One of the key reasons people who have enough money to save don’t do it is because it can feel passive. While spending money feels active, saving feels like “not spending” and therefore passive.

 

Reverse this. Make saving an action. Put the money into a place you want to keep it. Choose a new investment vehicle. Add new money to your existing savings, and note how much it has increased.

 

This is action.

 

This is important. The only reason “retail therapy” works in the very short-term is that action removes the cortisol hormone that builds up when our system is under stress. Any action will remove it: a walk, for example.

 

Make saving money an action and it will do the same thing, but the stress will be removed for longer, because you will not experience any buyer’s remorse. You will still have the money, after all.

 

It is why we always put saving before spending. Left until after spending, saving isn’t an action. It is just what’s left. Saved first, it is an action. It feels good.

 

It puts us back on the path.

 

Save some money now. Take some out of an account where it might be spent and send it to an account where you can invest it.