There is a psychological reason why saving money is SO difficult
Saving money can be pretty hard, and budgeting is all part of the process.
Unfortunately if you're anything like us, strict financial planning goes straight out the window once we see those must-have shoes on ASOS or we have a big event coming up that requires fiscal preparation.
Luckily, a psychologist has finally given us the answer as to why it's just so freakin' hard to keep things on track financially.
‘I think the entire concept of budgeting is flawed,’ psychologist and financial planner Brad Klontz told The Science of Us.
‘Your emotional brain responds to the word budget the same way it responds to the word diet.'
'The connotation is deprivation, suffering, agony, depression.’
Sounds legit, there's nothing we want more than a slice of pizza on day one of a new healthy eating regime.
The strict principles of being on a budget can make you focus more on the things you want to spend money on, but know that you can't, which is what makes budgeting all the more difficult.
According to the psychologist, the trick to making a budget work is to treat it more like a spending plan than a spending fast, by planning out the things that you can and will spend on rather than cutting out the things you don't want to splurge on.
It's essentially the same as budgeting, but a bit of reverse psychology never hurt anyone, especially your bank balance.
