or how much.

But we asked the question anyway.

In the second group, we asked people right after they received their refund,

"What percentage would you like to save?"

Now, here's what happened.

In that second condition, when people just received their tax refund,

they wanted to save about 17 percent of their tax refund.

But in the condition when we asked people before they even filed their taxes,

savings rates increased from 17 percent to 27 percent

when we asked in February.

Why?

Because you're committing for your future self,

and of course your future self can save 27 percent.

These large changes in savings behavior

came from the fact that we changed the decision-making environment.

We want you to be able to harness that same power.

So take a moment

and think about the ways in which you can sign up your future self

for something that you know today will be a little bit hard.

Sign up for an app that lets you make savings decisions in advance.

The trick is, you have to have that binding contract.

Number two: use transition moments to your advantage.

We did an experiment with a website

that helps older adults share their housing.

We ran two ads on social media,

targeted to the same population of 64-year-olds.

In one group, we said, "Hey, you're getting older.

Are you ready for retirement?

House sharing can help."

In the second group, we got a little bit more specific

and said, "You're 64 turning 65.

Are you ready for retirement?

House sharing can help."

What we're doing in that second group

is highlighting that a transition is happening.

All of a sudden,

we saw click-through rates, and ultimately sign-up rates, increase

when we highlight that.

In psychology, we call this the "fresh start effect."

Whether it's the start of a new year or even a new season,

your motivation to act increases.

So right now, put a meeting request on your calendar

for the day before your next birthday.

Identify the one financial thing you most want to do.

And commit yourself to it.

The third and final trick:

get a handle on small, frequent purchases.

We've run a few different studies

and found that the number one purchase people say they regret, after bank fees,

is eating out.

It's a frequent purchase we make almost every day,

and it's death by a thousand cuts.

A coffee here, a burrito there ...

It adds up and decreases our ability to save.

Back when I lived in New York City,

I looked at my expenses

and saw that I spent over 2,000 dollars on ride-sharing apps.

It was more than my New York City rent.

I vowed to make a change.

And the next month, I spent 2,000 dollars again --

no change, because the information alone didn't change my behavior.

I didn't change my environment.

A primeira foi desvincular a miña tarxeta de crédito

das miñas aplicacións.

We aren't machines.

E puxen no seu lugar unha tarxeta de débito que só tiña USD 300 ao mes.

We don't carry around an abacus every day,

adding up what we're spending, in comparison to what we wanted.

Se precisaba máis,

tiña que pasar todo o proceso de engadir unha nova tarxeta,

But what our brains are very good at

e sabemos que cada clic ou barreira cambia o noso comportamento.

is counting up the number of times we've done something.

Non somos máquinas.

So I gave myself a limit.

Non levamos un ábaco con nós todos os días,

I can only use ride-sharing apps three times a week.

engadindo o que estamos gastando, en comparación co que queriamos.

It forced me to ration my travels.

Pero no que os nosos cerebros son moi bos

I got a handle on my car-sharing expenses to the benefit of my husband,

é en contar o número de veces que fixemos algo.

because of the environmental changes that I did.

Así que me puxen un límite.

So get a handle on whatever that purchase is for you,

Só podo usar aplicacións para compartir auto tres veces á semana.

and change your environment to make it harder to do so.

Iso obrigoume a racionar as miñas viaxes.

Those are my tips for you.

Controlei os meus gastos de compartir auto polo ben do meu marido,

But I want you to remember one thing.

As human beings, we can be irrational when it comes to saving

grazas aos cambios ambientais que fixen.

Así que leven un control en calquera que sexa a súa compra,

and spending and budgeting.

e cambie o seu entorno para facela máis difícil.

But luckily, we know this about ourselves,

and we can predict how we'll act under certain environments.

Estes son os meus consellos.

Pero quero que lembre unha cousa.

Let's do that with saving.

Como seres humanos podemos ser irracionais á hora de aforrar

Let's change our environment to help our future selves.

e gastar e administrar os cartos.

Pero por sorte, coñecémonos,

e podemos predicir como actuaremos baixo certos ambientes.

Fagámolo co aforro.

Cambiemos o noso entorno para axudar ao noso ser futuro.