So we left off with me taking a break from writing to focus on a career pivot into UX Design. I was considering getting a FinLit credential to educate myself and then help others to avoid money mistakes like mine. But I realized I was more interested in money psychology and the social issues around money than in the nuts-and-bolts of numbers and budgeting. Telling my story didn’t really seem like enough.
My last post talked about a big money
mistake I made, cashing out a retirement account. Back then I had no concept of
my future self. There are studies that show that the more real our future
selves feel to us, the greater our ability to save money will be. If the future
seems far away and our future self feels like a stranger, we’re less motivated
to take care of it. (https://youtu.be/V5BXuZL1HAg,
Kelly McGonigal: “The Willpower Instinct” 23:50; https://youtu.be/lw3YTbubyjI,
Keith
Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money?) Dr. McGonigal’s
video talked about an experiment where college students interacted with a
computer model of themselves with virtual age-progression. Those students saved
more. Why do I bring this up?
A close friend of mine just told me
yesterday that she’s planning to take out a loan against her 401k for the down
payment for a house. She is caring for her elderly parents and has taken on a
lot of responsibility for them. I had a moment of panic, picturing her future
self trapped and burnt out in her high-stress job, but unable to get out
because of the loan. But I remembered how much financial education has helped
me, and started to text her information I thought would be helpful. There’s a
detailed list of alternative ways of home financing here: https://www.marieclaire.com/home/a30433304/can-i-afford-home/
(also click on link to your state’s housing finance agency).
