1 Surprisingly Simple Hack Backed by Science Will Help You Hit Money Goals

There’s no shortage of research showing how tech — and our near constant connectivity with it — can hurt our mental health. Most of us who are hooked to our phones, tablets or laptops don’t disagree that we’d benefit from a break. Some of us made New Year’s resolutions to commit to less screen time. Some of us are so entangled with our devices that we’re addicted — literally — and can actually experience physical withdrawals when they’re taken away.

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Change Your Passwords Our Brain Learns Best When We Write Things Down (Typing Will Have To Do)Enhance the Hack by Adding in Words That Spark a Good Attitude

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Though insidious in many ways, our ever-present, ever-connected devices do serve some good — and in one particular way you may have never considered. Paula Davis, leadership coach, founder and CEO of The Stress and Resilience Institute and author of “Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team,” recently spoke with CNBC Make It to talk about how a very simple science-back hack can help you hit your money goals. But you’ll need a phone, tablet or laptop to do it.

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Change Your Passwords

Usually when we’re instructed to change our passwords, it’s because we need to beef up our cybersecurity, but Davis pointed to another surprising reason to switch it up. You should change your passwords to include words related to your money goals.

“I ask people to think, ‘What’s a goal that you have — something that maybe you’re dreaming about?’ It could be a tactical, work-related goal. It could be a positive emotion,” Davis told CNBC. “Whatever it is, turn it into your password.”

So, if your goal is, say, to retire in 2030, but need to boost your emergency fund savings, you should make the passwords for the sites you frequent something like “Save$5000.” Be sure to include at least a couple random numbers, letter or symbols to make the password secure, and continue to change it up on a regular basis as you would any other.

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Our Brain Learns Best When We Write Things Down (Typing Will Have To Do)

This make-your-goal-your-password hack may be new and novel, but the science behind its efficacy has been well known for decades. The brain learns and remembers better when we write things down. Ideally, this is done by writing by hand, but obviously that’s not how digital devices work, so typing (which engages fewer neural circuits than writing by hand) will have to do.

This hack works because you’re reinforcing your goal by mindlessly repeating it at random, whenever you need to log in to Facebook, Gmail or any other website.

Enhance the Hack by Adding in Words That Spark a Good Attitude

You can beef up this hack by adding in words in the password that aren’t strictly financial. For example, you could use the password “Save$5000Thankful” or “Save$5000Calm.” Just as using words that make you think of your goal can help you stay mindful of the goal, so can using words that make you think of a feeling you want.

“I think of a word or two, and I have my daughter do this as well,” Davis said. “My two words this year are ‘fun’ and ‘intentional.’ When I have to update my password, some version of one or both of those words is going to probably appear in it.”

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