I recently heard about this company (called Reel) that is a website where you shop for things to get later. The goal is to avoid debt by essentially putting something on lay away until you save up money to purchase. You choose the item, set an amount to set aside per day or week and set up a bank account to take it from, and then they send the item when it is paid for.

This is both amazing, because debt is bad and we aren’t that good – as a society – at saving; and sad – because we aren’t so good at saving.

You would think we could decide on something we want and then wait appropriately to get said item. However, if we struggle with that, then having this accountability system could work tremendously well to help get yourself to save without using the credit card that you will not be able to pay off immediately.

Perhaps you know someone who would benefit from this.

My less-techy system includes keeping a running list of “Long Term Items I want” on my phone. When I want something but do not need it right away, I put it on the list. It’s mostly books, and it’s great because it allows me to keep a track of what I want to read without an even bigger stack of unread books than I already have. And, for both books and other items, the other great thing is that after time I lose my desire for them. I get the satisfaction of acknowledging what I want, without paying a dime to have the item for a super short period.