Do you want to increase your savings? It begins with imagining our "future selves" and creating a clear plan for achieving our objectives.

We must think about how to reduce our spending, increase our savings, and make retirement plans. But the truth is, all we need to do to live a financially sound existence is follow a few simple guidelines. The guidelines are to spend less than you earn, save for emergencies, put money aside for retirement, and invest the remainder. It is as easy as it sounds. But since individuals are complex and life interferes, we are aware that reality is much more difficult.

For instance, even though we all know we should save more money for retirement, we put off performing even the most fundamental tasks, like funding our 401(k)s. (And by doing this, we might even be passing up free money from employer matching programs!) According to a MagnifyMoney survey, 13% of Americans have access to a company retirement plan but do not take advantage of matching funds.

Yes, it can be quite challenging to increase our savings rates when we have bills and unplanned expenses to pay today. But creating lasting riches necessitates preparation. And doing so doesn't necessarily entail redoing your spending plan or eliminating all unnecessary costs. Hal Hershfield demonstrates how some of the easiest mentality changes are some of the most effective tools we have for financial success.

He discovered that having the ability to envision our future selves is essential to sticking to our goals in his latest book, "Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today." (In "How to Money," HerMoney's guide for Young savers, we referred to this idea as "future you!") Hershfield has spent his whole professional life investigating ways to improve our capacity for long-term decision-making. At UCLA's Anderson School of Management, he teaches marketing, psychology, and behavioral decision-making.

Because that's what we want to do with our money today, it's simple for us to spend half of our income on that Taylor Swift concert ticket, for instance. We find it harder to see ourselves at 80 and the kind of lives we'll be having. We live in the present, according to Hal, which is the cause of this. According to his studies, "We sometimes even think about our future selves as if they are other people." However, we are all aware that having financial security will allow us to pursue activities that will make us happy in the future. How can we envision that person more clearly, create plans, and decide for them right away?

We are more likely to save more money for the future and make preparations for that person now when we can imagine more profoundly and vividly the person we'll be at the age of 70 or 80. Funny enough, we are more likely to save for the person we will become when we can actually "see" them. Using apps like Ageing Booth, you can see how you'll truly appear in 20 or 30 years, which can be helpful. "When people are exposed to these older, age-progressed images, they're more likely to want to contribute to a long-term savings account or retirement," says Hal. Interesting.

Do you envision yourself enjoying a frosty margarita while relaxing on a beach in the Caribbean when you envision yourself in retirement? Perhaps you're relaxing in the tiny mountain cabin of your dreams. Start with whatever it is you most desire, then work your way backwards to ascertain what it will take monetarily to achieve that. You can do this!