Want to save more for retirement? First, imagine your future self
Live MintIt isn’t always easy to save for retirement, in part because for many people it is so far away that there’s no sense of urgency. “People struggle to save for the future, and part of the reason why is people struggle to connect with the future," says Katherine Christensen, an assistant marketing professor at Indiana University and the study’s lead author. “We wondered, based on past research, if people felt more connected to their future selves, would they be more likely to save?" While the research was tailored to give institutions like banks insights into how to make customers save more, Hershfield says individual savers can apply their findings using similar wording. “Since the present is more certain than the future, we’re reducing the feeling of uncertainty" by anchoring subjects with a mental destination of familiar present-day reality, she says.
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