What’s your currency? I remember back when Dr Phil’s show was still good and helpful, he’d talk about having a personal currency. He would insist that when you’re trying to get your children to comply, you have to find their currency. By knowing the child’s currency you were able to reward and punish. Dr Phil’s theory was that children would comply if the reward or loss was something valuable to the child.
I don’t remember what company it is whose slogan was once: Nothing tastes as good as thin feels. That slogan is along the same lines as Dr Phil’s currency message. Being thin is the currency. The problem with that is although being thin is wonderful and feels wonderful, there are many foods that taste fantastic and can ruin being thin. That’s why the diet business is such big business; we need help to forget how much we want to sit and each a whole death by chocolate cake ourselves.
This can also be applied to savings. What will you save for? Can you deny yourself instant gratification to save for what you want?
When I was a little girl there were a lot of things I wanted. There was the neatest toy store in the town where I grew up. The store had the best toys too. My parents were not going to buy me everything I wanted. In order to add to my doll collection, I had to save up my own money. I really wanted the dolls I wanted, so I saved. It was such a great feeling to pay with money I’d saved.
Saving is a wonderful thing. Interest rates are not great now, but being able to access cash and buy something outright is the best feeling; certainly much better than opening credit card statements.