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MoneyWi$e: Forming Healthy Financial Habits · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello and welcome to Talking FACs. We have information you can use to strengthen
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  your family, your community, and our state.
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  I'm your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  We are housed in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment.
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  Have you ever wished you could change the way you handle money?
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  Perhaps you have a bad habit you want to stop or a good habit you want to start.
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  As we start the new year, we often make resolutions that we keep for a few weeks and ultimately break.
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  Today, we are going to talk about the science of forming habits.
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  And maybe rather than making resolutions that you are ultimately going to break,
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  you can form lasting habits that will change the way you handle money.
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  My guest today is Kelly May, Senior Extension Associate for Family Finance and Resource Management.
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  Welcome, Kelly. Thanks so much for having me here.
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  Where do our habits come from and how are they formed?
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  So we have processes going on in our brains all the time.
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  And there are several of these processes that have been identified by researchers
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  that cause our habits to form.
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  And so James Clear is the author of a book called Atomic Habits,
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  and he describes habits as behaviors that we repeat so many times they become automatic.
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  And he calls this a habit loop. So it's like a four-step process that leads to a habit happening.
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  And those four steps are the cue and the craving, then the response and the reward.
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  And so the first two, the cue and the craving, are all about responding to a
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  problem. And then the last two, the response and the reward,
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  are about arriving at a solution.
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  But this makes sense about why resolutions often don't work,
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  because we're really just kind of pulling something out of the air that we want
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  to change and not really thinking about the whole process of how we can make it change.
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  And so creating the habit really makes it just an automatic change as opposed
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  to just trying to do something arbitrarily.
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  Right. If we do something temporarily, then we'll eventually fall back into that same habit loop.
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  But if we change the habit loop, then that's how we can create a good habit
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  or break a bad habit. And this could be any habit.
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  So we're talking about money, things today like spending or saving.
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  But it could be any habit that you would like to change either for good or to
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  get rid of something you wish you would stop doing.
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  Oh, yeah. So this makes such perfect sense. And I think it goes along so well
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  with here we are at the beginning of the new year. So what are we going to do
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  with our many habits to change them in a positive way for good?
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  Right. So I'm going to have an example today. I like to think about my next
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  meal and where it's coming from.
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  So maybe you want to reduce the number of times you eat out each week.
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  So that costs money, right, to go eat out all the time. Okay.
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  So you might accomplish this by going to the grocery store and cooking at home.
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  So if we're going to think about our habit loop regarding this desire to eat
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  out, how does that fit into the four steps?
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  So the cue to eat is a big one for me.
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  So maybe your belly growls, or maybe you saw a commercial where that pizza had
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  that cheese pulling and it looked really appetizing.
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  Or maybe you're driving home from work and you see that favorite restaurant
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  sign and you think of that whatever it is inside that you really want.
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  Or maybe it's just the time of day. You usually eat at 5 or 6 p.m.
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  It's 5 or 6 p.m. is time to eat.
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  And that's part of your regular schedule.
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  So that would be the cue. And then the craving, of course, is for food.
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  Now, does it have to be these foods?
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  Our body needs nutrients to survive. Does it need pizza? And does it need whatever
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  was in the restaurant that we saw?
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  Not necessarily. We just need energy for our body.
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  The response that we have is to buy the food. So when we see the cue,
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  we have the craving, we want to buy the food.
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  And then the reward is that you're no longer hungry. So you can see how the
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  front end of the cycle is kind of loaded so that it leads us toward the back
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  end of that cycle and helps us to keep doing this thing, whichever it is,
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  good or bad, over and over again.
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  So in order to change this cycle and the money we spend on it,
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  there are things we can do like reinforcing a good habit and taking steps to
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  avoid a bad habit to change that habit loop.
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  So how am I going to change this loop to make it a good habit?
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  Okay, so you first want to make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.
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  So if we're using our cooking at dinnertime example to illustrate,
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  we've had that hunger cue and we want to make it obvious that we're ready to cook.
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  We don't need to go to a restaurant and spend money.
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  We have what we need to get the meal done at home, right?
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  So you want to plan ahead. You want to place a recipe for tonight on the counter
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  or save a picture to your phone so that you see the meal that you're planning
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  to create. And that's a different kind of cue.
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  And that says, hey, that looks good too. And I can make this.
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  You want to fight the food craving by making the new habit attractive.
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  So if cooking is a chore, then pair it with an activity you enjoy.
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  So you can call a friend or a family member.
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  You can listen to music. You can listen to a podcast like Talking FACS,
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  maybe an audio book, have a TV show on the background.
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  You know, you can pair it with something you like.
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  If your normal response is to buy food when the cue and craving strikes,
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  make your new cooking response easy.
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  So in order to make it easy, prepare your cooking space the night before so
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  that when you come home from work, it's a breeze to get started.
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  And then finally, make it satisfying. So you want to reward yourself for sticking to the plan.
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  And again, we're trying to save money, so you don't want to do something extravagant.
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  But prepare a small dessert to complement your meal or have a fun after-dinner
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  activity, like maybe family game night.
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  I love this. Not only do we have four steps in our habit loop,
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  but we have four steps in our change loop. So we're going to be able to pair those really easily.
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  So is it going to be a lot of work for me to change this bad habit? Yeah.
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  Nope. It works the same way, only we're trying to do the opposite, right?
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  So it's the same habit loop, but we're going to fix a bad habit by making it
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  invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying.
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  So once again, we've got the four steps and they're going to match up perfectly, right? Right, right.
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  So first, you want to make that cue invisible. So we want to not have whatever
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  this is, that's making you think I need to go out to eat. You need to make that invisible.
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  So if it's something you're seeing on TV, and that makes you hungry,
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  don't get on the TV or the internet just before mealtime so that those ads don't trigger you.
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  So if you know you're going to see that sign for your favorite restaurant when
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  you drive home, maybe take a different route so you don't have to look at it and think about it.
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  Sometimes I'll drive the back way because I know there aren't any restaurants
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  on the back way and I can't be tempted.
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  For your craving, you want to make it unattractive. So this one's a little bit
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  harder with the food example because
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  the food's always going to sound attractive. At least it does to me.
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  But give yourself a reminder of why you're doing this. So why don't you want to eat out?
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  Maybe put a picture of what you're
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  saving for in your wallet to remind you not to spin or on your phone.
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  Then make your response to that cue and craving more difficult.
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  Make visiting restaurants more of a chore. So how do you do that?
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  You delete the apps that allow for restaurant delivery.
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  Remove those phone numbers for call-ahead orders. Of course,
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  you can still Google, but that's an extra step.
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  So every time you add an extra step, it makes it a little harder.
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  A little tip for if you're trying to change a shopping habit,
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  don't preload your passwords and your credit card information in your carts
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  and things, you know, make it harder.
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  So the more steps you have to take, then it becomes a little more difficult and you have to
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  double check yourself and think before you finish satisfying that cue and craving
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  by saying, no, wait a minute, do I really want to go through all these steps
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  or am I going to stick to the plan?
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  And finally, you make that reward unsatisfying. So for this example,
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  maybe have someone to hold you accountable to remind you of your commitment.
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  So if you know you're going to have to hear from the person you at now,
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  you got to be friends with them still.
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  So remember, you ask them to remind you, but if you know you're going to hear
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  about it after you do this, then maybe it makes it a little more unsatisfying
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  to go out to eat and you can stick to that plan to cook at home.
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  Exactly. So if it's the person that you snuggle up to at night.
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  Be nice about it. Exactly. Exactly.
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  Well, I love these ideas and I'm just thinking about in my neighborhood,
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  we have a new butcher shop.
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  So if I will buy my meat product from that butcher shop, first of all,
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  it tastes better than anything that I can get at a restaurant anyway.
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  And so that makes it very attractive. And if it's already in my refrigerator, then it's obvious.
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  And if I know that I've got a plan for my dinner, it's easy.
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  And as I said, it tastes better than anything that I can get in a restaurant,
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  that makes it very satisfying.
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  So I've already got all of those four good habits tackled, right?
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  And it makes it satisfying to me to know that I'm supporting a local business.
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  And so that's another checkmark that I can go ahead and mark off.
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  And providing something healthy for your family.
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  Exactly. Yeah. So, so many ways, not only am I saving money by not eating out,
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  but I'm also, you know, supporting local businesses and eating healthy because
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  we all know that foods that are prepared at home tend to be healthier than those we eat out.
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  And I'm spending more time at home because I'm preparing that meal at home.
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  And once we get these positive reactions from each step and we keep repeating
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  it over and over, eventually that becomes our new habit loop.
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  And so we no longer have the old habit, we have the new.
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  I think that these are all great tips to help us change how we behave,
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  not only with our finances, but with any habit that we might create or need to change.
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  So Kelly, you always have such great tips for us and once again,
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  you have not disappointed and you've brought in another great tip and I love
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  these ideas for changing our habits in the new year and beyond.
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  If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Talking FACS,
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  and you can find us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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  Thank you for listening to Talking FACS.
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  We deliver programs focusing on nutrition, health, resource management,
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  family development, and civic engagement.
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  Music.