As the world becomes more and more consumer-oriented, everyone’s looking for immediate satisfaction and a faster way to happiness. From same day delivery to endless on-demand streaming, we now have more than ever on offer with just a click.
However, as many wise people across history have said, “Too much of anything at all, can be dangerous.”
As a result, this extreme consumer-driven world has birthed the concept of instant gratification. This is a habit that we’re all guilty of feeding from time to time and can be incredibly damaging for both personal and professional growth.
Despite all the ill effects of instant gratification, possibly the worst has to be on our financial well being. At Salad Money, we are dedicated to empowering you with the resources you need to improve your financial health.
In this article, we’ll dive deeper into instant gratification psychology and explore 4 different ways it may be affecting your finances. Moreover, we’ll also explore different types of instant gratification and why you should consider curbing them as soon as possible.
Let’s get started!
1. The Lure of Immediate Rewards and Overspending
Impulsive spending is one of the most appealing activities for the instant gratification chemicals in our brains, dopamine. When you buy something that you like, it triggers the release of dopamine, a pleasure hormone. This hormone is what drives the desire to experience pleasure immediately.
As a result, you can find yourself overspending on non-essential items which negatively affect your monthly budget and divert funds from your financial goals.
What’s worse is that the good feeling from impulse spending reinforces the behaviour, making it more likely to happen in the future. Although we may know in the moment it’s not in our best interests, that feeling is what keeps us repeating the behaviour. However, by understanding the behaviour, you can start to spot the signs and triggers for it, and start to stop it.
2. Delayed Financial Goals Due to Instant Gratification
There are various types of instant gratification that can lure you into spending your hard-earned money. From Black Friday deals and discounted designer clothes to the new phones and TVs, they’re all slowly eating away at your savings. Only you can judge whether these are the right decision to buy, but if you want to improve your financial health, controlling your impulse spending can be a crucial step.
While these expenses can offer a more fulfilled life, too many of them can prevent you from achieving your long term financial goals. This is because psychologically, the immediate satisfaction of buying something outweighs the delayed reward of financial stability.
Over time, this practice can derail your financial future by making it much more likely to build an emergency financial nest egg, a deposit or even retirement.
3. Increased Debt from Instant Gratification Decisions
On top of the drive for instant gratification, credit cards and pay-later schemes make it easier than ever to buy things, further enabling overspending and impulse buying.
This has a dual effect, wherein you end up spending more than you can afford, ruining your budget and slowly leading to a cycle of debt. Whilst there are many positive uses for a credit card and they’re great for those unexpected expenses, using them to fund impulse purchases can be a destructive behaviour.
As a result, instant gratification significantly degrades your financial stability and has a long term negative impact on your financial health.
4. The Psychological Toll of Instant Gratification
Instant gratification is not just about the financial toll, it can also start to affect you psychologically. This can lead to many of the mental health issues associated with financial problems, such as increased stress and anxiety.
Instant gratification psychology talks about how short term pleasures can affect long term life goals. This can be particularly stressful when it leads to financial instability.
What’s more, if not addressed, this can become a cycle where temporary gratification can lead to lows of financial regret. This then leads to a continuous cycle of seeking more instant gratification to deal with the dissatisfaction.
Choose Salad Money For Fair and Affordable Personal Loans
Understanding and moderating instant gratification is an incredibly important aspect of your financial health. No matter where you’re at with your finances, it’s never too late to make changes for the better.
From what we’ve seen, it’s clear that while instant gratification provides temporary pleasure, it can negatively affect your personal and financial well being.
By understanding the psychology of instant gratification and its underlying causes, you can start taking proactive steps to stop its negative effects.
At Salad Money, we realise that life is not always an easy road for everyone. Despite all the best efforts to manage your finances, there are times when we find ourselves in urgent need of emergency money.
That’s why we’re here to let you know that regardless of your situation, at Salad Money, we offer the financial support you may need, when you need it.
As a leading online lender in the UK, we believe that your credit score is rarely the perfect representation of your ability to repay loans.
As a result, we use the safe and secure open banking system to accurately assess your loan affordability. This allows us to provide you with the financial assistance you need, when you need it, despite a less-than-perfect credit score.
What’s more, we are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, which means you can rest assured that your data is safe with us.
To learn more about our personal loans, click here and to read more blogs like this one, visit our blog page now!
