Self Help

The difficulty of resisting short-run temptations for the long-run gains of enjoying a more satisfying life, as well as doing better materially, has been born out in experiments with children. The experiments started with four-year old children who were each taken into a room and given a marshmallow. Each child was told, “You can eat this marshmallow as soon as you want, but if you wait and don’t eat it until I return in a little while, then I will give you a second marshmallow.”

When the experimenter left, the children were observed through a one-way window. Several of the children ate their marshmallows immediately, others tried to resist temptation but soon devoured theirs as well. And others were determined to wait, and soon received a second marshmallow. The result of each child’s experiment was recorded, and then the children’s academic performance was followed through their later school years.

Those children who had saved their first marshmallow until they received the second were later found to be, according to the researchers, better adapted and more popular, and they exhibited more confidence and responsibility than those children who could not delay gratification. Also, those who had resisted temptation scored an average of 20 to 25 percent higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the test most widely used by colleges and universities to help predict academic success.

What is the lesson here? Simple. If you want to earn more money, build a bigger savings account, and become financially independent, then learn to resist the temptations of spending your money unwisely.