4 psychological hacks to help you save

The truth is, you can adopt a saving mindset no matter where you’re at with your money – even if you’re not raking in Jay-Z level cheques. There are so many habits to pick up that can help you manage your money and gain a better overview of your finances.​

It’s all about training your brain – and much like developing a routine, it’s all in the practice.​

With that in mind, we’ve explored a few no-brainer, minimal effort required psychological hacks that will change how you handle your money.

Sometimes we throw money around so frivolously we forget we accrued it by working our fingers to the bone.​

Valuing items in terms of how many hours you worked to earn them will change your whole perspective on spending.​

This habit works best when it comes to more extravagant purchases or impulse buys. When the price of a new jacket (that you’ll probably only wear for one season, let’s be real) equates to a whole week’s worth of work, it might be better for the environment – and your wallet – if you reconsider the purchase.​

We’re not saying spontaneously treating yourself is off-limits, but taking some time to choose items you’ll actually love and know you’ll get great use out of will get you into the habit of being more mindful about what you’re buying.

Overthinking anything is a productivity killer. Every day we’re overwhelmed with a variety of money-focused decisions we have to make because we’re adults. Whether it’s paying rent or bills, buying groceries, or contemplating whether you’ll actually use that app subscription eventually, it places money-related stress front-of-mind, leading to rumination about the dollars flying out of our pockets.​

One of the best ways you can trick your brain into calming down about your cash – giving you a clearer space to understand your finances – is to automate bill payments and regular savings transfers. Humans are weak-minded creatures – when we have the agency to actually enter our accounts to pay bills the tendency to procrastinate kicks in and we end up spending that money on something else. Automating payments will save you a lot of mental struggle because the choice to get essential payments out of the way is made for you.​

Bankwest provides you with options to set up savings goals and schedule regular payments into chosen accounts every payday to build up your savings. Find out more about this feature and other tools to help you save.

This one is great for the hyper-organised among us. Once you’ve tucked into bed each night to do a routine pre-sleep scroll on your phone, ‘zero out’ your transaction account. That means if you’ve got $67 in your transaction account at the end of the day, send $7 over to your savings account, rounding back to the nearest tenth.​

If you’ve got a particular saving goal in mind, this can be an effective everyday action to get into – on the surface, $7 doesn’t seem like much, but it’ll hit differently once you start to see your little pile of money grow week on week.​

Putting aside small amounts like this could help you see the value of saving in a whole new light as you come to understand how much each dollar adds up – whether you’re saving or spending. This method can also get you in the know about how much money you have each morning, and starting out on a nice round number is an easy way to track spending if maths isn’t your strong suit.

You’ve probably heard about the power of manifestation a million times, and you might have been sceptical. But turning a financial goal into something you want to achieve rather than a task you must achieve makes it so much more fun, and frames saving as less of a sacrifice or burden.

Because money can be an inherently stressful thing, switching your mindset to one of positivity can help you shift your focus and attract those big bucks.​