The science of habit change

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is an evidence-based approach that’s effective in helping people with a range of different challenges, including behaviour change and managing stress, anxiety, depression. 

CBT is based on research showing that our thoughts, feelings, body sensations and behaviour are connected, and that the way we think and act affects the ways we feel.

For example, feeling anxious is associated with certain:

This can lead to negative cycles of thoughts, feelings, body sensations and behaviour that keep us stuck. But CBT makes it possible to shift these negative cycles. 

Wisr Today uses CBT to help you improve your financial wellbeing. Our Habit Coaching helps you to better understand your thoughts, feelings and behaviour so you can make positive changes to your money habits and feel better about your finances overall.

A habit is a behaviour that we do on a regular basis without much thought, like buying coffee every morning or using a credit card to pay for things. 

Our brains are designed to repeat routines and conserve energy by being on autopilot. Habits save us needing to think about each and every action we take day-to-day. 

Helpful habits serve us to have a happier and healthier life, while unhelpful habits tend to get in the way of the things we want to achieve. 

Because habits tend to be automatic, we often aren’t even aware of them. They can be quietly wreaking havoc on our lives without us even realising.

Any habit starts with a single action. When it’s repeated again, and again, it becomes hardwired into the brain in the form of a neural pathway. 

What fires together, wires together.

Every time this collection of nerves is triggered together, the neural pathway becomes more established. That means that the behaviour will happen more easily and more automatically.

With awareness, practice and the right support through real-time daily coaching, it’s possible to develop new neural pathways in the brain that are associated with habits that serve us.

Our financial life is full of habits. Money habits are regular, and mostly automatic, ways we spend, save and manage our finances. 

Our money habits can help us to achieve our financial goals, or can undermine our ability to do so.

Unhelpful money habits can include buying things when we’re bored or upset or putting expenses on credit without thinking. 

When it comes to money habits, we all have our own kryptonite. You might have a habit of making impulse purchases, buying takeaway a few times a week or using ridesharing more often than you’d like.

This might come as a surprise, but researchers at Cambridge University have found that our money habits are largely formed by the age of 7! 

Long before we earn our first pay cheque, we’ve already developed patterns that will inform our spending and saving. 

All of the things we learn about money as a child, especially what we picked up about how our parents talked about, spent and saved money, form a set of beliefs and preferences. It’s this ‘money mindset’ that shapes our money habits.

This influences what we do when we’re feeling anxious or bored as adults, which is often closely connected to how we spend our money.

When we think about our money habits, they might not seem like much. We might spend a few dollars here and there, but no real damage, right? 

But when you consider how a single money habit adds up over time, it can tell a different story.

Maybe you spend $4 a day on treats. It doesn’t seem like much, huh? Just small change! And treats can be a nice pick-me-up and a reward for all your hard work. You deserve it, right? 

When you add it all up, you can see that this habit costs almost $1,500 a year! That’s not chicken feed!

When we look at each of our money habits in isolation, it can be hard to see the point in changing them. But every single money habit we have costs us hundreds or thousands a year. 

A habit that costs $100 a week (e.g. 3 rideshares) adds up to over $5,000 a year.

You don’t need to cut these things out of your life completely.

Money habits can be very stubborn, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change them. Because habits happen … well, habitually … it takes conscious effort to change them. 

The steps that are needed to slowly, but surely, shift unhelpful money habits include:

Fortunately, our brain is designed to support us to make changes to our money habits. By practicing new behaviours, we can lay down new neural pathways, replacing unhelpful money habits with more helpful ones.

Helpful money habits are the regular ways we spend, save and manage our finances that support us to thrive. 

Some examples include being mindful about purchases and following a budget (just make sure you have enough ‘fun money’ in there to make it sustainable).

Question: How do you eat an elephant? 

Answer: One bite at a time. 

Changing a long-standing money habit can feel overwhelming and when changes feel too big or hard, our attempts to achieve them are often short-lived. We try in earnest for a couple of days and then give up when life gets busy or it feels hard. 

The most effective way to change an unhelpful money habit is to break it down into baby steps. 

Because the baby step is easy enough and feels good, you’ll want to repeat it again and again. Once you’ve got your first baby step down pat, you’ll be ready for your next one, and then your next one. Step by step your new habit will become second nature. 

For example, after a while it will feel natural to go for a quick walk on your break rather than spending money on a sugary pick-me-up.

According to the Australian Psychological Society, Aussies say money is their top cause of stress. 

Add to that the rising cost of living and it’s not surprising that many people are looking for some financial relief or solutions to help. 

Looking at our money habits is a smart and effective way to offset any increases in the cost of basics like groceries, petrol, housing and utilities, as well as to start achieving bigger life goals that require money.

Wisr Today provides daily habit coaching and features that help you track your money habits so you can see exactly how much you’re spending and make sure that you’re using money in ways that serve you.

It was developed in partnership with leading psychologists to help you change your money habits and get smarter about money.

Here are the core features:

You can download it now on iOS or Android.

1) What do unhelpful money habits look like?

Unhelpful money habits are regular, automatic behaviours that undermine your financial wellbeing. They might have you spending every penny you earn, racking up debt or avoiding keeping track of how much you’re spending.

2) How long does it take to change a money habit?

If you start small and keep taking gradual steps, change can happen surprisingly quickly. By using Wisr Today, you can make significant changes to a single money habit within 2-5 weeks.

3) How much could I save in a year with Wisr Today?

Our users save $377 per week on average!

If you tend to spend a lot on coffee, it might be within reach to save $10 a day.

That’s $3,650 a year. 

Once you’ve cracked that habit, you might choose to work on your gaming or clothes shopping habit. If you spend $50 a week on these things, you could save another $2,600 a year.

The number of habits you can change is limitless. And each and every one adds up. Most of our users save thousands of dollars per year.

4) How do I form a saving habit?

One of the best ways to form a saving habit is to identify your money drains, that is, the things you habitually spend on that aren’t actually giving you long-term value or pleasure beyond the moment of instant gratification. 

These unwanted spending habits can be a veritable gold mine! Every time you choose not to spend, it becomes a saving. Simple as that! 

By logging these intentional savings in our Joyful Saving feature you can track them and have them moved into your personal savings account. Before you know it, saving money will be happening without you even thinking about it. That’s a savings habit.

5) Is it hard to change a money habit?

Trying to change an ingrained habit can be a challenge, because these behaviours come easily and automatically to us. But Wisr Today is here to hold your hand through the journey.

All you need is the motivation to make a change and the willingness to be coached for 5 minutes a day. Make it part of your daily routine, whether it’s with your morning coffee or on your commute. 

The key is to start small and focus on changing just one habit. Depending on your habit, this could save you hundreds or even thousands per year. 

Our daily coaching will naturally keep you on track and make it easy to apply the science of behaviour change to your life, so you can make long-lasting, feel-good changes to your money habits and life.