Mike MichalowiczBusiness Author & Keynote Speaker Empowering Entrepreneurs

Money Answers Part 6 - Q&A Living in debt - you can still have fun #money #shorts #financialfreedom

26 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:59

In this short, Mike Michalowicz addresses the common impulse to eliminate all fun and pleasure while trying to pay off debt. He explains that extreme deprivation creates psychological resistance, leading to a "Scrooge" mindset and eventual binge‑like blow‑outs. Drawing on behavioral science, he likens the process to exercise: going too hard at once builds resistance, whereas gradual, consistent effort builds momentum. Michalowicz recommends allocating a modest, recurring “reward allowance” from the debt‑paying budget. This small, intentional spend provides dopamine‑driven gratification, keeps the habit loop active, and helps wire sustainable money habits for the long term, preventing burnout and reckless spending spikes.

Chapters

I'm in debt. My instinct is to cut out everything fun until it's gone, which feels wrong. I get it. And it's interesting. Just think about exercise. You're out of shape and you say, I'm going to work out. Well, I got to go hardcore. The problem is if you overdo it, you've built some resistance from doing it again. You want to start getting this behavioral momentum. One of the things that encourages repeated behavior is dopamine. Saving money or spending less and less can feel like deprivation. So we want to have some form of outlet to give us rewards so the dopamine gets released. If you simply go into this pure deprivation stage, it can result in a Scrooge-like mentality where I will always save money and become fearful of ever spending anything. And that's actually dangerous. But the most common expression of this is we save, we save until we say, I can't take it anymore. And then we explode. These little relief valves that let us out a little steam, but we're gonna allocate a small portion of your money to specifically allow you to have that reward mechanism, get that dopamine, and behaviorally wire yourself maintain the money habit for a lifetime.