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

Prevodilac: Ivana Krivokuća Lektor: Tijana Mihajlović

Svi znamo da je važno štedeti

i da je to nešto što treba da radimo.

A ipak, opšte uzev, to radimo sve manje.

[Način na koji radimo]

Znamo šta treba da uradimo.

Pitanje je: kako da to uradimo?

Ovde sam da bih vas tome naučila.

Vaša štedljivost nije pitanje toga koliko ste pametni

niti koliko imate snažnu volju.

Iznos koji uštedimo zavisi od činilaca iz sredine oko nas.

Daću vam primer.

Sproveli smo istraživanje u kome smo, u jednoj grupi,

pokazivali ljudima njihov prihod jednom mesečno.

U drugoj grupi smo ljudima prikazivali njihov prihod jednom nedeljno.

Otkrili smo da je ljudima koji su gledali prihod svake nedelje

bolje išlo planiranje budžeta tokom celog meseca.

Bitan podatak je da nismo promenili koliko su novca dobijali;

samo smo promenili sredinu u kojoj su razumeli svoj prihod.

Ovakvi činioci iz sredine imaju uticaj.

Neću sa vama podeliti trikove koje već znate.

Neću vam ispričati kako da otvorite štedni račun

niti kako da počnete da štedite za penziju.

Ono što ću podeliti sa vama jeste kako da premostite jaz

između svojih namera da uštedite

i svojih postupaka.

Da li ste spremni?

Evo prve stavke:

iskoristiti snagu obavezivanja.

U suštini, razmišljamo o sebi na dva različita načina:

naše sadašnje i buduće ja.

U budućnosti smo savršeni.

U budućnosti ćemo štedeti za penziju,

smršati,

više 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 momenata za štednju kada dobijete povraćaj poreza.

Zato smo probali test A/B.

U prvoj grupi smo poslali poruku ljudima početkom februara,

sa nadom da još nisu podneli zahtev za porez.

Pitali smo ih:

„Ako dobijete povraćaj poreza,

koliko procenata biste voleli da sačuvate?“

To je vrlo teško pitanje.

Nisu znali da li će dobiti povraćaj niti koliko će iznositi.

Ali postavili smo ga bez obzira na to.

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

„Koliko procenata biste voleli da sačuvate?“

Evo šta se dogodilo.

U drugoj situaciji, kada su ljudi upravo dobili povraćaj,

želeli su da sačuvaju oko 17 posto vraćenog novca.

Ali u situaciji u kojoj smo pitali ljude pre nego što su uopšte podneli zahtev,

stopa štednje se povećala sa 17 na 27 procenata

kada smo pitali u februaru.

Zašto?

Zato što određujete obavezu za svoje buduće ja,

i naravno da vaše buduće ja može da uštedi 27 posto.

Ove velike promene u ponašanju vezanom za štednju

proističu iz činjenice da smo promenili sredinu donošenja odluke.

Hteli bismo da uspete da iskoristite tu istu moć.

Hajde na trenutak

razmislite o načinima na koje možete da prijavite svoje buduće ja

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

Registrujte se na aplikaciju

koja vam omogućava da unapred donosite odluke o uštedi.

Trik je u tome da morate imati obavezujući ugovor.

Pod dva: upotrebite prelazne trenutke u svoju korist.

Sproveli smo eksperiment sa veb-sajtom

koji pomaže starijim ljudima da podele domaćinstvo sa drugima.

Postavili smo dve reklame na društvenim mrežama,

usmerene na istu populaciju od 64 godine.

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

Jeste li spremni za penziju?

Deljenje kuće može pomoći.“

U drugoj grupi smo bili malo konkretniji

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

Jeste li spremni za penziju?

Deljenje kuće može pomoći.“

U drugoj grupi postižemo

naglašavanje da je nastupio prelazni period.

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

kada bismo 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 zahtev za sastanak u kalendar

dan pre sledećeg rođendana.

Odredite jednu stvar vezanu za finansije koju najviše želite

i posvetite joj se.

Treći i poslednji trik:

kontrolišite male, česte kupovine.

Sproveli smo nekoliko različitih studija

i otkrili da su glavni trošak zbog kojeg ljudi kažu da im je žao,

pored bankarskih taksi,

obroci u restoranima.

To je česta kupovina koju obavljamo skoro svaki dan

i predstavlja sporu smrt.

Ovde kafa, onde sendvič...

Sve se to sabira i umanjuje našu sposobnost da uštedimo.

Kada sam živela u Njujorku,

pogledala sam svoje troškove

i videla da sam potrošila preko 2 000 dolara

na aplikacije za prevoz.

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

To je bilo više od moje kirije u Njujorku.

Zavetovala sam se da to promenim.

The first is that I unlinked my credit card

Sledećeg meseca sam opet potrošila 2 000 dolara.

from my car-sharing apps.

Nije bilo promene, jer sama ta informacija nije promenila moje ponašanje.

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

Nisam promenila okruženje.

If I needed more,

Kada sam bila 4 000 dolara u minusu, uradila sam dve stvari.

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

Prvo sam skinula kreditnu karticu

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.

sa aplikacije za prevoz.

We aren't machines.

Umesto toga sam stavila debitnu karticu na kojoj je bilo samo 300 dolara mesečno.

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 da prođem kroz čitav proces dodavanja nove kartice,

But what our brains are very good at

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

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

Nismo mašine.

So I gave myself a limit.

Ne nosimo računaljku sa sobom svaki dan

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

da bismo računali koliko trošimo u odnosu na ono šta 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 uradili nešto.

because of the environmental changes that I did.

Tako sam postavila sebi ograničenje.

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

Mogu da koristim aplikaciju za prevoz samo tri puta nedeljno.

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

To me je primoralo da ograničim putovanja.

Those are my tips for you.

Izašla sam na kraj sa troškovima prevoza, 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 promena okruženja koje sam unela.

Dakle, ustanovite koji je to trošak u vašem slučaju

and spending and budgeting.

i promenite okruženje 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 saveti za vas.

Ali htela bih da zapamtite jednu stvar.

Let's do that with saving.

Kao ljudska bića, umemo da budemo 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 predvideti kako ćemo postupiti u određenim situacijama.

Hajde da to uradimo sa štednjom.

Promenimo svoje okruženje da bismo pomogli sebi u budućnosti.