Our ancestors hoarded food to survive winter, and thousands of years later that instinct to save is still remarkably hard to shake. Join Steve Rowe as he explores why spending can feel so uncomfortable and why financial planning should be about more than simply accumulating money.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, in a cold cave shielded from the wind by mammoth furs, a cave woman turned to her caveman husband and said “you know what, I’m sick of packing up the furs then re-erecting them and trying to draftproof the next place we stop at, and following the mammoth / deer herds, all so you can act out your masculine fantasy and hunt them. I’ve been reading ‘Cave & Home’ on the walls of some of the caves we have stayed in. It’s been writing about a new pastoral lifestyle that is ever so on trend now. Why don’t we swap being Hunter gatherers for a more agrarian lifestyle?”
The cave man looks perplexed, but like most humans, he was willing to try new things and agreed. He too had read cave paintings saying ‘happy wife, happy life’ and despite not knowing what a wife was, or even what ‘life’, ‘writing’ or ‘agrarian’ was, and certainly not what ‘pastoral lifestyle meant’ they stopped moving and started planting some of the seeds.
A year later, they harvested their crop and Mr Caveman, who was hungry because he hadn’t had a steak, mammoth or otherwise, for 6 months was excited for a few months of plenty! But Mrs Cavewoman had other ideas."Listen love, we need to make the last until this time next year, so keep your gluttonous eyes off it, we need to store and save it. Dig me a grain pit".
We are here today because our ancestors stored the grain because winter was coming.
This worked for humanity for hundreds of thousands of years. For pretty much our entire existence except for say the last 100 years. Humans worked out that to survive they needed to save, they needed to hold grain, gold, money, back for leaner times to come and for when they were no longer able to hunt or harvest. They also saved it for their ‘after life’ in whatever beliefs they had that followed death. They would go there. Along with their hoarded wealth in whatever form it was saved.
We know this as these days we dig it up! Think of all the hoards of gold etc, that have been found over the years. The pharaohs in their pyramids, with their mummified corpses, canopic jars full of their organs (don’t forget them, it’s worse than forgetting your plug adaptor!) chariots of gold and pots of food, beer, make up etc. Everything you need for a comfortable life.
All for metal detectorists and archaeologists to discover in years to come and to help put together the lifestyles of the past.
There are literally millions of people’s savings, hoards, and emergency funds since our time began, that went to waste because they died before they were needed. But back then, it had to be done! There were no safety nets. You had the food or resources or you didn’t. Unbelievably, in whatever hell it was, there were not financial planners and certainly no cash flow planning tools! The only way to invest for your future was to raise children to look after you and hope they wouldn’t perish (which they did, in abundance) and that they would want to care for you in old age.
"Hoard food and it rots. Hoard money and you rot. Hoard power and the nation rots." - Chuck Palahniuk, Adjustment Day
So, there’s a problem. Not only for the hoarder, but for wider society that could use that money in some way. Having it whizzing around the economy would certainly increase tax and help the worse off. It’s not just our evolutionary psychology; there are other drivers:
Key Psychological Drivers
- Loss Aversion: The psychological pain of watching a retirement account balance drop is twice as intense as the pleasure of gaining an equal amount. Retirees view spending as a permanent loss rather than an exchange for life experiences.
- The "Precious Cargo" Mindset: Many view their nest egg as fragile, irreplaceable cargo - like a box of chocolates or fine wine - believing the regret of spending it too soon far outweighs the regret of never enjoying it at all.
- Loss of Active Earnings Identity: Working for decades provides a continuous stream of income and a structured financial safety net. The link between work and earnings is massive!
- Fear of Outliving Savings & Unknowns: The lack of a guaranteed lifespan, combined with anxiety over future medical or long-term care costs, makes future needs feel unquantifiable.
- Ingrained Lifelong Frugality: Decades spent prioritizing saving, avoiding debt, and planning for the future create a rigid mental habit that is nearly impossible to turn off overnight.
- Cultural Scarcity Conditioning: Growing up through economic downturns or absorbing family histories of financial hardship can leave an enduring psychological imprint that treats money as a defensive bunker rather than a tool for living.
"The worst kind of hoarding is keeping money stashed inside lockers or bank accounts, to use it God knows when. It’s not simple living, but extreme insecurity." - Abhaidev, Notes from the Edge of Sanity
For humans, this was vital and still makes up massive proportions of our DNA. The need, urge and yearning to build a safety net and provide for the future are within us. But we must learn to control it. Because enough is enough! Not only for the people that can’t bring themselves to spend what they have. But having ‘enough’ is enough! For many people you will never need lots of the money you have.
If you harbour some romantic notion that you will leave a permanent physical legacy, let me tell you this: No one will find your hoards as is on silicon chips and pixels!! It is highly unlikely they will want any property you leave them. Younger people do not want the house in the suburbs you buy for them or reside in. They may not even want to stay in the area. You are leaving them a restriction or a tie to a life they probably do not want.
What’s the problem?
Well not much if you’re happy with it, but are you? What questions are you asking yourself? What are the possibilities of things you could be doing. Your world and life could become a hell of a lot bigger!
The art of the possible is a wonderful thing!
I think we as financial planners have been wonderful at showing you that you have enough money to live the life you know already. But what about the life you do not know? They one you could achieve with a little or a lot of effort in thinking. We stress test disaster scenarios such as early death, illness, massive and prolonged economic downturns, but I put this to you: What if the ‘disaster scenario’ is not doing the things you have yet to imagine?
Saving was invented for survival. Financial planning should be about living.
We are going to make a concerted effort to do this with you. But here are some early tips:
How to Shift the Mindset
- Build a ‘Regular Salary’ framework: Transition from viewing a large pile of savings to receiving a regular, structured, more-than-enough, monthly payout to help you recreate the psychological security of a working payslip.
- Differentiate "Needs" from "Joy": Separate essential expenses (covered by guaranteed income like pensions or state support) from discretionary funds explicitly designated as "permission slips" for enjoyment.
- Test Enjoyment with Small Experiments: Start with low-stakes, non-permanent spending (such as a small trip or a nice dinner) to rebuild the emotional muscle of spending money without guilt. Then do it again, and again, until it is a habit you love!
If you’re interested in this then we have a podcast on it! The problem of spending - Jess and I covered this in episode 45 of Juggling Mind and Money.
That's it for Money and Mischief this month.
Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute financial advice. We recommend that you speak to a qualified financial planner for advice tailored to your individual circumstances and goals. Financial markets may go up or down, and you are not guaranteed a return on your investment. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. Financial details including benefits to the treatment of tax will depend on your individual circumstances and, while checked at the time of publication, may be subject to change in future.
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