Whenever you come across a sale or shopping holiday, do you feel like you have accidentally overspent and bought something you don't need for a while or for a long time and you regret it. To avoid this regret next time, you may need to make some adjustments to your financial mindset. With money, people tend to set up a mental account for its use and have different sensitivities to money under different mental accounts. If your money is placed in the insensitive area of your mental account, it will be relatively more valuable and more willing to be used, whereas for money placed in a sensitive account, it will be less valuable and less willing to be used.

For example, many girls are happy to spend thousands of dollars on a limited edition designer bag, but hesitate to spend $500 on a model robot. Or they will happily spend $200 on a lipstick but are reluctant to spend more than $20 on a hand washcloth. What appears to be a difference in the nature of consumer goods here is actually different purchases being recorded in different psychological accounts. The bag and lipstick are recorded in the insensitive account, so it is felt that it is worth spending more, while the robot model and towel are recorded in the sensitive account, and it is felt that they are not worth that much money to spend more on them.

Another situation is that some income is treated differently because it is credited to different heart accounts. This is particularly the case with 'windfall' income that is not earned directly through one's own work. Some people will consider their monthly salary, which is their income from work, as normal income and put it in a sensitive account without spending it freely, while they will consider bonuses, investment income, red envelopes from others, Valentine's Day transfers, etc. as "windfall income" and put it in an insensitive account to spend it more freely. As a result, people are more likely to spend this 'windfall' rather than save it or continue to invest it to earn compound interest.

When you feel like you're always spending more than your budget, it may not be that you're getting less money, but that you're spending too much towards insensitive areas of your mental account. The multiple payment options that come with an upgrade in spending patterns also tend to put you in the spending trap by increasing your spending, especially online payments, overspending, and credit card instalment payments. While they increase your spending convenience and spending limits, they also reduce your sensitivity to spending money. Because it is difficult for you to intuitively feel a reduction in cash through your own credit card, this can make you increase your spending without realising it. So, if you feel that you are always spending over budget, apart from checking to see if you are transferring too much to an insensitive account, it is also advisable to create a ledger based on the different sensitive areas of your mental account, keep track of your income and expenditure and go through it from time to time to increase your sensitivity to spending money.

（Writer：Matti）