The Power Of Visualization: Use Play Money to Track and Pay Off Your Debt
I came across this idea on Sense To Save’s post titled “This Is What Our Debt Looks Like”, and found it to be such a great concept that I couldn’t help writing about it.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines visualization as “bring[ing] something as a picture before the mind”. That’s exactly what was done on the aforementioned post. You’re greeted with a picture of Monopoly bills totaling $11,107, which happened to be the amount of the author’s debt at the time.
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Think of it, in just about any area where someone has to make a presentation, the presenter quite often will use a blackboard/whiteboard, hand circulars around, use an overhead projector, or almost anything to further illustrate his point. The word illustrate is very powerful here. It’s simply a way of making things clearer and more understandable through visualization.
It doesn’t matter if your challenge is athletic, intellectual, or financial, you need to visualize yourself succeeding or it won’t happen. Said success typically happens in three stages:
- Visualize your success
- Develop a plan of action
- Staying the course. That means tracking your progress and adjusting as needed.
Before you dismiss me as a typical motivational speaker, I want to point out that sight is a very powerful sense that can work for you incredibly if you use it correctly. Unfortunately, some financial goals they can be very hard to visualize in a way that helps on a day-to-day basis.
At this point I would like to make a distinction. Things that give us immediate gratification are much easier to visualize. If, for example, you’re saving for a down payment on a house or car, every time you go to an open house or visit a dealership, you’re able to walk away with something tangible, most likely a brochure. More importantly, you can “see”, in your mind’s eye, what your reward is going to be once your goal is achieved. This, in turn, provides positive reinforcement as to why you’re making certain financial choices.
On the other hand, some other financial goals (which happen to be the most important ones) turn out to be much more elusive in that regard. If you want to take a $1,000 7-day cruise next year, you can easily find the motivation to save the mandatory $100 or so every month. When the focus switches to paying off your debt, building an emergency fund, contributing to your 401(k), or investing for your retirement to the tune of $100 per month, the picture suddenly becomes less clear.
Going back to the three keys to success I previously mentioned, it can be said that a visualization technique will have a higher likelihood of success if it’s anchored in reality. And that’s why we have a hard time cutting back on the present in order to, for example, pay off debt. That’s also why I think that the Play Money Approach is simply brilliant!
The Play Money Approach can be used to achieve just about any financial goal, but my opinion is that it will be most effective when it comes to funding savings accounts and paying off debt. [Follow this link to print your own bills.]
Let’s say I tally up my debt and come to a $12,500 figure. That doesn’t really mean much besides the fact that it’s a fairly large amount. I’m positive, though, that my outlook will totally change if I spread out 125 (fake) $100 bills and can actually “see” how much I owe. And if, on top of that, if I decide to pay $250 towards the principal every month, and physically take out that $250 every month, how much easier will it be for me to stay the course until my debt is paid off? Physically “seeing” your balance shrink is much more powerful than reading that same shrinking balance on a statement or a computer screen. Similarly, how gratifying is it to “see” your savings grow? It’s also a visual deterrent to tapping into it for perceived emergencies that really aren’t. For added incentive, you can line up the bills on a highly visible board and remove them as your debt balance shrinks, or add them as your savings balance grows.
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If you want to optimize the chances of reaching your target then you need to grasp the power of visualization. Make it an integral part of your goal setting and tracking process. In most instances, visualization is about taking something that doesn’t exist yet (your goal) and incorporate it into your thought process until it turns into reality. In this case, taking something that already exists (your debt) and use it to achieve something that hasn’t materialized yet (being debt free) turns out to be just as effective!
April 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Thanks for the link-back! I think that once my husband and I are ready to tackle our car debt (which was $10,607, not $11k, btw
) I think I’ll post that Monopoly money near my desk so I can see it every day. Maybe I’ll post a picture of it on my blog as well, and put up a new photo each time the amount changes.
It really is more fun to be able to pay off debt with real money AND being able to see the difference with the fake money.
April 21st, 2008 at 11:03 am
The Carnival of Debt Reduction, No Debt Plan Edition…
No Debt Plan is a blog about living a debt-free life. If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed(e-mail subscription also available). Thanks for visiting!Welcome to the 136th Edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction!
My name is Kev…