
Ask HN: What's the most frustrating part about saving money? - jmaccabee
A few months ago I asked the HN community what their favorite way to save money is. People really seemed to engage with the topic, so I&#x27;m revisiting saving money from a different angle this time.<p>I read last week that something like 50% of American households  don&#x27;t have enough cash readily available for a $500 emergency. This seemed crazy to me, but it definitely seems like there&#x27;s a real problem relating to saving money these days.<p>So - what&#x27;s the most frustrating part about saving money??
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Jaruzel
The most frustrating part about saving money, is that you need spare money
before you can save it. It's a catch-22 situation. People who struggle to have
to spare cash tend to spend it immediately, thus preventing them from saving
it.

There have been many studies on this, but basically humans are addicted to
their instant gratification monkey. It's FAR more satisfying to spend that
bill in your pocket on something nice and shiny, than it is to store it out of
sight for a rainy day.

Ok here we go, the URL to which I refer:

[http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastin...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-
procrastinate.html)

It's not about 'money' per se, but does explain the gratification issue which
is why we're all mostly useless at doing things that don't instantly pay off.

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HerpDerpLerp
All the shiny things that want to be mine but I have to say no too!

