ADRIAN GORE: Incentives can help change South Africans’ bad saving and spending habits
Research shows that millennials spend more on coffee than they do on retirement savings
There is a considerable opportunity to improve South Africans’ financial behaviour and health. Research shows that we are uniquely inept at saving (too little) and borrowing (too much) — leaving us overindebted and dangerously exposed in both the short and long term. The challenge is that changing behaviour at the individual level is extremely difficult.
As humans, we have biases that conspire against our frequent good choices. Owing to our over-optimism and propensity to discount the future for the present, we are bad at making good long-term financial and health decisions in the present. Instant gratification (eating that slice of cake, buying that unnecessary item) and misplaced optimism (it probably won’t happen to me) mean prudent choices aren’t necessarily easier choices...
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