Follow Your Money: The Neuroscience of Saving.

Issue 3: Mastering the Art of Saving: Progress Over Perfection.

Hi friends,

Happy Tuesday. Welcome to Issue 3!

This week, we explore how the human brain plays a key role in building an important healthy financial habit—saving and get ready for our latest financial buzz across Africa. Lessgoo🚀🚀

Issue 3: THE NEUROSCIENCE OF SAVING.

Mastering the Art of Saving: The Brain's Secrets Revealed.

Not to sound like a broken record but you’ll agree with me that saving money doesn’t come off as easy as spending it. 😆

One of the main challenges in saving money is that it often requires delaying gratification and this, my friends, is not a you thing 🙅🏾‍♂️. Our brains are wired to prioritize short-term rewards over long-term ones.

Even if you are a big futurist, it takes a lot to resist buying those Nike sneakers when graduation is just around the corner. 😉

Having said all this, how do we rewire our brains to master the art of saving money? 🤔

🎯Well, before we get into any of that, please know that I know that you know that there are probably countless articles, Youtube videos, and millions of online courses on how to save your money. But as you well know, you don’t need a thousand keys to open a door—you just need the right key. 👌🏾

Here’s one key—I’ll leave you to decide whether or not is the right key. ✨

👉🏾 Training your brain to reward progress over perfection.

Here are three ways to do that:

🎯Celebrate the journey: Although, it is often advised to set a savings goal and then come up with a reward for when you achieve your savings goal. While that’s not negative, doing that alone somewhat only rewards perfection. Instead, have a plan to reward yourself whenever you exercise restraint 🙅🏾‍♂️.

The brain thrives on feedback and tracking progress provides tangible evidence of your efforts. That way, you are turning the brain’s craving for the present into a tool—one that rewards progress, not perfection. 💫

🎯Be grateful: Our brains are totally wired to latch onto the negative stuff more than the positive. But here's the hack 🤌🏾: when you deliberately practice gratitude for the money you've saved and the progress you've made, you activate those brain regions that light up with positive vibes🔥.

Soon enough, your brain links saving with feelings of gratitude and fulfillment—that way, the focus is on what you have, not what you don’t have, yet. ✨

🎯Be SMART: You’ve likely heard the SMART model 10 million times by now 💁🏾‍♂️. But here’s the catch: when you chop up your savings goals into bite-sized, achievable milestones. Every milestone you hit sparks a party in your brain, making you feel like a total champ. 💫

👉🏾Again this wasn’t meant to be the holy grail for saving your money. But by ditching perfection, you give your brain a chance to embrace the joy and satisfaction that come from taking small steps toward your financial goals. ✨

And that’s a wrap on Issue 3. 👌🏾

FINANCIAL NEWS & TRENDS in AFRICA.

connecting the dots across frontier markets in Africa.

Rwanda is gearing up to host the inaugural Inclusive Fintech Forum in Kigali in June. 🚀

🎯Takeaway: This is like hosting the World Cup but for fintech in Africa—bottom line, this is a huge feat for Rwanda and with the President of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame in attendance✨, the event carries a lot of weight for the country.

Other attendees include the Founder/CEO of Flutterwave, the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, and many more. If you’re in Rwanda during this event, I’d totally recommend you attend. 👌🏾

Zimbabwe launched a digital currency that’s backed by its physical gold reserve. The digital currency will power peer-to-peer transactions for customers and businesses.

🎯Takeaway: Boom! This is an exciting development for the country and even though there’s a long way to go and Zim has already received criticisms on this move, we can’t deny the fact that the country has had its fair share of huge currency devaluation. It might not be a fun ride, but it’s definitely going to be worth it. Go, Zim! 💪🏾

Ghana is preparing to receive a $3B bailout out of an IMF loan—to provide debt relief.

🎯Takeaway: So backstory, in 2022, Ghana borrowed $3B from the IMF to support certain restructuring plans. Fast forward to 2023, and the country is getting ready to request a bailout. What’s interesting is that this bailout financing is provided by a committee chaired by China-France. It’s almost as if it’s a loan to cover another loan. At some point, there has to be a stop to this never-ending loan bubble—the question remains when? 🙅🏾‍♂️

MONEY TRIVIA

1. Assign a monetary value to each symbol so that the equation below is correct.

   $ + $ + $ = $2

2. With $1,000 in your savings account, you plan to withdraw money each month for expenses. In the first month, you withdraw $100. Each subsequent month, you withdraw $10 more than the previous month. How many months can you continue this pattern before running out of savings?

RESOURCE LIBRARY

Opportunities.

• If you’re from South Africa, here’s an opportunity to win $25,000 at the BRICS Young Innovator Prize Competition- currently accepting applications.🚀🚀

• If you are an avid writer, check out the Goi Peace International Essay Contest for Young People. More than 30 essays are selected for prizes and honorable mentions. 🎯🎯

• Applications for the 2024 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation are now open. Up to 16 applicants are shortlisted and the winner receives £25,000 and three runners-up are each awarded £10,000. 🚀🚀

Freebies.

• If you want to 10x your productivity, check out these 10 Chrome extensions by Sam Szuchan. 🏋🏾🏋🏾

• Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss; If you want to master the art of negotiations, this is the holy grail. 🫡🫡

• The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama⚡️⚡️⚡️

TRIVIA ANSWERS🎯

1. $0.5 + $0.25 + $0.25.

2. 7 Months.

👉🏾That’s all for this week and to wrap up, below is our QOTW.

“Never let failure get to your heart or success get to your head. Humility + Grit is a powerful concoction for success.”

-Unknown.

️Until next time,

Dulra,

Founder/CEO, Dot.❤️