I saved nothing until I was 35 years old. Then I lost a job I loved and hated the feeling of vulnerability that followed and spent a lot of time thinking about what I did wrong. I concluded that the only way to be sure of getting to do work you love is coming to possess a high level of financial independence. So I started saving like a madman. One year my wife and I together saved $88,000, over 80 percent of our post-tax income.

In the following years, I reflected back on what transformed me from one of the worst savers in the world into one of the best savers in the world. It is this identity thing you refer to here. I do not care about collecting little green pieces of paper. I do not care about what is going to happen to me when I am 65 (at least I didn’t when I was 35). I DO care greatly about being able to spend my hours doing work I love. When saving came to be about something that mattered to ME, I became a good saver.

I think it’s like that with everyone. What makes it tricky is that there is no one thing that makes a person a great saver. There is no one rule of thumb or saving tip that can turn everyone around. It’s something different for each person. What works are saving strategies that appeal to the personality of the person you are trying to persuade to save more.

Cookie-cutter approaches do not work in the money field. This is my grand conclusion. Money problems (and solutions) are personal.

Rob