254. Start Fresh: How Framing, Timing, and Talk Can Improve Your Finances

Hi. Matt here. Just wanted to let you know that our December newsletter is now out. Read it to learn how to use a back pocket question to get you out of tricky situations. Plus, you'll learn about all of the exciting things we're up to, including our new learning community. Check out our newsletter on LinkedIn or at fastersmarter.io under resources and newsletter. Now a word from one of our sponsors. Their support allows us to bring you quality content free of charge. Hi. Matt here. I recently have done some international travel, and I'm always amazed when people can speak the language of the country they're visiting. So for my upcoming trip, I'll be using Babbel, my go to app for science backed language learning. Babbel lets me practice real life conversation step by step without the stress. It helps me build the confidence to speak up when it matters, from ordering a coffee or chatting with new friends. However you learn best by listening, speaking, reading, or writing, Babbel adapts to your style and keeps you motivated with personalized learning plans, real time feedback, and progress tracking. Right now, Babbel is offering up to 55% off your subscription at babel.com/tfts. That's babel, babbel,.com/tfts to get up to 55% off. Rules and restrictions may apply. One of the most challenging conversations we can have is about finances. My name is Matt Abrahams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Today, I look forward to speaking with Wendy De La Rosa. Wendy is a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and she's the cofounder of the Common Sense Lab. That's Cents, c e n t s. Her research focuses on understanding and changing consumer financial behavior. She studies how small changes in a person's financial environment can have a large impact on their spending and saving habits. Well, Wendy, I am super excited to have this conversation. Thanks for being here. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Shall we get started? Let's do it. In your work on financial decision making, you've spent some time working on the fresh start effect. Can you share what that is and how we can actually leverage that in our own motivation? That's such a great question. I wanna give credit where credit is due. So the fresh start effect is identified by Katie Milkman, one of my amazing colleagues here who leads our initiative behavior change for good. And in her work, she sort of identifies the fact that everybody wants to change. We wanna be better humans. We wanna be better parents, better spouses, etcetera, better with our money. But this how and the when is always a little bit hard bridging that gap between intention and action. And so one of the key findings in behavioral research is that we need to time our interventions really well so that your motivation …