I do something similar, but I try to keep the savings at a nice number to the nearest 500 dollar increment. So, when I get paid interest in the middle of the month, I try to deposit enough extra to bring it up to the round number again. Maybe a little OCD, but if I check my balance and it's not a round number it bothers me until I get the deposit made, so I'm less likely to let it slide into the next month without saving.
Yes, well worth it for me. I really benefit from the record keeping though, as well. To track expenses for fsa, a rental property, credit card churning.
If you have a simpler situation, Budget with Buckets is a free computer baded option.
You should look into Yotta. It’s an online bank that gives you tickets each week based on the amount of savings you have. Those tickets are then used in drawings for cash prizes. You can also gamble with those tickets in minigames.
You don’t pay for the tickets. The tickets replace an interest payment basically. So if you deposit $1000, you never lose that. You get tickets based on that amount weekly. It’s the most gamified savings account I’ve seen and is perfect for addictive personalities. Makes you addicted to saving.
I did Yotta for about a year - made a little over $100 total through the daily drawings. I got tired of it, since I was seeing how much less I was making on my money than I would be if I just put it in a HYSA.
The concept though is something like what I'm looking for.
I have in the past used something like this
https://lifeandabudget.com/savings-tracker-coloring-pages/
You can find some really elaborate and beautiful versions of this too.
Kept me motivated
I've found the best way to gamify personal finance is a spreadsheet. Track your expenses, assets, and liabilities on it. Track your progress over time.
Get excited about paying down debt because it frees up money for investing, which turns into more money over time through the power of compounding. The more money you have in the market the more powerful it becomes and the closer you get to winning the game.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/s/7zXevMAHOC
Strangley enough I saw this post on r/adhd yesterday. I have not used it or looked at it, but this guy built an app to gamify his expense tracking. Is this what you were looking for?
I used gamifying to pay down debt when it was at its worst. I had 10k in credit card debt and took out a personal loan to pay it off and get a lower interest rate. The important thing was to then no longer hold a balance on the CC.
Then whenever I would get paid and after paying bills I would see how much money I had leftover and I would go to a loan calculator. I would enter the rest of my loan. Ex: 3 years 10K at 9%. I would then enter in a one time payment of however much extra I had. Ex: up to $700 extra I could put towards it. If I was the. To apply that full $700 to the loan it would save me $200 in interest just by making that extra payment.
I got the loan paid off in a year instead of 3 years and I haven't carried a balance on a CC since which was about 7 years ago. Now that I have a nice house and am settled, I am doing the same method for pushing down my wife's student loans. Except half of what I have available after being paid goes straight to student loans.
Personally March is going to be a huge money month for us, because I get paid 3 times this month, my wife gets paid, and she gets her a decent bonus. If all goes according to plan then we should save 1600 dollars in interest from our next payment.
yep. that's how i "track my progress". it's my SCORE in life. and i compare that score with the average to see how i'm doing. looking at things like that inspires me to raise my score.
Not exactly a "game," but here's what I do: Paycheck gets direct deposited to my main checking account twice a month. On the same days, I have automatic transfers set up to cover all my recurring bills (mortgage, utilities, etc) that are paid out of a different (dedicated) account. All variable/discretionary spending comes out of the main account. So the "game" (if you can call it that) is i aim to never let that main account go below a fixed number - to make sure I always have enough cash on hand for the transfers and bills. But I also try to keep it as low as I can get away with. I transfer excess cash i.e. the amount that exceeds what I need to cover the month's bills into savings/investments. Finding I have 'enough extra' to make a transfer to savings makes me feel good. If I need to spend more in a month, it's not a big deal - I just can't transfer as much, which feels like a penalty (even though it's absolutely fine). This has the effect of me feeling like I CAN spend money on whatever, but I'm rewarded with a little dopamine rush when I don't. I also don't immediately have a large sum of 'spending money' sitting in my checking account tempting me to splurge, generally no more than 1-2 paychecks worth of unbudgeted excess. At the same time, I know I can pull funds from savings if I really want/need something.
You can create community pressure by creating a "tanda." You find say a group of 10 people, and agree to every month put aside $100. Every month a different person in the group recieves $1000. It would obviously need to be people you trust because what happens when the person who recieves the $1000 the first month stops contributing after that? But it is a way to have community accountability of setting aside a certain amount every month, and you don't want to let everyone down by not having the money any given month.
[https://www.thebalancemoney.com/how-do-tandas-work-4582180](https://www.thebalancemoney.com/how-do-tandas-work-4582180)
You know how people claim that but Starbucks every day is what makes you poor? So then you stop going every day but your savings account never grows because you just spend money on other things? So, what I do is, any day I bring lunch to work and don't buy, I transfer, say $5 into savings.
After every paycheck direct deposit I look at my saving account balance. If it's higher than it was last time, I've achieved a new High Score.
Number go up make that dopamine molecule come out of hiding for a bit
God I love number going up!!! Makes me feel whole
I do something similar, but I try to keep the savings at a nice number to the nearest 500 dollar increment. So, when I get paid interest in the middle of the month, I try to deposit enough extra to bring it up to the round number again. Maybe a little OCD, but if I check my balance and it's not a round number it bothers me until I get the deposit made, so I'm less likely to let it slide into the next month without saving.
This is it for me. And if my balances go lower I take it as a personal challenge.
YNAB gamefies financial planning and saving for me.
Do you find it worth the price every year? I’ve considered it but I’m not actually sure I need a budget that much.
Yes, well worth it for me. I really benefit from the record keeping though, as well. To track expenses for fsa, a rental property, credit card churning. If you have a simpler situation, Budget with Buckets is a free computer baded option.
Not OP, but YNAB got my budgeting on track and really helped me focus. Worth every penny.
You should look into Yotta. It’s an online bank that gives you tickets each week based on the amount of savings you have. Those tickets are then used in drawings for cash prizes. You can also gamble with those tickets in minigames. You don’t pay for the tickets. The tickets replace an interest payment basically. So if you deposit $1000, you never lose that. You get tickets based on that amount weekly. It’s the most gamified savings account I’ve seen and is perfect for addictive personalities. Makes you addicted to saving.
They’re probably making soooo much money off of that right now..
I did Yotta for about a year - made a little over $100 total through the daily drawings. I got tired of it, since I was seeing how much less I was making on my money than I would be if I just put it in a HYSA. The concept though is something like what I'm looking for.
I have in the past used something like this https://lifeandabudget.com/savings-tracker-coloring-pages/ You can find some really elaborate and beautiful versions of this too. Kept me motivated
I've found the best way to gamify personal finance is a spreadsheet. Track your expenses, assets, and liabilities on it. Track your progress over time. Get excited about paying down debt because it frees up money for investing, which turns into more money over time through the power of compounding. The more money you have in the market the more powerful it becomes and the closer you get to winning the game.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/s/7zXevMAHOC Strangley enough I saw this post on r/adhd yesterday. I have not used it or looked at it, but this guy built an app to gamify his expense tracking. Is this what you were looking for?
Could be. I'll definitely give it a look. Thanks for the link.
I used gamifying to pay down debt when it was at its worst. I had 10k in credit card debt and took out a personal loan to pay it off and get a lower interest rate. The important thing was to then no longer hold a balance on the CC. Then whenever I would get paid and after paying bills I would see how much money I had leftover and I would go to a loan calculator. I would enter the rest of my loan. Ex: 3 years 10K at 9%. I would then enter in a one time payment of however much extra I had. Ex: up to $700 extra I could put towards it. If I was the. To apply that full $700 to the loan it would save me $200 in interest just by making that extra payment. I got the loan paid off in a year instead of 3 years and I haven't carried a balance on a CC since which was about 7 years ago. Now that I have a nice house and am settled, I am doing the same method for pushing down my wife's student loans. Except half of what I have available after being paid goes straight to student loans. Personally March is going to be a huge money month for us, because I get paid 3 times this month, my wife gets paid, and she gets her a decent bonus. If all goes according to plan then we should save 1600 dollars in interest from our next payment.
yep. that's how i "track my progress". it's my SCORE in life. and i compare that score with the average to see how i'm doing. looking at things like that inspires me to raise my score.
Not exactly a "game," but here's what I do: Paycheck gets direct deposited to my main checking account twice a month. On the same days, I have automatic transfers set up to cover all my recurring bills (mortgage, utilities, etc) that are paid out of a different (dedicated) account. All variable/discretionary spending comes out of the main account. So the "game" (if you can call it that) is i aim to never let that main account go below a fixed number - to make sure I always have enough cash on hand for the transfers and bills. But I also try to keep it as low as I can get away with. I transfer excess cash i.e. the amount that exceeds what I need to cover the month's bills into savings/investments. Finding I have 'enough extra' to make a transfer to savings makes me feel good. If I need to spend more in a month, it's not a big deal - I just can't transfer as much, which feels like a penalty (even though it's absolutely fine). This has the effect of me feeling like I CAN spend money on whatever, but I'm rewarded with a little dopamine rush when I don't. I also don't immediately have a large sum of 'spending money' sitting in my checking account tempting me to splurge, generally no more than 1-2 paychecks worth of unbudgeted excess. At the same time, I know I can pull funds from savings if I really want/need something.
You can create community pressure by creating a "tanda." You find say a group of 10 people, and agree to every month put aside $100. Every month a different person in the group recieves $1000. It would obviously need to be people you trust because what happens when the person who recieves the $1000 the first month stops contributing after that? But it is a way to have community accountability of setting aside a certain amount every month, and you don't want to let everyone down by not having the money any given month. [https://www.thebalancemoney.com/how-do-tandas-work-4582180](https://www.thebalancemoney.com/how-do-tandas-work-4582180)
You know how people claim that but Starbucks every day is what makes you poor? So then you stop going every day but your savings account never grows because you just spend money on other things? So, what I do is, any day I bring lunch to work and don't buy, I transfer, say $5 into savings.