Mike discovered that building money habits on top of existing routines, like his workout schedule, works better than creating new ones from scratch. Most financial advice ignores this approach, but anchoring to habits you already do makes money behaviors stick.
Mike, I really appreciate this. You emphasize working with existing habits instead of forcing new ones. That speaks to me. How did you uncover that insight? And why do you think it's so overlooked in personal finance?
So I did it with fitness. I work out very regularly.
Religiously.
Religiously. But it's not because of willpower, and it's not because I like working out. I can't think, including this morning, a single time, like, oh, that was so fun. Yes. At the end, I'm like, oh, I. Oh, I lament it. But after it's done, done, and I'm in the recovery state and I'm sitting down, I'm like, oh, I just feel good. I feel healthy. So after the pain, the future point feels good, but getting through the pain is very difficult. So I was like, okay, how do I get through it? I found a hack for myself. This was about 15, 20 years ago. I tried to use willpower. It's like, I'm going to work out on my own. I'm going to really commit to. I played sports in college, and I kind of got off the wagon a little bit, and I'm like, I'm getting back on. It's going to be great. And that lasted for about a day or two. So I started to do is observing my patterns. I'd wake up in the morning, say, I'm going to work on the gym. I say, well, bathroom first. So go to bathroom. Okay. Then I'm like, well, let me make a little cup of coffee or have something to drink first. And then, you know, settle in. And then I'm going to go work out. And then I check the news. There's a lot going on. And then I'm like, oh, my gosh, the day's getting away again. I'll. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow. Well, in that pattern, I noticed there was a predictable pattern. Wake up, bathroom, coffee. So I said, okay, I'm going to insert a behavioral intercept. What I did, I literally took my sneakers and put them on the toilet seat. I'd wake up in the morning, I'd walk in the bathroom. And I cannot use a bathroom now without grabbing my sneakers. With my sneakers in my hands, I put them on my feet. And then behavioral momentum kicks in. I'm like, okay, it's on my feet. At least go walk down to the gym or walk out to the gym. I get to the gym, like, just. Even if I work out for five minutes, just. Just move a little bit. And the momentum continues. So the. The key here is what is the smallest step that, that you cannot avoid, that you must take. And when you take that step, momentum will be your ally. Don't ask yourself to do huge things. Don't say, well now I'm gonna have a 20 mile run or something with the sneakers on. Can I get to the track once I get to the track just even if I do a lapse, okay? And over time you start building this and it becomes habit. Today I don't put my sneakers on the toilet seat. I'll do it when I go to a hotel, okay? But I now have a different behavioral intercept. My pajamas I store in our closet in a drawer where when I open the drawer the sneakers are sitting in there. So at night when I go to bed I'll put my pajamas on, put the sneaker in, sneakers and then when I get changed again I have to grab my sneakers to put my pajamas back so it triggers it.
