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

Prevoditelj: Sanda L Recezent: Danijela Rako

Svi znamo da je važno štedjeti

i da je to nešto što trebamo činiti.

A ipak, općenito, to radimo sve manje.

[Način na koji radimo]

Znamo što trebamo učiniti.

Pitanje je: kako to učiniti?

Ovdje sam kako bih vas tome naučila.

Vaša štedljivost nije pitanje toga koliko ste pametni

niti koliko imate snažnu volju.

Iznos koji uštedimo ovisi o čimbenicima iz naše okoline.

Dat ću vam primjer.

Proveli smo istraživanje u kojem smo u jednoj grupi

pokazivali ljudima njihov prihod na mjesečnoj bazi.

U drugoj grupi smo ljudima prikazali njihov prihod na tjednoj bazi.

Otkrili smo da je ljudima kojima je prikazan njihov tjedni prihod,

bolje išlo planiranje budžeta tijekom mjeseca.

Važan podatak je

da nismo promijenili koliko su novca dobivali,

samo smo promijenili okolinu u kojoj su razumjeli svoj prihod.

Ovakvi čimbenici okoline imaju svoj utjecaj.

Neću s vama podijeliti trikove koje već znate.

Neću vam pričati kako otvoriti štedni račun,

niti kako da počnete štedjeti za mirovinu.

Ono što ću podijeliti s vama je kako premostiti jaz

između svojih namjera da uštedite

i svojih postupaka.

Jeste li spremni?

Prvo:

koristiti snagu obvezivanja.

U osnovi, razmišljamo o sebi na dva različita načina:

naše sadašnje i buduće ja.

U budućnosti smo savršeni.

U budućnosti ćemo štedjeti za mirovinu,

smršaviti,

češće ćemo zvati roditelje.

Ali često zaboravljamo da je naše buduće ja

upravo ista osoba kao i naše sadašnje ja.

Znamo da je jedan od najboljih trenutaka za štednju kada dobijete povrat poreza.

Zato smo probali test A/B.

U prvoj grupi smo poslali poruku ljudima početkom veljače,

nadajući se da još nisu podnijeli zahtjev.

Pitali smo ih:

„Ako dobijete povrat poreza, koji postotak biste voljeli staviti na stranu?“

To je vrlo teško pitanje.

Nisu znali hoće li dobiti povrat niti koji iznos.

Ali postavili smo pitanje bez obzira na to.

U drugoj grupi smo pitali ljude odmah nakon što su dobili povrat novca:

„Koliki postotak biste voljeli uštedjeti?“

Evo što se dogodilo.

U drugoj situaciji, kada su ljudi upravo dobili povrat poreza,

željeli su sačuvati oko 17 posto tog novca.

Ali u situaciji kada smo pitali ljude prije nego što su uopće podnijeli zahtjev,

stopa štednje se povećala sa 17 na 27 posto

kada smo ih pitali u veljači.

Zašto?

Zato što se obvezujete za svoje buduće ja,

i naravno da vaše buduće ja može uštedjeti 27 posto.

Ove velike promjene u ponašanju vezanom za štednju

proizlaze iz činjenice da smo promijenili okolinu za donošenje odluke.

Htjeli bismo da uspijete iskoristiti tu istu moć.

Na trenutak

razmislite o načinima na koje možete uključiti svoje buduće ja,

za nešto za što danas znate da će biti pomalo teško.

Registrirajte se na aplikaciju pomoću koje možete unaprijed odlučivati o uštedi.

Trik je u tome da morate imati obvezujući ugovor.

Drugo: upotrijebite prijelazne trenutke u svoju korist.

Radili smo eksperiment s web stranicom

koja pomaže starijima da dijele smještaj s drugima.

Stavili smo dva oglasa na društvene mreže,

usmjerene na istu populaciju 64-godišnjaka.

U jednoj grupi smo rekli: „Hej, sve ste stariji.

Jeste li spremni za mirovinu?

Dijeljenje smještaja može pomoći.“

U drugoj grupi smo bili malo konkretniji

i rekli: „Imate 64 godine, ulazite u 65.

Jeste li spremni za mirovinu?

Dijeljenje smještaja može pomoći.“

U drugoj grupi postižemo

naglašavanje da je nastupio prijelazni period.

Iznenada,

vidjeli smo da je broj klikova, a na kraju i broj prijavljenih, porastao

kada smo to naglasili.

U psihologiji to nazivamo „efektom novog početka“.

Bilo da je u pitanju početak nove godine ili čak godišnjeg doba,

povećava se vaša motivacija da se aktivirate.

Zato sada odmah unesite oznaku u svoj kalendar

za dan prije sljedećeg rođendana.

Odredite jednu stvar vezanu za financije koju najviše želite

i posvetite joj se.

Treći i posljednji trik:

kontrolirajte male, česte kupovine.

Proveli smo nekoliko različitih istraživanja

i otkrili da su glavni trošak zbog kojeg ljudi žale, uz bankarske naknade,

obroci izvan kuće.

To je česta potrošnja koju obavljamo skoro svaki dan

i predstavlja sporu smrt.

Ovdje kava, tamo sendvič ...

Sve se to skuplja i smanjuje našu sposobnost da uštedimo.

Kada sam živjela u New Yorku,

pogledala sam svoje troškove

i vidjela da sam potrošila preko 2 000 dolara na aplikacije za prijevoz.

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

To je bilo više od moje stanarine u New Yorku.

Obećala sam sebi da ću to promijeniti.

The first is that I unlinked my credit card

Sljedeći mjesec sam opet potrošila 2 000 dolara.

from my car-sharing apps.

Nije bilo promjene jer sama ta informacija nije promijenila moje ponašanje.

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

Nisam promijenila okolinu.

If I needed more,

Nakon što sam bila 4 000 dolara u minusu, napravila sam dvije stvari.

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.

Prvo sam odjavila kreditnu karticu

s aplikacije za prijevoz.

We aren't machines.

Umjesto toga sam stavila debitnu karticu na kojoj je bilo samo 300 dolara mjesečno.

We don't carry around an abacus every day,

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

Ako bi mi trebalo više,

morala bih proći kroz čitav proces dodavanja nove kartice,

But what our brains are very good at

a znamo da svaki klik, svaka prepreka, mijenja naše ponašanje.

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

Nismo strojevi.

So I gave myself a limit.

Ne nosimo abakus sa sobom svaki dan

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

kako bismo računali koliko trošimo u odnosu na ono što želimo.

It forced me to ration my travels.

Ali našem mozgu vrlo dobro ide

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

računanje koliko puta smo učinili nešto.

because of the environmental changes that I did.

Stoga sam si postavila ograničenje.

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

Mogu koristiti aplikaciju za prijevoz samo tri puta tjedno.

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

To me je prisililo da ograničim putovanja.

Those are my tips for you.

Izašla sam na kraj s troškovima prijevoza, na zadovoljstvo mog supruga,

But I want you to remember one thing.

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

zbog promjene u okolini koje sam unijela.

Dakle, ustanovite koji je to trošak u vašem slučaju

and spending and budgeting.

i promijenite okolinu tako da vam otežava trošenje.

But luckily, we know this about ourselves,

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

To su moji savjeti za vas.

Ali htjela bih da upamtite jednu stvar.

Let's do that with saving.

Kao ljudska bića, znamo biti iracionalni kada je u pitanju štednja,

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

trošenje i planiranje budžeta.

Ali srećom, znamo za tu činjenicu o sebi

i možemo predvidjeti kako ćemo postupiti u određenim situacijama.

Učinimo to i sa štednjom.

Promijenimo svoju okolinu kako bismo pomogli svojem budućem ja.