Out of sight, out of mind

YOU say to yourself "I'll begin saving soon", but by the time you do it, it's usually too late.

Even when you do save, it's erratic and you end up dipping into what you have saved, leaving you back at square one.

There is actually an easy solution. I discovered it only recently. It took a while, but better late than never.

What did I do? I began playing mind games with myself. You can too. For starters, try "playing with color".

I tried to take all 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, 5-yuan notes, and sometimes 20-yuan notes from my wallet.

I put them in a locked drawer with some personal documents like my passport that I hardly touch. Then I put the key in another place to keep my "itchy fingers" from getting the better of me.

Why these particular denominations? I hardly use them to buy things. And it's usually the small amounts that do the most damage because you don't think much of spending them.

This may seem a bit extreme, but the results speak for themselves. I amassed 100 yuan the first week. It felt good having that money as a fallback, and it gave me the motivation to save more.

I can't really tell you how much to save, but I do know that the best way to save is to keep your money "out of sight, and out of mind".

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amass 积聚(财富)

denomination (货币的)面额

dip into 动用(款项等)

erratic 不稳定的

fallback 可依靠的东西

solution 解决办法

sweetener 甜头

Bonus points

get the better of: 战胜，在…中占上风

We've always been competitive, and he has always tried to get the better of me no matter what we did.

我们俩总互相竞争，而且每次他都想占上风。

square one: 起始点

I spent a lot of time and money on that business venture, but last year's stock market crash put me back at square one. 我在企业风险投资领域投入了大量的时间和金钱，但全年的股市大跌却让我一下子回到原点。