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Sweating out bad spending habits
Could more exercise trigger less credit card use? Researchers say “yes.”
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Charles Duhigg
Want to save more money? Go to the gym.
That somewhat unconventional advice comes from Charles Duhigg, a New York Times reporter and the author of "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business." Duhigg says habits are triggered by one of five causes: specific places, specific times of day, certain emotions, the presence of certain people, or a preceding action.
“We’ve learned about this thing, the habit loop,” says Duhigg. “Every habit has three parts: a cue, a routine, and a reward. Your brain really stops functioning as a habit unfolds, which means we can have smaller brains and still have mental space to think aobut inventing fire or aircraft carriers or video games. But it also means that that’s why these patterns feel so uncontrolable... You actually stop thinking when you’re doing a habit.”
Duhigg talks about “keystone habits” which can cause a habitual change reaction and bring about serious change in someone’s life. Scientists have even identified some keystone habits that can have effects on our financial habits. Exercise happens to be one of these. People who start exercising start eating better, he says. And researchers have also found that people who start exercising use their credit cards less.
“Figure out what your keystone habits are,” says Duhigg, “and your credit card will stay in your pocket.”
Note: The audio found here is an extended version of the interview found on the podcast.
Haven't finished listening to the story on the podcast yet, but my question is: is there a proven cause and a fact or merely a correlation? I.e., does exercising more really lead to spending less, or do people who exercise also happen to spend less?
great story, Tess! i have found that the biggest error that individual investors make, as a whole, is that they do not know themselves, how their own personalities and practices affect investment decisions.
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David Kessler MD, as far as i know, was the first author to write on cues, habits and rewards regards eating.
Interesting subject, so I took the time to listen to longer interview. Maybe it’s just that my brain circuitry is different from the norm, but very little of what your guest said rang true for me. I have successfully changed many habits (eating, exercise, and financial), and little of what he discusses corresponds very closely to my actual experiences. Nor did I find that his explanations of the mental processes involved corresponded to my own. I conclude that he is a very personable guy, and he’s a journalist (and so presumably can write a good book), but he is not a reliable expert on this subject.
