A study found that there is an ability that some people have already as children, that later in life predicts wealth, health and success.
A study, which they called The Marshmallow Test was made in the 60's and 70's in the Stanford University. In it, the researchers gave a kid a marshmallow on a plate and two choices:
- To eat it now, or
- To wait 15 minutes and get an additional marshmallow
The point of the test was to measure the child's ability to delay their gratification. As the researchers continued to observe the children grow up into adulthood, they noticed a strong correlation between the ability to delay gratification as a child and having wealth later in life. They were also:
- more successful both in school and at work
- in better health
- less likely to have problems with drugs
- less likely to be divorced
Can you imagine how this relates to saving and investing? The link is quite obvious.
In another study, published in 2016 in the National Bureau of Economic Research, the researchers asked the following question from participants:
If you could have $100 now, or wait a year for a bigger amount, how much would that amount need to be for you to wait for it?Guess what the average asked annual return was? Fifty-four percent!
When the answer was compared to the respondent's net worth, a higher impatience was observed to correlate with lower net worth, worse health, bad habits and a lower education. You can of course debate on which is the cause and which the effect, but it does sound awfully reasonable that the ability to delay gratification would be linked to for example that you:
- do your homework before you start playing on the Playstation
- exercise, although you don't always feel like it
- manage to stop smoking
- save although you would like to get that new fad-thingie
Do you have self discipline? Are good at delaying gratification? If this isn't second nature for you (yet), don't fall into despair - you can train that ability.
Also, what definitely helps you reach your goals in saving more is subscribing to this blog below 👇🏻
