Not Saving Enough for Retirement? Look at a picture of yourself in 40 years.

Gotta love Carl in the movie Up (Disney/ Pixar).

Why is it so hard for us to save for retirement? I mean we all hope/ assume that we will be around for a long time or at least the foreseeable future right? We have heard that Social Security may be just a fond memory from our past. We don't really want to work every day until we die either; we want to spend our golden years doing something...right?

Saving for retirement is logical. However, its surprising how few people actually contribute what they should in order to live a comfortable retirement lifestyle; more than half the US population will not be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement (read more here). So while saving for retirement is the logical, rational, thing to do... we as humans are notorious for not being logical or rational in many of our decisions (think eating habits, exercise, spending too much!).

So why don't we connect with the idea that what we are doing today, directly impacts our future selves? According to Ersner-Hershfield, Wimmer, and Knutson (2009), we humans, don't think about ourselves in the future as actually being ourselves in the future, our brain patterns actually showed that it was similar to us thinking about a complete stranger! So essentially when it comes to saving money its like we are choosing between spending our cash now or giving it to a stranger!

So more research was done based on the idea that maybe if a person can feel more connected to their 60, 70, 80 year old self, that they might be more inclined to save at a higher rate for their golden years. How can they feel more connected? What about having them view a digitally mastered image of themselves in the future?

What was found that when, we humans, were able to see our future self, we were better able to relate, and also see the 'person' (me) who would be dealing with the implications of our savings decisions. This led to "results suggest(ing) that interaction with a vivid version of one’s future self causes individuals to give modestly greater weight to long-term saving." Read the entire article from the National Institute of Health (NIH) here.

So why not check out your old(er) self! You can find many sites and apps that will do this; try the Aging Booth app (there's also one for Android), or this website. They may not be 100% true to form, but let me know if it freaks you out enough to save more for the future!

An additional note... companies could potentially provide some sort of visual aging software to their employees if they upload a picture, but there is still an impact if, when an employee is in the midst of selecting retirement options, sees an older avatar smiling with more savings and frowning with less- they tend to contribute a higher percentage. Interesting!

Another additional note...this research was done on college students, and for good reason. If we can get all our 20 somethings saving for retirement now...just think of what they could have in the future! Don't you wish you started saving earlier?

HERSHFIELD, HAL E. et al. “INCREASING SAVING BEHAVIOR THROUGH AGE-PROGRESSED RENDERINGS OF THE FUTURE SELF.” JMR, Journal of marketing research 48 (2011): S23–S37. PMC. Web. 20 Jan. 2016.

Fake a New High End Countertop for $150

When we bought our first home in Baltimore we put in lots of sweat equity especially when it came to painting. I went a little nuts; after finishing the walls in every room, I moved to the cabinets and kitchen counter top.

The cabinets were not easy as traditional wood cabinets, because they were the lovely white laminate stuff that doesn't like paint. I found the Gripper primer that makes anything stick and it worked great.  The first time I painted the kitchen cabinets I did them in red (lasted for a few years until I needed a change), the second time in an espresso faux wood grain finish (I just dragged a rag vertically to get a grain effect).

I even painted the counter-top in the kitchen by applying the gripper, 2 coats of high gloss black, I created texture by applying gold and silver paint using bubble wrap, and then sealed with 5 coats of Polyrylic (I probably didn't need to do that much but I wanted to be sure it was sealed). I sanded between each coat to ensure a smooth finish. It was a bit of a process but ended up looking pretty awesome. I had a hard time locating a picture of the black "granite" that I painted a while ago, but you get the idea here (you can also see the espresso cabinets which were just changed from bright red):

The counter lasted 5 years and it was still looking pretty good but we decided we wanted to lighten it up a bit. We still didn't want to spend a couple thousand on a new counter at this point so I did some research and found the Rustoleum Countertop Transformations product. It turned out wonderful and took a fraction of the time to complete (compared with my previous painting procedure!). I would highly recommend it if you are looking to enhance your kitchen for less than a couple hundred bucks (and don't want to spend 7 straight days painting, sanding, and waiting for 24 hour drying times). The both looked quite nice actually, but the Rustoleum product was a lot easier.

This picture shows what it looked like after the transformation, we used the Desert Sand color. This product created a lot smoother, more professional finish, in no time. We also later added a back splash that tied the cabinets in nicely! The pictures don't really do it justice, but it really looked nice! When we sold our house this year the Realtor wrote down high end counters- when we saw that we told him what we actually did and he was amazed!

7 Easy Ways to Reach your Financial Goals in 2016

Do you need a foolproof plan to get your butt into financial gear this year??

First step, what are your financial goals for 2016? Take a minute and write down the first 3 that come to your mind.

If you are like many others, you have likely listed one of the following:

• Save more
• Spend less
• Stick to my budget
• Pay down my debt
• Make more money
• Get organized

Second, be more specific. Do you want to save $100 more each month? Why? Is this for retirement, college savings, or just that vacation you want to take? All of the above?
Go through your list and make each one more specific, that way you can celebrate more and be comfortable that you are on your way to reaching your goal.

Now that you have your specific goal, what can you do to make it EASY to work towards and HARD to fall to the wayside?

Here are my 7 tips on making things EASY (or at least easier )on your financial mindset this year. Try them and let me know how they work!

1. Dedicate a separate checking account just for your expenses. Figure out what your fixed expenses are (rent, utilities, cell phone, internet etc.) and then have them automatically paid from this account. Divvy up your direct deposit, or paychecks so that the appropriate amount is going into your expense checking account and let it be. This way you know everything is getting paid and paid on time. And it helps with budgeting, since you don't have to constantly check in on yourself to make sure you didn't spend your rent money.
   
2. Set up a savings account for each goal. You might already have a retirement account or college savings set up. But what about for your other savings goals? Set up a separate account for each goal. This way you can track your progress and are less likely to pull out cash on an impulse. This means one for the emergency fund, one for the vacation fund, one for the house improvement fund etc. Even if you only start with tiny contributions to each, you have started.
3. Set up an automatic debt payment tied to every time you get paid. This should come out of your expense account. Whether you get paid twice a month or once a week, set this payment for the day after. This way, the payment is out of your face before you have a chance to spend it! 
4. Set up an automatic savings contribution tied to every time you get paid.  Same deal as the debt payment, set this up for the day after you get paid and bam! Before you know it you are on your way! This should also come out of your expense account (you are paying yourself). This takes 5 minutes or less. 
5. Transition to online statements. You not only reduce clutter in your house, but then you can find what you need quickly, oh, and help save the planet.
6. Switch to the envelope method for problem spending areas. Is one of your goals to spend less on take out? Or maybe its shoes? Give yourself a monthly cash allowance for these, and literally put it in an envelope. When its gone its gone.
7. Ask for a raise (if you deserve it)- its surprising how many people just go with the regular 1-2% annual raise and never think to ask for more! You don't know if you don't try! Don't deserve it yet? Enhance your skills so that you will. Whether its taking a free (or employer paid) class online or just dedicating a couple hours a week honing a skill/ hobby you enjoy. Just make sure that when you do get some more cash, you divvy a good chunk of it up to your monthly savings or debt reduction plan!

Do you have more? Let me know!