Most of us know we should save more. Fewer of us can picture what the money is for.
This article is not financial advice. It is a way to turn the sentence “I should save more” into one specific, dated step, using a letter to make the future feel real. For decisions about your own money, a qualified adviser can help with your personal situation.
Why money is hard to picture
Money is easy to postpone when the person who will need it feels like a stranger. A cost this month is a problem you can feel; a cost in the future is a number on a page.
Some people find it easier to write this letter after a calm month, when the numbers feel less alarming.
A letter gives that stranger a voice. You can write about the home they live in, the work they still do, and the small costs they manage each week. The picture does not have to be accurate. It only has to be specific enough that the next step feels connected to a real person.
Keep the picture in ordinary terms: rent or a mortgage, getting around, food, and time with people. Leave out any figure you do not know. You can come back to the numbers later, once you have checked them.
What the 2011 study found
One piece of research behind this idea is a 2011 paper in the Journal of Marketing Research by Hershfield, Goldstein, Sharpe and colleagues. In their experiments, people who saw age-progressed images of themselves chose to put more toward retirement savings than people who did not.
One caution applies: the findings describe choices made during the experiment, not what people saved in the years that followed. Do not read them as a promise that a picture will make you save more.
What you can take from it is smaller: putting your future self in front of you may make the long term feel more real. A letter does that with words instead of pictures. Write down one amount you intend to set aside each month, one date when you will look at the balance, and one sentence about why it matters to you, then let your later self compare the plan with what actually happened.
Write what your future self will need
Now write the letter. Describe the future reader in plain terms: where they live, what work they do, and what they need each month to feel steady. Use your own numbers, never invented ones. If you do not know a figure, write “not sure yet” and add one line about how you will find out.
Describe the reader in four short lines:
- Where they live, and who they live with
- The work they do, or the rest they have earned
- What the basics cost them each month
- What they would like to be able to do without worrying
Keep the letter about the reader, not about markets, returns or products. You are describing a person so the next step is easier to see.
Once a year, write a fresh letter with an updated description. A saved letter cannot be edited, so each one stays a record of that year's picture.
Turn savings into specific steps
A useful step has three parts: an amount, a day, and a first action. For example: “On the first of each month, set aside [amount] before you spend anything else.” The sentence can be read in a minute, and it can be checked at the end of the year.
Choose a step small enough to start this month. A small step is easier to begin, and it can be raised later if it feels right. Write it in this order:
- The amount, in your own numbers
- The day of the month it happens
- The one thing you will do first
The delivery date is part of the plan. A year ahead is good for checking the habit: did the first of the month hold? A longer date suits the picture of the future reader.
We email the letter on the day you choose, between 8:00 and noon in your time zone. This is a letter service, not a financial one: it keeps your letter and emails it to you on that day. The furthest date you can choose is 20 years ahead, and the quick choices stop at three years, so pick a far date in the calendar. If sixty is more than 20 years away, write to a nearer milestone, such as fifty, and write the next letter from there.
The success message shows a Letter ID and the delivery time, not the text, so keep your own copy. Leave bank details, passwords and login details out of the letter, since letters are stored as plain text. Add a line that says where the figures came from, such as the spreadsheet name or the date you checked them, so the reader can find them again.
A sample letter about money
Here is a short letter to the person you will be at sixty. It pictures the reader, records one habit, names one worry and ends with thanks.
Dear future me,
I picture you at sixty in a smaller place near the river, working three days a week because you want to, not because you have to. The basics cost what they cost; I hope they no longer keep you up at night.
Today is the first of the month, and the transfer of [amount] went out before I paid for anything else. That is the whole plan for now. One worry is still with me: I do not know how much the years after work will need, so I have booked time with an adviser.
Thank you for keeping the first of the month, if you did.
[your name]
The letter avoids returns, products and any final outcome. Your version can do the same, with your own numbers and your own worries.
Write it now
Write one paragraph about the reader at sixty, or at whatever age feels right, and name the amount you will set aside each month. Pick the first step you can start this month, and choose a delivery date far enough ahead to matter. Keep a copy. For decisions about investments or tax, talk to a qualified adviser.
