Comments on: Out With The Old, In With The New: Put Up Some Passive Barriers

By: MARY

MARY — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:07:39 +0000

Re:
I second that, and I ‘ve said as much (kiddingly)to my friends who are guilty of it.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:51:11 +0000

A lot of these are not a problem for me, I don’t watch tv too often or search the net too often, I don’t charge too much and I don’t drink too much. I know, what can I say I’m perfect–well, not quite. I do find that if I move the candy jar or other snacks to even the other side of the room instead of next to the chair I read in, I eat much, much less. If I only put one can of soda in the frig per day, I’m not tempted to grab a second one.
I also automatically save $ out of each check. That is much easier than actually remembering to put the $$ in the savings account and I loathe taking money out of savings, so I usually limit spending to what is actually in checking.
Loved, loved, loved the cell phone one! I hate when people answer their phones, read text or surf the net while taking to me. How rude, it is in my opinion telling the person you are talking to that they are too boring to give your attention to,or you have to answer this call as it may be someone more important than who you are talking to face to face. If you are expecting an important call, say so when you start talking, or at the very least say “Excuse me a moment, I really have to take this call.” If it’s just someone calling to chat, tell them you can not talk now. And do you really need to have that lame conversation in the restaurant, store or doctor’s office? Do you really want everyone around you to know your business?

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:01:50 +0000

Trent, 7, 8 & 9 are a bit confusing.

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:16:02 +0000

These are all great ideas — some of them apply to my situation, some not. Seems like a lot of the posters here are feeling stressed out & negative — wish everyone well for holidays & thanks Trent.

By: Sheri

Sheri — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:16:26 +0000

Trent, better revise #7-9. They mean the opposite of what you intend . . .

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:42:41 +0000

@Not having your retirement plan automatically sign you up

Companies are doing this because if there is in-balance in the ratio of the Highly Compensated Employees vs. rank in file employees, the IRS will limit the amount the HCE’s can contribute in that year. This is most likely due to the lower income employee’s not participating in the 401(k), so automatically enrolling these lower paid employees fixes this in-balance. Most of them do not op-out.

The default investment is usually very conservative, almost to a fault, but what else would you chose by default?

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:52:13 +0000

Hmmm. Most of these don’t apply to me either, but I think Ramit has a very different audience than those of us who read this blog.

I think passive barriers are more of an advantage to retailers than they are to consumers. For instance, a lot of people don’t cancel free trials before they’re billed, and they often don’t go back to check that their rates and plans are the best deals out there.

I think it would be more interesting to look at how passive barriers work against us — and how to overcome them.

By: SwingCheese

SwingCheese — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:29:19 +0000

We have such a small house that putting the remote control in the bedroom and having to walk to get it simply wouldn’t be a problem. Plus, we have a toddler who loves to hide the remote. Putting it in the bedroom might help to ensure that we don’t have to spend time searching for it, only to give up and change stations manually, lol!

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:59:58 +0000

I’m pretty much on board with lurker carl & the others on this. While it makes sense to not buy foods/drinks that aren’t on your food plan, the rest seems pretty infantile to me.

By: karishma

karishma — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:20:41 +0000

@Interested Reader: Yuck! I prefer my sodas at room temp rather than cold – but hot out of the trunk of a car in the summer? That might actually work for me to kick my diet soda habit.

By: Interested Reader

Interested Reader — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:07:01 +0000

I tried something like this when I was trying to drink less diet cokes. I kept them in the car, in the summer (I live in the south) and I had to go out to my trunk to get one.

Instead of kicking the habit I developed a taste for hot diet coke.

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:02:39 +0000

Alternate working title: be lazy, save money.

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:50:45 +0000

These passive barriers are so weak that they beg to be defeated. Motivation to succeed and a fail-proof environment work better.

By: Joanna

Joanna — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:27:01 +0000

Unplugging my internet from the back of the computer wouldn’t stop me for one second from surfing the internet, and besides, who doesn’t have wifi set up by now? If internet is really an issue, maybe it needs to be canceled entirely.

By: marta

marta — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:23:37 +0000

Yup, #7 and #8 are odd, too.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:21:45 +0000

Yeah, I think there are several “not”s where there shouldn’t be…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:18:53 +0000

On #9 Did you mean to put that not in there?

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:17:14 +0000

I find the stuff for which this passive barrier stuff works tends to be stuff that wasn’t a problem in the first place. Not having alcohol in the house means I will drink less of it, but since I only drink a glass or two of wine a week if I do have a bottle in the house, it doesn’t really matter. Conversely, I’ve never found a barrier to mindless internet surfing so strong that it’s particularly effective (well, except being out of the country); when it comes to that, I have to motivate myself the old-fashioned way.

By: marta

marta — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:13:12 +0000

Some of the points in your article seem to assume everyone lives in such huge mansions that walking all the way to the other side is a herculean task.