Top three money mindset hacks to make your life easier
No spreadsheet? No problem.
Welcome to Frances Cook's Money Memo, where you stay up to date with the latest tips to keep your cash under control.
Hey team,
Hate budgets? Same.
Feel like you’ll never nail being “good” with money? I’ve been there.
Here’s the thing, though. Your brain isn’t actually trying to sabotage you. It just doesn’t speak the same language as your spreadsheet.
This week on Making Cents, I chatted to Tomas from Otto, who went deep into the world of behavioural finance to build their app.
I love finding ways to hack our brains to make life easier. There’s enough hard stuff already - why not find ways to make it easier, especially for the important things like money?
Here are three of my favourite money mindset shifts from the episode.
1. You don’t need more willpower – you need better systems
If you’ve ever felt like a financial failure because you couldn’t stick to a strict budget… congratulations, you’re one of the 90%.
Willpower runs out. Relying on that usually dooms us to failure.
Meanwhile, if you change your environment to make good habits automatic? You’re golden.
Ditch the guilt trips, and set up systems instead.
Automate savings for the day after pay day
Every time you spend, round it up to put $1 towards future goals
Have a nightly scroll through your banking app, to check what you’ve spent, and keep a casual eye on things.
Insert your own tip here…? I’d love to know what new habits and systems you’ve created - either comment at the bottom of this newsletter, or hit reply.
2. Make saving feel like spending
There’s a reason that spending can feel addictive - it actually is.
That little dopamine hit from a new pair of boots, or holiday, or hell even the much-maligned cafe coffee.
Our brains crave it.
So hack it. Find a way to gamify your savings or investing goals too.
My favourite? Create a streak.
It’s why Duolingo works so well, or why you keep Snapping your friend even if you have nothing to say. We love to keep a streak going.
So create a savings or investing streak, where you track how long you can keep money going to Future You.
Doesn’t matter if one day you only put in $1. Keep that streak going.
It’s not cheating. It’s psychology.
(Lots more on gamifying in the episode here.)
3. Stop trying to be “good with money”
Because “good” usually translates to “perfect” – and that’s a setup for failure.
If beating yourself up about money was going to work… wouldn’t it have worked already?
Instead, try this. What if you were just curious about your money?
Track it, explore it, and notice what’s going on, without judgment.
Guilting yourself will make you just avoid ever looking at your money, and that’s not going to help at all.
Meanwhile, just keeping an eye on things means you’ll notice patterns. Over time, you’ll auomatically start to course-correct.
And it’s a lot less exhausting than beating yourself up every time you buy a coffee.
So if you’ve ever wished it all felt easier – give this one a listen.
And don’t forget to subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. If you find my work valuable, smashing that subscribe button is the biggest support you can give me.
Coming Up
Interest rates are finally dropping – and mortgage-holders everywhere are breathing a cautious sigh of relief. But what should you actually do now?
I wanted to get under the skin of the banking world for this one, ask them their secrets, and how it all works from their side of things.
So I hauled the very patient Nicole Pervan from Kiwibank behind a microphone, to get into the real talk.
How do you use this moment to pay off your mortgage faster, without giving up your sanity?
Is fixing or floating smarter when it’s all a bit wild out there?
What is the very real impact of global chaos (hi Trump) on your home loan?
Whether you're already on the property ladder or still planning your first step, this is your mortgage game plan for 2025.
It drops on Thursday, so if you’re subscribed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, you’ll get that automatically.
The Kiwibank team also have more great insights on what’s happening with interest rates, and how you can make the most of them - check that out here.
Until next time!
- Frances
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Being curious about money - that's a great tip thank you!
I created a spreadsheet budget to track my income / expenses but after three months I ran out of ... something. So your comment about brains not thinking in spreadsheets hits the mark, thank you!
It's a little thing, but i have a lot of smaller of accounts (thanks for making that easy, Kiwibank!) and I name them with exactly what they are for. Tricks my brain into thinking that money can ONLY be spent on that thing, and removes the temptation to dip into them for other spending. I think this is a tip you've shared before, too?