Nudge Toward saving

In the book Nudge the authors state that the average American credit card debt as of 2008 was $5,000. A study done in 2015 https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-card-data/average-credit-card-debt-household/  the average American House hold credit card debt was $15,675. The average debt nearly tripled in the last seven years. The authors of Nudge also say that Americans are saving less and spending more than ever before.

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After reading this section on money in Nudge, and reading Sonja Jacobson’s blog about how much makeup women buy (http://sjacobsoncbexperience.blogspot.com) an idea came to me that could possibly help people that are over spending on non-essential products, and save more money.

Imagine a credit card where every time you buy a non-essential item, whatever the cost, that same amount of money is also set aside into a savings account. A card like this would not only force people to think a lot more about their purchases but also create more savings for consumers.

Now I realize many consumers would be terrified of a card like this and would not want to use it, but for the people out there that are genuinely trying to save more and spend less it could be a great tool. I myself spend way too much money on backpacking equipment and am planning on implementing this strategy in order to help myself not spend as much money. Whether or not I actually follow through is yet to be seen but I know I would be much more likely to do it if I actually had a card like this.

Finding a credit card company that would make a card like this is another trick, considering that if people are thinking more about how much they spend they will likely spend less, and credit card companies make their money off of people who spend too much money so they might not be very excited about this idea. However if you are a person whose trying to save more, or spend less, or both this might be an idea you can try.