The Biggest Saver

Written by Nickel - 5 Comments

This article is a guest blogger submission written by Ben and first published at MoneySmartLife. If you like what you see, why not subscribe to his RSS feed?

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”!

Published on December 4th, 2006 - 5 Comments
Filed under: Saving & Investing
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

Comments (scroll down to add your own):

Nickel, this is exactly why my husband and I are huge supporters of Dave Ramsey. We took his 13-week course that allowed us to build relationships with people that would become our support group. Ramsey encourages people to find someone that will be honest and supportive of your financial goals. We’ve found that it is an essential element of your financial journey, and encourage anyone and everyone to do the same.
Comment by Emma — Dec 4th 2006 @ 10:46 am
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.
Comment by Blaine Moore — Dec 4th 2006 @ 11:48 am
How exactly would it work? If person #1 earns $100K and saves $5K, while person #2 earns $15K and saves $1K, and person #3 earns $50K and saves $2.5K, who is the Biggest Saver? (In my book, #2 is the Biggest Saver and #1 is the Smallest Saver.) What if one of them is able to sponge off of someone else (parents, relatives, girlfriend/boyfriend, etc) thereby affording them below-normal expenses? Does this detract from their claim to be Biggest Saver?
Comment by Terry — Dec 8th 2006 @ 4:43 pm