This is Your Brain on Money
🧠 Your Brain Is Brilliant — and Terrible With Money
Here’s the truth: you will never have “enough” money.
Not because you don’t earn enough — but because your brain will never let you feel like you do.
Our brains are wired for survival, not satisfaction. The basal ganglia, that ancient part of your brain that once helped cavemen grab berries before the next famine, now pushes you to gather the modern equivalent — shoes, cars, gadgets, houses. It tells you stories:
“I’ll finally relax when I get the new car… the bigger house… the better vacation.”
But once you have them, your brain adapts. Quickly. That new car smell fades, the dopamine wears off, and suddenly you’re back at baseline — scrolling for the next thing. Psychologists call it the hedonic treadmill. You run, but you never arrive.
Credit cards, social media, and easy dopamine make this even harder. The cards reward your caveman brain’s every impulse; the algorithms whisper, “Everyone else is doing better than you.”
So how do you win a battle against your own biology?
You stop trying to fight it — and you design around it.
Automate your savings. Pay yourself first. Move money out of your spending account before your basal ganglia can get its hands on it. Then use a Tax-Efficient Waterfall strategy to make those savings work smarter, not harder.
Because the real secret to wealth isn’t willpower — it’s structure.
Your brain may crave the next hit of “new,” but your future self craves freedom.