How do I motivate myself to save for retirement when it seems so far off into the future? You’re not the only one who struggles with this; we all do.  Click here to listen to this episode of the Money is Emotional podcast!

3 Reasons You Don’t Save

1.) In this consumer driven culture, you’re constantly bombarded by advertisements reminding us how deficient you are unless you own this or that product. It’s vitally important that you become mindful of your spending habits so you have money to save and invest.

2.) The other reason you don’t save is because you haven’t made it a priority. If saving isn’t important to you, you won’t do it. 

3.) You and I are biologically hard wired to choose a certain gain today over a possible gain in the future, even if the latter reward is much greater. Why? Back in our caveman days, our ancestors were running from saber-toothed tigers and scavenging for food. If they wanted to survive, our ancestors had to prioritize survival today so they would make it to tomorrow. Fortunately, there are some tricks you can use to override the primitive part of your brain so you can invest for the future.

So How Do I Motivate Myself To Save For Retirement?

One way to fire up your desire to invest for your future is to picture your elderly self. Use an app like SnapChat, and find a filter to age a picture of “current you” to see what you’ll look like in your golden years.

You might find it a little unnerving to see your elderly self, but that’s the point.

I hope when you look at “future you,” you’ll have some compassion and want to take care of him or her as you would your elderly parent or grandparent. Think of how you want life to be like for elderly you. Do you want to be zipping around your golf course community in south Florida or stuck in a government-funded retirement home? Print a picture of elderly you to put on your vision board. Vow to make good investment decisions for him or her right now. 

The other way to motivate yourself is to see just how much a small amount of money saved on a monthly basis will compound over time. Just $100 per month from age 18 to age 68 at 8% grows to $743,606!