“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
– Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
As part of my morning routine, I’ve started to write down things I’m truly grateful for in my life. The normal things come to mind such as my family and our loyal dog Lucy.
However, I end it with some of the simpler things in life we can take for granted such as the air we breathe and even access to an ice cold beer (you can trade out for your beverage of choice).
I’ve found this habit to benefit me mentally, but can showing gratitude really have a positive impact to our financial wealth?
According to a research study published June 2014 in Psychological Science, when people feel grateful, they make better financial decisions. Being in a state of gratitude made participants more likely to have the patience to save for a higher return on their money.
Best yet, the study demonstrated that gratitude helps people delay gratification and save more money effortlessly – without having to strive for extra willpower.
David DeSteno of Northeastern University’s Department of Psychology led the inter-disciplinary research project, entitled “Gratitude: A Tool for Reducing Economic Impatience.” The study’s aim was to weigh how various emotions affected people’s ability to make better financial decisions by choosing to receive a greater amount of money in 30 days versus a lesser amount immediately.
In the Gratitude study, adult participants were given a choice between receiving $54 now or $80 in 30 days. While the dollar figure was modest, the rate of return was impressive – a monthly return of 48% or an annualized return of 577.78%!
Researchers discovered that those who put themselves in a grateful state of mind had a noteworthy increase of patience and self-control! Not only were the participants in the state of gratitude more likely to wait 30 days to receive the $80, the results also showed that the more gratitude the participants reported feeling, the more willing they were to wait for the larger return!
“Be Thankful, Save More… Gratitude Helps us Reach Financial Goals” declared Psychological Science. “A sizable body of research shows that people tend to discount the value of future rewards in favor of short-term gratification, but a new paper… finds that thankfulness triggers patience and a willingness to hold out for greater monetary gain.”
So go ahead and be more grateful for what you have. Not only will you feel good, but it can help you reach your long-term financial goals.
