Summary
Here's what to remember:
- Make savings automatic.
- Save, even if you have student loans.
- Participate in your employer's matching plan.
- Reward yourself for saving.
- Envision your future self.
- Start saving young.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are gonna start in caveman times |
| 0:04.2 | All right, you are a caveman just go with me here or a cave woman |
| 0:08.1 | Either way, you're pretty hairy um, you know attractive in your own way |
| 0:11.9 | But but we are roaming around this Savannah. You're you're fighting for your life every day |
| 0:16.8 | You're foraging for food. I mean danger is everywhere. It's it's kind of exciting |
| 0:21.5 | But it's also kind of scary because there's wolves and saber-toothed tigers and they're creeping up behind you all the time |
| 0:27.2 | It's like whoa |
| 0:30.3 | Now is this the best time to be thinking about saving and your 401k retirement account and stuff like that? |
| 0:37.2 | I mean no of course not that caveman don't think about that stuff |
| 0:40.6 | You need to survive the day and eat food and don't get eaten yourself and okay |
| 0:45.4 | We're being stupid and corny here, but this is in fact a good lesson about saving money |
| 0:51.1 | Because the point is that we are hardwired to focus on the presence and immediate gratification |
| 0:56.2 | And it's been that way for a very long time and this is like the opposite of what your brain has to do to focus on saving money |
| 1:05.0 | Behavioral economists call it discounting the future. We basically say it's hard for us to wait |
| 1:10.2 | We don't want to wait. We want to get it right now at this moment |
| 1:13.9 | And we discount the importance of what we'll need in the future |
| 1:17.6 | So actually to save money for the future you have millions of years of evolution to fight against but there's a way to win the fight |
| 1:27.2 | Oh, sorry that was me |
| 1:33.6 | This is your NPR life kit for saving and investing and in this episode |
| 1:38.6 | We're gonna be talking about how to start saving money and it's gonna be worth it because you know |
| 1:43.2 | Going on vacations is fun and I want to retire with a nice cabin and a fishing boat and be super happy down the road |
| 1:49.5 | And to do that you have to actually start saving money and sticking it away somewhere |
... |
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