The Biggest Saver
October 26, 2006
The Biggest Loser
I caught the end of a reality TV show tonight called “The Biggest Loser”. People on the show learn to change their lifestyle in order to lose weight and regain good health. With a simple plan of diet and exercise, they change their lives. The person that loses the most weight, wins the competition.
The Biggest Saver
What if there was a show called “The Biggest Saver”? What if we had someone weighing us in financially every week on national television? How much more accountable would we be with our personal finances?
Healthy Appearances
The unfortunate thing about financial health is that unlike being overweight, you can’t always judge a person’s wealth by looking at them. If someone can’t fit into their pants, it is obvious to everyone. However, someone could be spending every penny they earn to pay for nice clothes, expensive cars, and a big house. To others, they come may come across as well to do, when in reality they are two weeks away from a financial heart attack.
Internal Motivation
Appearances can be discouraging for those that decide to make a change and get financially fit. If you lose weight, it shows. People offer compliments and ask how you did it. However, if you hit your savings goal 3 months in a row, no one knows. There are no compliments; you don’t feel any different physically. For this reason, the journey for financial health is often driven largely by internal motivation.
Keys to Success
Why are the people on the show able to lose 30-40% of their weight in a short period of time?
- They have a mentor. Someone encouraging them and keeping them motivated to push on when things get tough
- They follow a system. They’re shown a simple system of diet and exercise.
- They have the support of a team. It’s not them against the world. They have others to turn to for motivation and advice
If you can incorporate the above keys to success into your financial journey, I guarantee you will make great strides towards your financial goal; you will become the “Biggest Saver”!
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All posts by Ben Edwards
Accountability is important too, which is another reason the biggest losers actually lose weight. Everybody can see them on TV.
Make yourself accountable to family and friends. Tell them your plans, and keep them updated with how you are doing. Blogs are good that way too; there are a lot of them that say “I need to save this or get out of this much debt” and then they try to hold themselves accountable to their readers.
Good point, sometimes people do notice the effort you’re making and label you as cheap. What they don’t see is your growing savings account balance.
Why don’t you make a deal with the in-laws. If they’ll agree to pay for your kids college or fund your retirement accounts, then you’ll splurge on their daughter 🙂
You mentioned that “if you hit your savings goal 3 months in a row, no one knows. There are no compliments; you don’t feel any different physically.”
I think it’s even worse than “nobody noticing”. I am very frugal and my in-laws often think I’m cheap and that I’m denying their daughter the lifestyle she deserves. Which is funny because my wife is just about as frugal as me; she’s just not as focused or verbal about it. Oh well…