You want to be a millionaire? Stop living in the moment

Posted 7 April – 23red company blog

Becoming a millionaire is easy.

Don’t believe me? Let me explain.

Imagine you’re 20, all you have to do is save roughly £220 a month for 45 years and you’ll have

£1million when you retire at 65.

This assumes a 6% annual return.

Don’t like the sound of saving to retire a millionaire?

Don’t blame you. You’re not alone. Most people don’t.

You want to live in the moment.

Funny thing is, the average person spends more time retired than working.

So, converting years into percentages, to prioritize a period of your life, the now, which takes up a

smaller percentage of your total life span, than another period of your life, the future post

retirement, is counterintuitive.

But, you’ll probably argue you’re far more interested in what happens now than when you’re old,

grey, and toothless. Okay, maybe not toothless. But you get the point.

If you’re nodding along, then you’ve just validated a key theme in Daniel Kahneman’s fantastic

book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, and an important duality in human mental processes he explains

through Systems 1 and 2 thinking.

There’s a great article by Hamish Pringle you should check out for an overview.

But, to keep it simple, let’s continue framing this idea through our perception of the present vs. the

future, and how we place overdue emphasis on the former vs. the latter.

You could draw comparisons to Kahneman’s discussion of associative emotional coherence to

argue the way we think makes the present seem more important, because we find it easier to

identify with.

A great way to do this is through the concept of delayed gratification.

In layman terms, it means I’d rather have one chocolate cake now, than two chocolate cakes

tomorrow. Rationally speaking, you should wait until tomorrow to double your gains.

And strict classical economic theory argues human always make rational decisions. But hilarious

studies like The Marshmallow Experiment, prove this isn’t true.

You should watch it.

Living in the moment seems very popular now.

I attended an inspiring TEDx event not too long ago at LSE. And one of the speakers, Tanvir Deol,

a brilliant 20 year old student, based his talk on the importance of Embracing The Now.

Kudos to Tanvir. Great talk.

But here’s my problem; your future eventually becomes your present, so if you don’t plan for it,

when it comes, it’s likely to suck.

Think of it in terms of pies. Everybody loves pies.

All the fun in your life equals 16 slices of pie. If you eat 15 of those right now, you’ll only have 1 slice

of pie left to enjoy when you’re old, grey and toothless. Okay, maybe not toothless.

This is particularly important when trying to get consumers to fight cognitive dissonance in

attitudes towards health. Cognitive dissonance means holding two contradictory beliefs at the

same time.

Take smoking for example; you’re likely to experience dissonance if you keep smoking despite

believing it’s unhealthy.

23red understands this, and is using the power of behavioural science to influence behaviours in

their Health Harms campaign (the campaign created by Dare for which we develop grass-roots

support). If consumers can’t identify with the future consequences of smoking, why not bring them

to the present? “Every cigarette causes a mutation.”

Using an in-depth understanding of behavioural science to encourage consumers to adopt

healthier lifestyles is an essential part of 23red’s brand values. Do. Feel. Think.

Because actions speak louder than words.

Because a healthy body fuels a happy mind.

Because, although living in the moment is great, “Your future depends on what you do today.” –

Mahatma Gandhi

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Charles Oben