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The Platinum Card® from American Express is an exclusive charge card that carries a $550 annual fee and provides a host of luxurious and practical benefits for frequent travelers. As a charge card, the Platinum Card doesn’t come with any preset spending limits or regular interest charges, but it does require that cardholders almost always pay…

The Platinum Card® from American Express – Review is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog.

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The Enhanced Business Platinum® Card from American Express OPEN is an American Express business charge card that blends the features of a travel rewards card with the benefits of a small business card. Although it shares many of the features of the Platinum Card from American Express, including a hefty $450 annual fee, it’s meant exclusively for…

The Enhanced Business Platinum® Card from American Express OPEN – Review is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog.

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Hello! Today, I have a great blog post about how to use your tax refund from my friend Jeff. Jeff began his career at a private wealth management firm, but now runs two blogs full time. Between VTX Capital and Breaking The One Percent, he's dedicated to helping millennials and young entrepreneurs grow their online businesses and dominate their personal finances. 

Each year when tax season rolls around, I like to take a step back and look at the Big Picture when it comes to my personal finances.  Most years, I end up getting somewhere between $500-$2,000 back from the IRS.

Usually, I put a little bit of that towards my student loan debt, throw some money in my IRA, or just cushion my emergency savings a bit.  And of course I'll occasionally splurge on a fun toy.

Hey, I'm human.

But in 2014, I decided to do something different with my tax refund.

I decided to make the biggest investment of all, and put the money towards starting my own online business.

Why?

I had only been working for “The Man” for two years, but I could already feel myself growing tired of the idea of working for somebody else.  Maybe it was the dysfunctional office politics of a small business, or perhaps my own ego that made me think I could do better on my own, but I knew deep down that entrepreneurship was the end goal for me.

Related reads:

• 55+ Ways To Learn How To Save Money
• How To Make Extra Money
• 8 Things To Sell To Make Money

It was an itch that was growing stronger with each passing month.  I knew I had to find a way out from my 9-5.

The thing was, I actually liked the type of work I was doing.  I worked for a financial advisor, and I was pretty quickly moving up the ranks.  I really enjoyed being able to help clients with investing their money and planning for their retirement.

But one thing I really didn't like about my job, though, was the amount of face to face schmoozing I had to do with clients and prospects.   I hated the constant demand to get more assets in the door, even if it meant selling your soul to do it.

I knew that if I wanted to do business on my own, I was going to need a totally different strategy.

That's when I started researching successful online businesses.

 

The Blogging Business Model

At first, I had never really considered blogging as a viable alternative to my day job.  I was a finance guy, not a “blogger”.

The problem was, at the time I was completely unaware at the time of how the whole blogging business model even worked.  Sure, I was a regular reader of several financial websites, but until I looked at them from a “business” lens (and not just as someone who enjoyed reading articles) I never really understood how blogs could make money.

Then I discovered what “Income Reports” were.  I saw that many bloggers were making crazy amounts of money.  And they were reaching tens and even hundreds of thousands of readers each month.

I was completely hooked on the concept.

With a blog, I knew it was possible for me to:

Help people at scale…

Have flexibility to deliver help in a way I was naturally better at (writing awesome content)…

Not have to deal with the constant pressure of drumming up new clients…

Potentially make more money than working a corporate job.

Of course, I knew it wouldn’t be easy.  I vividly remember reading about how most bloggers don’t end up making any money at all and never “make it big.”

I was going to try, though. Between affiliate marketing, display advertising, offering 1 on 1 services, and more, I knew there were plenty of opportunities to make money blogging.

 

My Tax Refund in 2014 Was Exactly $800

I had already been saving up for my “escape” from corporate life for quite some time, but for some reason this cash infusion that year had me extra motivated to get serious about putting my plan into motion.

Since I already had saved up enough to go almost an entire year without income, I decided to deploy this extra money towards actually getting my business started.

Here’s the breakdown of how I spent my money (I didn’t end up spending all $800), and the advice I would give someone that's looking to set up the foundation for an online business, while still being employed at their 9 to 5.

 

Domain Name and Hosting for 1 year: ~$100

In order to have a website, you obviously need a name for it.

Since I had planned to initially focus a lot on offering 1 on 1 services and membership packages through my site, I wanted to go with a more “formal” sounding website and business name. Ben (my friend and business partner) and I ended up going with the name VTX Capital for our business. Looking back two years later, I wish we would have chosen a more blog-sounding name, but that's okay.

Some tips for choosing your domain name:

• Stick to just .com endings.  Don’t bother using .biz, .info, .org, or any other endings.
• Make your domain name simple and easy to remember.
• Leave out numbers and dashes and anything else other than letters.

When you go to buy your domain and hosting, you don't need to pay as much up front as we did.  Since we knew we were willing to commit to at least a year in blogging and online business, Ben and I chose the lengthier package in order to save money.

 

WordPress Theme: $50

I will never understand how these are as cheap as they are, but I'm not complaining.  A “theme” is basically just a general design for your blog.  That means you don't actually need to know anything about coding or web design in order to get started with your blog, which is huge. Without a decent theme, your blog will basically be a wall of text that no one wants to read.

There are a lot of free themes out there, but I think you're much better off making the small investment in a paid theme. Our theme was only $50 dollars, and gave our site a much more professional look than if we had gone with  a free theme.

See what I mean:

How you present yourself goes a long way towards establishing credibility with your readers, which is why we decided to go with a paid theme. It's infinitely better than anything we could have designed ourselves, so for 50 bucks it was a steal.

 

LLC Registration Fees: $100

You'll hear differing opinions about when you should officially set up your blog as a business entity, depending on who you ask.

Ben and I wanted to do everything “by the book” when we got started, so we registered VTX Capital as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in Virginia long before we even started pulling in an income from our site.  Sure, it meant shelling out $100 early on in the process, but we knew we were serious about pursuing this and wanted to do it the right way.

I'm not a legal expert by any means, which is part of the reason why we wanted to file and make us as “legit” as possible from early on.  We wanted to make sure our bases were covered.

Disclaimer: You should consult a lawyer with any questions you have about setting up your blog as a business. 

Related read: Blogging and Taxes – What You Need To Know

 

Lawyer Fees for Reviewing Our Operating Agreement: $200

You most likely do NOT need to go this far if you are just starting out.  We could have waited, but I don't regret getting this out of the way early.

An operating agreement is an agreement among limited liability company (LLC) members (me and Ben) which governs the LLC's business, and each member's financial and managerial rights and duties.  This was important for Ben and I to do since a) this wasn't a 1 man operation, and b) I was doing more of the work at the beginning and Ben was fronting our ongoing expenses.

Again, we just wanted to be safe and have a lawyer review everything to make sure there wouldn't be any surprises later. The way we looked at it, it was easier to get it done at the beginning BEFORE there was a lot of money (and therefore emotions) involved.

 

Total Cost For *Us* to Start an Online Business: $450

Again, you can get away with spending MUCH less.  I knew from the get-go that our online business was going to be a long term project, so that's how Ben and I treated it.

If you are first just looking to start a blog to make some money on the side, you can start by just purchasing your domain, hosting, and (ideally) a paid theme.  Everyone's online business journey is different and unique, so take things at your own pace and do what feels right for you.

 

Fast Forward to Now

Starting an online business was the best decision that I have ever made.  Life is good.

After putting my tax refund money towards getting things set up, then spending a few months writing/learning/social media-ing, I finally took the leap from my 9 to 5 on August 1, 2014.

Since then, there have been many ups and downs, and a LOT of trial and error.  Our business model has shifted from primarily 1 on 1 client work to now a heavier focus on promoting affiliate products and developing other passive (and scaleable) income streams. I really like where our business is headed, and I couldn't be happier.

When Ben and I first started, I went many months wondering if I had made the right decision to quit my steady paying job, but eventually everything started to finally click.  I stuck with it and kept learning something new every day, and eventually our income started to reflect the work we were putting in.

I now earn enough from my online business to live comfortably, and the best part is- I work for myself! I cannot begin to tell you how liberating it feels to finally be able to say that.  At 27 years old, I can't imagine myself ever going back to a regular 9 to 5 job.

Although I vastly underestimated how hard entrepreneurship would actually be, I still encourage others to give it a shot.

If you're tired of what you are doing, it's up to YOU to make a change!

---

Since we have learned so much over the past two years about blogging and online entrepreneurship, Ben and I recently launched another blog, BreakingTheOnePercent.com.  That's where we share content related to helping other online entrepreneurs grow their businesses (we still sprinkle some personal finance stuff there, too). Between the two sites, we've got plenty to keep us busy, but we are loving every minute of it.

How much are you getting back for your tax refund this year? What do you plan on doing with it?

The post How to Use Your Tax Refund to Scale (or Start) Your Own Online Business appeared first on Making Sense Of Cents.

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Posted by: John S Kiernan

Rating: 5 / 5

The Verdict:  It’s already in the travel rewards hall of fame and continues to be one of the best offers out there.  The Capital One Venture Card has long served as the standard-bearer for a more straightforward credit card market, with its “No Hassle” double miles, lucrative initial rewards bonus and lack of foreign transaction fees helping to set pro-consumer trends amid a landscape previously characterized by general shadiness.

It’s ultimately no wonder why Venture has been praised by users and emulated by competitors, as WalletHub research reveals that it has the potential to yield the average spender roughly $1,500 in rewards over the first two years of ownership.  The key is to redeem Venture Miles to pay for travel-related transactions once they post to your account.  Not only does this give you the best redemption rate, but is also eliminates much of the red tape common with travel credit cards – allowing you to focus on finding the best deal, no matter which airline, hotel or travel comparison site offers it.

The Highlights

• $400 Initial Bonus: Sign-up bonuses are in vogue right now, with most of the market’s best rewards cards offering some serious value. Venture is no aberration. Spending at least $3,000 during the first three months will earn you 40,000 miles redeemable for $400 in travel-related expenses. This offer isn’t always available, so if you’ve been thinking about applying for the Venture Card, you may want to do so sooner rather than later – provided that you wouldn’t need to spend any more than normal to qualify.

• Double Miles That Are Worth It: Many credit cards offer more than one mile, point or percent cash back. Most, however, restrict their heightened earning rates to certain types of categories or simply move the redemption goalpost. But each Venture Mile is worth one cent, as long as you redeem for a statement credit to pay for a travel-related purchase after it has posted to your account. That means strategic users earn the miles-equivalent of 2% cash back on every dollar spent.

• Choose Your Own Travel: Capital One makes a big deal out of the fact that users don’t have to deal with blackout dates, seat restrictions, etc. It’s certainly true but also somewhat misleading. Logistical snafus simply aren’t part of the equation because you never have to actually book anything through Capital One. Rather, you can use your card to pay for whatever travel costs you incur – whether plane tickets booked through a travel-booking site or a taxi ride – and then pay for the resulting charges with miles using Venture’s Purchase Eraser tool.

  You can indeed also use miles to directly purchase flights, rental cars and hotel reservations though Capital One’s Rewards Center, but the ability to take the credit card company out of the booking process without sacrificing rewards earning potential is the more powerful component of Venture Rewards.  This provides a great deal of freedom, after all, enabling you to focus on price minimization without sacrificing a redemption opportunity – even if you book through a travel-comparison website.  Keep in mind, however, that airlines, hotels and other travel providers may have some blackout dates and restrictions of their own.

• Venture Swallowed (Some) Of The Key Fees: None of Capital One’s credit cards charges foreign transaction fees. That alone will save Venture Card users 2% to 4% on any purchase processed outside the U.S.  The freedom to use your credit card as your primary international spending vehicle also enables you to forgo hard currency exchange, thereby saving roughly another 6%, on average.

  Venture doesn’t currently charge a first-year annual fee either – an $59 value that opens the door to people solely interested in sign-up bonuses and could lead those who aren’t careful to forget they have increased costs in their future.

• Relatively Broad Definition Of Travel Rewards: Whether or not you can redeem miles at the highest possible valuation depends on how the transaction you’re trying to pay for is classified on your account.  If a given transaction is deemed to be “travel-related,” then your miles will be worth roughly one cent each when put to use.  If not, they could be worth as little as half a cent each.

  Capital One has a fairly extensive list of items that are “generally considered travel purchases” (see below), accommodating redemption across modes of transportation and hospitality expense segments. But the fact that merchant category codes ultimately rule the day means you should double-check whether fringe expenses qualify before paying for them with miles.

  Airfare Hotel reservations Cruise reservations Train tickets Travel agent fees

  Time shares Taxi fare Bus lines Limousine services

The Lowlights

• Annual Fees For Loyal Customers: If your interest in the Venture Card extends beyond a quick rewards score, you can expect to pay for the privilege to earn far more than the average travel credit card. The $59 annual membership fee first assessed after your first account anniversary isn’t unreasonable by any means, but it's certainly worth taking into account.

• Miles Halved When Redeemed For Cash Or Merchandise: Venture is a travel rewards credit card, and users sacrifice a lot of their earnings when you stray from that purpose.  The number of miles you have in your account won’t change, but how much you get for them will.

  The card’s 40,000-mile initial bonus would only be worth $200 when redeemed for cash back, for example.  As long as you enter into this relationship with your eyes open, this shouldn’t be too big of a deal, but it’s a significant potential pitfall nonetheless.

Other Things To Consider

• Pay Late, Lose That Month’s Earnings: Not only will you be assessed a late fee of up to $35 if you miss your monthly due date, but you will also sacrifice all the miles you earned for the transactions listed on that month’s statement.  That’s a bad surprise that most people won’t find out about until it happens to them.

• Not A Good Option For Financing: If you don’t pay your balance in full every month, there are better cards out there.  Only the absolute best applicants will be approved for an APR toward the low end of Venture’s 13.74% to 23.74% APR, and even that is above the market average among credit cards for excellent credit:  12.84%.  You won’t get any kind of 0% introductory deal, either.

Compared To The Competition

  You can never get a complete picture of a given credit card without comparing it to other leading offers available to qualified applicants. With that in mind, we compared Venture to the most popular travel rewards cards catered to people with above-average credit.

 

Capital One Venture

Barclaycard Arrival Plus

You can’t go wrong with either offer, but Arrival Plus provides a smidgen more value due to the fact that cardholders receive a 5% discount when redeeming miles for travel-related expenses. Other than that, they’re pretty much the same.

Winner:  Barclaycard Arrival Plus  

 

Capital One Venture

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Sapphire Preferred stood out for its $500 initial bonus before such offers were somewhat common. It’s ongoing rewards were never very good and that hasn’t changed.  Venture matches it initially and dominates long-term. It’s the clear winner of this matchup.

Winner:  Capital One Venture  

 

Capital One Venture

Capital One VentureOne

VentureOne is the no annual fee version.  But that’s not the only difference.  It also has half the initial bonus (for a third of the price) and offers only 1.25 miles per dollar spent.  It may be a bit easier to get approved for, too. With that being said, Venture will be the most rewarding choice for most people who can: 1) get approved for it and 2) spend at least $1,000 per month on their credit card.

Winner:  Capital One Venture

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Season 6, Episode 30

On this week’s episode of Freakonomics Radio: What does it mean to pursue something that everyone else thinks is nuts? And what does it take to succeed?

Plus, Stephen J. Dubner asks, “What do medieval nuns and Bo Jackson have in common?”

To find out more, check out the podcasts from which this hour was drawn: “Outsiders by Design” and “What Do Medieval Nuns and Bo Jackson Have in Common.”

You can subscribe to the Freakonomics Radio podcast at iTunes or elsewhere, or get the RSS feed.

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Using search engines to find the content you’re looking for has become the way of life for almost every living, breathing computer user on the planet. In fact, it’s so prevalent that one such search engine has even become a verb — as in, I’m going to Google that later.

If you don’t know how to install a spigot outside, you have three options.  You can A) search for a plumber in your area and then give them a call, B) search for videos on “how to install a spigot” and do it yourself, or C) just decide you never want running water outside of your house again.  And if you don’t know what a spigot is, there’s little hope for you in this lifetime, so you’d better buck up your life insurance now.

And while we’re on that note….

For those in need of life insurance, it’s not an easy task to do a quality search online.  Using a standard search engine, you’re likely to see results that may not actually provide you with the best options.  Search results are designed to show you advertisers first, followed by companies who write the most relevant content on the subject. Unfortunately, neither will detail for you the best plan for your budget, your family, or your future.

Rather than start your search for life insurance on a general search engine, start it at Quotacy. Quotacy is a search engine designed to specifically provide detailed life insurance options for those in need of a new policy.

Quotacy Life Insurance Calculator

If you’re not quite sure how much life insurance is right for your family, Quotacy offers a simple calculator to help.  There’s not much to it, just the addition of three primary numbers:

• How much debt your family would like to pay off?
• How much monthly income do your loves ones need?
• How many years do they need income?

It’s important to note that life insurance proceeds are NOT taxed by the IRS or your local state government.  The amount calculated by Quotacy and the insurance coverage you choose is the amount received by your beneficiary upon your death… no taxes owed.

Related: How to Ensure That Your Life Insurance Proceeds are Truly Tax-Free

Quotacy Life Insurance Engine

From start to finish, getting a range of quotes on Quotacy takes all of 60 seconds.  There are four steps to complete, each consisting of a couple of easy questions.  These included whether or not you use blood-pressure medication, your height and your weight, and whether or not anyone in your family has a history of heart disease.

Once complete, a page will appear showing all of the available plans and prices.  From there, you can click “Choose” on the plan of your choice. You will then head to the underwriter’s application page, where a more detailed questionnaire will be required to complete your policy.  The quotes you receive will look something like this:

The quotes I received were for a policy of 10 years, $500,000 in coverage, and I requested them to be shown by annual cost.  The answers to my questions were likely what created the cheapest insurance policy, outside of my height / weight (which were listed as 6’0″/210 lbs).  Already having purchased a life insurance policy using this engine and choosing Haven Life, I can tell you that completing the process from this stage is a snap as well.  It takes between 3-5 minutes, at which point you either receive an approval notice or a notice to complete a physical exam.

Another nice thing about the Quotacy process is that you never leave their site (unless you select a Haven Life policy, at which point you’ll be redirected to their website).  The application is completed from Quotacy, and their process is a breeze.  The site and navigation are clean and simple, and the questions are straightforward.

Related: 11 Life Events That Tell You It’s Time to Draft a Will

In addition to life insurance, Quotacy also offers an application for disability insurance.  This is a little bit more complicated than the simple process they have for term life insurance but after filling out a short application, they will show a list of available providers and quotes.

Quotacy Contact Information

If you run into any trouble completing your life insurance application or using your Quotacy account after being approve for a life insurance policy, you can contact Quotacy using the information below.

• (844) 760-8229
• info@quotacy.com
• 505 Highway 169 North, #560 / Minneapolis, MN 55441

To complete a search and find a term life insurance policy that fits your needs, visit www.Quotacy.com

Topics: Life Insurance

The post Quotacy Life Insurance Review appeared first on The Dough Roller.

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Divorce is hard, even if there are plenty of financial advantages of being single. Regardless of why your relationship is ending, the legal process of getting a divorce can be confusing, time-consuming, and expensive. Unfortunately, plenty of myths can stop you from protecting yourself and your needs, often making a difficult situation even worse. It’s easy…

8 Legal Myths About the Process of Getting a Divorce is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog.

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Hello!

A quick blog post for today.

I recently started a private community group for readers of Making Sense of Cents. If you want to improve your life and your financial situation, join here and let's all help one another out!

There are already over 3,000 people in the private group and it just started five days ago!

You can join the private support group here.

Thanks!

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Posted by: John S Kiernan

It’s a tradition unlike other and the unofficial start of spring for golf fans nationwide. But the beauty of April flowers at Augusta National Golf Club, once a plant nursery, belies the danger lurking for the 94 participants in the 81st Masters Tournament. Plenty of prayers will be made around Amen Corner, to be sure. And we may even see some showers from the eyes of those who overcome and succumb to the pressure alike.

To help get you in the mood for golf’s first major of the year, WalletHub analyzed the Masters from tee to green, collecting interesting fun facts along the way. You can check out our findings in the infographic below, followed by a Q&A with a panel of leading golf experts. Enjoy the action!

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Embed on your website<a href="http://ift.tt/2nOxa9m; <img src="//d2e70e9yced57e.cloudfront.net/wallethub/posts/20523/the-2016-masters-tournament-v5.jpg" width="" height="" alt="The-2016-Masters-Tournament-v5" /> </a> <div style="width:px;font-size:12px;color:#888;">Source: <a href="http://ift.tt/2oBqBnY; Ask the Experts

For an inside-the-ropes report on golf-industry trends, we turned to a panel of leading golf professionals and sports business experts, asking them about everything from the impact of fantasy games on the golf business to who will don the green jacket this year. You can find their bios and responses to the following questions below.

1. Do you have any tips for hitting the links without breaking the bank?
2. Should communities invest in building or rehabbing golf courses? Why or why not?
3. What are the biggest issues facing the golf these days?
4. Fantasy golf seems to be gaining traction – what impact do you think it will have on the sport?
5. Which is your pick for 2017 Masters?

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• Vanessa MacKinnon Associate Professor in the Professional Golf Management Program at California University of Pennsylvania
• Gene Westmoreland Adjunct Professor in the Professional Golf Turf Management School at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Senior Consultant to the Metropolitan Golf Association & Metropolitan Golf Association Foundation
• Katie Lebel Assistant Professor of Sport Management at St. John's University
• Bob Bruns Associate Director of PGA Golf Management at Methodist University
• Adam Scott Assistant Director of the PGA Golf Management Program at Mississippi State University

Vanessa MacKinnon Associate Professor in the Professional Golf Management Program at California University of Pennsylvania Do you have any tips for hitting the links without breaking the bank? One of the challenges facing golf is the continued misconception that the sport is elitist and expensive. While it is certainly possible to spend an average person’s yearly salary on golf, it is also possible to enjoy golf without breaking the bank. There are numerous opportunities available to learn and enjoy the sport and its many health and social benefits in a fun, unintimidating, and affordable way. For children and teens, opportunities to try the sport abound. One great resource to get youngsters started is The First Tee, which has chapters all over the country and even internationally. The organization is non-profit and runs low-cost golf and life skills programs year-round at schools, parks, and public golf facilities. A similar program just for girls is the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Program. Many public golf facilities and teaching academies - particularly those affiliated with municipal or local governments - offer low-cost junior golf camps and group lessons during the summer months. Almost all of these programs provide free use of equipment during the lessons and camps for those children who do not have their own. For more experienced junior golfers, the PGA of America recently spearheaded initiatives such as the Drive, Chip, and Putt competition and PGA Junior League golf which offer an affordable entry point into competition for those youngsters seeking to take their games to the next level. Adults looking to take up the game also have a number of affordable options, even in upscale and metropolitan locales. For example, I spent several years teaching at the Everybody Golf School in suburban Washington DC, which offers a multitude of evening and weekend beginning adult group lesson programs. For well under $150 for 6 hours of group instruction (including free loaner clubs), participants are introduced to all the main aspects of the game. Programs such as this are typically well-attended and conducted in a fun and unintimidating environment. The PGA of America has begun encouraging more facilities to incorporate this type of adult programming through its nationwide Get Golf Ready initiative. For those already hooked on the game, there are affordable options to get out on the course. Many counties and municipalities run their own golf courses where players can play 9 holes for less than the cost of a movie at a theatre, and can play 18 for under $30. Some facilities even offer senior, twilight, mid-week, and resident discounts, bringing the cost for 18 holes to under $20, less than the cost of a dinner out! Other affordable options can be local par 3 courses affiliated with driving ranges. Just last week, several of my students played 9 holes at a local par 3 for only $5 each! Shoulder and off-season rates can also be attractive. In Southwest Florida, for example, top-rated courses that cost over $150 to play in the winter months can be accessed for under $30 in the summer. What are the biggest issues facing the golf these days? A few of the challenges facing the golf industry today are:

• the continued misconception of golf as elitist and expensive;
• attracting and retaining a greater diversity of participants;
• time!

Hopefully, my previous response has helped to dispel some of the misconceptions about the economic elitism of golf. From the point of view of diversity, I think the golf industry is taking steps in the right direction. The golf industry tends to be quite conservative, and it has unfortunately taken longer for golf to realize the importance of diversification than it did for a lot of other industries. But I think most of the industry’s leadership is now onboard and is doing its best to try to encourage and promote greater diversity. I think a lot of the onus lies with individual golf course managers to ensure a welcoming environment for participants of both genders and all races and to show that discrimination - even if it may not be overt or intentional - will not be tolerated. I think we, as a golf industry, are headed in the right direction and we will see significant improvements over the next few years. Time - or the lack thereof - is arguably the biggest challenge facing the golf industry today. In today’s society, people are experiencing more and more demands on their time. Many of the people who would most like to play golf are busy trying to balance work with a multitude of other commitments such as raising children, taking care of parents, and being active in their communities. Millennials now have a plethora of free and low-cost recreational activities available to them during their very-limited free time. Gone are the days when individuals could spend an entire morning or afternoon on a golf course. Perhaps this is one reason why a recent National Golf Foundation report shows that number of “avid” and “core” golfers in the US has declined over the past few years, but the number of “occasional” golfers has increased slightly. People still want to play golf- they just don’t have the time to play as many rounds as they did before. One solution to the dilemma of time is for golf facilities to continue to promote their 9-hole rates, or to examine ways in which pace of play could be improved. A couple of years ago, the United States Golf Association introduced the Play9 Initiative, designed to raise awareness among the public that playing 9 holes can be a fun way to experience golf without the time demands of a traditional 18-hole round. Many courses around the US have gotten onboard and will be offering their own Play9 days this year, with special discounts and initiatives for golfers to experience just how fun a quick 9 can be. Gene Westmoreland Adjunct Professor in the Professional Golf Turf Management School at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Senior Consultant to the Metropolitan Golf Association & Metropolitan Golf Association Foundation Do you have any tips for hitting the links without breaking the bank? Like most sports and hobbies, golf can be expensive but doesn’t have to be. Many public and municipal courses offer twilight rates and other off-hour discounts and on-line bookings can provide some great deals. Excellent used golf clubs are readily available on-line and golf balls can be found inexpensively too. Skip golf carts and take advantage of the relaxed exercise golf offers. Should communities invest in building or rehabbing golf courses? Why or why not? A golf course is a great asset to any community. Even for non-golfers it makes their town a nicer place to live – as long as it doesn’t have a drain on the treasury – and there isn’t a parent that wouldn’t love to see their kids take interest in golf to bring them into contact with people who show respect for themselves and for others. Low cost or free introductory lessons, especially for kids and women, are very important. Golf courses create much desired ‘green space’ and municipalities might consider ways to include other interest groups like birders, Boy/Girl Scouts, community gardens etc. into a golf course plans. What are the biggest issues facing the golf these days? To play 18 holes can take 4+ hours so golf has to be marketed to encourage 9 hole, even as little as 3-hole ‘rounds’. Anyone who has played the game knows how difficult the game is. Low cost lessons – while being fair to the professionals, is the important balance. Great practice facilities can provide a golf ‘fix’ for the most avid golfer if designed properly. Interesting full-shot ranges; short game practice area and putting ‘courses’ (not miniature golf) can be great practice, fun and done by the whole family – even under the lights. Fantasy golf seems to be gaining traction – what impact do you think it will have on the sport? I have yet to get caught up in Fantasy Sports but I know they have a big and growing following. No reason why the PGA Tours can’t be great fun for Fantasy Golf Fans. Who is your pick for 2016 Masters? I’ll go with Jordan Spieth to repeat! Katie Lebel Assistant Professor of Sport Management at St. John's University Do you have any tips for hitting the links without breaking the bank? GolfNow is a great option for golfers looking for a more economical way to get out and play. A number of courses have replicated their format of selling off open tee times at discounted rates on their own websites as well. If you’ve got flexibility in your schedule, this can be a good opportunity to get on some great courses! Should communities invest in building or rehabbing golf courses? Why or why not? This is very contextual. It depends largely on the course and the leadership behind the initiative. I would advise thorough market research before embarking on either option. What are the biggest issues facing the golf these days? Accessibility to the game is by far the biggest obstacle facing golf today. There are a number of potential barriers that exist including the costs involved with the game, the time it takes to complete a round, social stereotypes, and the sheer frustration of the sport! I’m very intrigued by some of the new initiatives that are attempting to grow the market. Businesses like Top Golf are gaining traction among a new golf demographic. TaylorMade pitched the idea of a 15” cup in 2014. At first, the thought of this seemed appalling. In practice, it would likely shave a few strokes off of everyone's game and speed things up significantly. If golf is to survive, this is the type of innovation that it will need! In today’s fast paced world, few people can afford to give up the 5+ hours it takes to complete an 18 hole round. Fewer people still have the patience to pay greens fees and cover the costs of equipment to participate in what can often be a highly frustrating endeavor. It is a wonderful game, but it is a difficult game. In order to grow the sport, I think there will need to be better access points for beginners as well as options for faster, more affordable rounds. If you can provide fringe players with good experiences early on in their exposure to the game, there will be a much greater chance to hook them on the sport for life. Fantasy golf seems to be gaining traction – what impact do you think it will have on the sport? The competition on the PGA Tour right now is fantastic. Fantasy golf is a great way to capitalize on the strong caliber of play we are witnessing. It helps audiences to become more familiar with players and gets them tuned in to events. Anything that opens up the game to new audiences and engages them is good for the sport. Who is your pick for 2016 Masters? Jason Day is making the game look easy right now. If he can stay healthy and sharp, I think he has a great shot at adding a green jacket to his collection. Bob Bruns Associate Director of PGA Golf Management at Methodist University Do you have any tips for hitting the links without breaking the bank? There are lots of options - the average green fee in America is under $30, contrary to popular belief and the way golf is depicted in the mainstream media, most areas have municipal facilities owned and operated by cities, counties or state organizations, offering many affordable options. Also, practice facilities give people a chance to practice at minimal costs. Also, new facilities such as TopGolf can be accessed in metropolitan areas across the country for under $40/person. Should communities invest in building or rehabbing golf courses? Why or why not? Absolutely, just like they should invest in pools, libraries, schools and other amenities they provide for their citizens. Research shows that residents take greater pride in their property and are willing to pay their fair portion of taxes when the amenities they have access to are well maintained. What are the biggest issues facing the golf these days? Like so many things, the time we have available is limited today as we get stretched in so many different directions - we need to make choices that fit our lifestyle and the golf industry need to continue to offer new alternatives that don't require 4+ hours. Examples such as shorter courses, 3-6 hole loops rather than 18 holes, and activities for the whole family to engage in, such as parent/child tournaments, Junior Golf Leagues, etc. Fantasy golf seems to be gaining traction – what impact do you think it will have on the sport? I think it gives those who watch the sport a chance to be more engaged from Thursday to Sunday, whether they actually play the game themselves. Who is your pick for 2016 Masters? I'm a die-hard Iowa Hawkeye Fan, so Zach Johnson has to be the first choice; he played well at Bay Hill and the Match Play, so rounding into shape for another run at a Green Jacket! Adam Scott Assistant Director of the PGA Golf Management Program at Mississippi State University Do you have any tips for hitting the links without breaking the bank? Of course! Most golfers assume the weekend premium rate is the only rate. This is not true! Some facilities have reduced rates in the afternoon, especially during the week. Saturday and Sunday morning are high demand playing times, so a golfer can save money if he/she can be flexible and avoid those days. Additionally, services like GolfNow.com and Groupon.com have many discounts through coupons and special offers. Always search the internet for deals on golf courses in your area! Should communities invest in building or rehabbing golf courses? Why or why not? I think it depends on an area’s current situation. What is the strength of the local economy.? Is it growing? Shrinking? Are people relocating to the area? Are there new business developments? New golf courses are rare in today’s golf industry, while redesigns/facelifts are more commonplace. If there is a return on investment, giving a golf course a revamping would be advised over a new project in today’s economy. What are the biggest issues facing the golf these days? Just like with any sport, all of us want to have as much participation as possible so everyone can enjoy this wonderful game. Golf truly is a sport for life! Grandparents, parents, and children all spending time together on the golf course is an incredible thing to witness. It is amazing when you can see a family who plays golf together on a weekly basis. In today’s world of electronics and technology, where else can you spend multiple hours with your friends and family outside doing something you all enjoy? Golf has come a long way in trying to distance itself from the perception of a wealthy and inclusive sport which provides many barriers to start playing. The PGA of America has developed and provided many programs, like Get Golf Ready, which allow for new golfers to come into the game at an affordable price while also reducing the anxiety for an individual trying something new. Furthermore, the PGA and LPGA Tours have done a great job marketing young/attractive stars to appeal to the younger generation. Fantasy golf seems to be gaining traction – what impact do you think it will have on the sport? I have friends who participate in fantasy golf each week. I have done fantasy golf for the four major championships each year, but I do not follow it like many others. Just like other fantasy sports, I think it will increase viewership for events the fantasy participants would have otherwise not watched to see how their “players” are performing that week. Who is your pick for 2016 Masters? I have to go with my namesake, right? Adam Scott has been playing great so I will have to pull for him. I certainly love to see an American player at the top of the leaderboard but ultimately, seeing some of the best players in the hunt on Sunday would be fantastic.

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via Finance Xpress

Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “Big Returns from Thinking Small.” (You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or elsewhere , get the RSS feed, or listen via the media player above.)

By day, two leaders of Britain’s famous Nudge Unit use behavioral tricks to make better government policy. By night, they repurpose those tricks to improve their personal lives. They want to help you do the same.

Below is a transcript of the episode, modified for your reading pleasure. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post. And you’ll find credits for the music in the episode noted within the transcript.

*      *      *

Owain SERVICE: Actually, one area in my failure to apply these very same principles was when I was learning to drive.

[MUSIC: Dorian Charnis, “Snap Jazz”]

Allow me to introduce … Owain Service.

SERVICE: I’m the managing director of the Behavioral Insights Team and one of the co-authors of Think Small.

Think Small is a new book — details to come later. And the Behavioral Insights Team is a quasi-governmental unit in Britain more casually known as the Nudge Unit — again, details later. For now, let’s stick to Service learning to drive.

SERVICE: I learned to drive in the traditional way. I had an instructor who knew the basics and then I took the driving test and I failed. So I lined up another test. I did a bit of practicing in between and then failed  again. I actually couldn’t tell you how many times I failed to pass my driving test. I almost blanked it out of my memory, but probably seven or eight times before I eventually passed.

Stephen DUBNER: Wow.

SERVICE: Impressive, eh?

DUBNER: Yeah, yeah.

SERVICE: And what I should have done, and would have done if I’d have read our book before, was to step back and break down the process of passing a test into a series of different steps. I think one of the things that we often do when we fail at something is to just go gung-ho into trying again. But one of the things that the literature shows — and I know that you’ve explored on this podcast — is that actually you should break down that process and then to focus on the things which need most attention and most work.

[MUSIC: Jack Wyles, “Thank U Ornette”]

That is, rather than focusing on the big goal — learning to drive — you should, in essence, think small.

SERVICE: And that’s exactly what I didn’t do and was behind the fact that I ended up taking that test many times.

DUBNER: That’s a very useful story, especially now I know that if you ever offer me a lift I should probably turn it down because, even though you ultimately passed, plainly you have no natural skill for driving.

Today on Freakonomics Radio: Owain Service and his co-author Rory Gallagher, a fellow Nudge-ist, get small on a variety of topics.

SERVICE: I wanted to buy what I considered to be a very frivolous gift for myself.

Rory GALLAGHER: I wasn’t morbidly obese but I was definitely packing a few pounds.

SERVICE: “Nine out of 10 people pay their tax on time.”

GALLAGHER: And then when I got home, I found out that the board didn’t actually fit in the lift in my apartment.

SERVICE: What could possibly go wrong?

And they go big, too — as in government big:

GALLAGHER: One of the dirty secrets of government is actually that we don’t know whether what we’re doing works a lot of the time.

*      *      *

We’ve just met Owain Service.

DUBNER: Owain Service is a nice aptonym for someone in public service. Do you think your name played a role in your destiny?

SERVICE: It’s a good question from one of the authors of Freakonomics. It’s something I thought about a lot, and I’ve tended to be at the end of many people’s amusing jokes and anecdotes. But the reality is that you can get the word “service” into so many different contexts. I could have been pre-ordained to take a number of different routes, the National Health Service or Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The list is a long one. But ultimately public service is where I found my place.

Service is managing director of the Behavioral Insights Team, based in London. As for his co-author, Rory Gallagher …

GALLAGHER: I head up the Behavioral Insights Team’s operations in the Asia-Pacific and I’m based in Sydney.

The team’s mission is to design policy interventions based on a scientific understanding of human behavior. Recently, for instance, hoping to fight antimicrobial resistance, they tried to persuade some prescription-happy doctors to go easy on the antibiotics.

GALLAGHER: We had a very simple intervention, which was to write to those doctors who were prescribing the highest amounts of antibiotics and just let them know that they were in that top cohort, and things that they could do to avoid over-prescription. It was primarily about feedback, about where they sat compared to their peers, but also a set of specific actions that they then could take.

DUBNER: And how effective was it?

GALLAGHER: It was very effective. Over the six-month period of the trial, GPs [general practitioners] who received that specific letter prescribed an estimated 73,000 fewer antibiotic items than those who didn’t receive the letter.

Gallagher and Service — behavioral-science investigators by day — became behavioral-science practitioners by night; at home, with their families, trying to work out their own issues. They became their own guinea pigs, distilling the insights from big government policies into a self-help manual called Think Small.

SERVICE: This is all about taking a long-term goal and then breaking it down into a series of manageable steps.

GALLAGHER: And unless you get those details right, being very clear about what it is you’re trying to achieve, by when and how, you actually won’t get over those initial hurdles.

Gallagher and Service both came from academic backgrounds …

GALLAGHER: I did a Ph.D. in the social sciences, which led to behavior change and health promotion in Southeast Asia.

SERVICE: I studied subjects called “social and political sciences” at Cambridge. At the time, there wasn’t really anything like it in the in U.K.

GALLAGHER: I got a bit frustrated that I probably wouldn’t be able to have the social impact that I wanted.

SERVICE: It blended them together in a relatively unique way. And strangely enough, David Halpern taught social psych on that program too. That’s where we originally met.

David HALPERN: I used to teach psychology at Cambridge.

And that is David Halpern.

HALPERN: I was lifetime-tenured, in fact, at Cambridge.

SERVICE: What ultimately happened was that David had been pursuing an academic career but then became a bit frustrated in terms of the policy applications of academia.

Halpern didn’t want to be just another academic writing papers that stayed in academia. He wanted to see smart behavioral research applied to actual policy.

HALPERN: You might think, “Well, why wouldn’t it be that? A more realistic model of human behavior should surely be at the heart of thinking about policy in government.” Traditionally, that hasn’t been true.

In 2001, Halpern left Cambridge.

SERVICE: He then joined a unit that was set up in central government called the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.

Owain Service again.

SERVICE: Which worked on long-term strategic thinking for the U.K. government. I often describe it as a bit of an in-house think tank or management consultancy for government. And that’s where I found my first role in public service.

Rory Gallagher also joined the Strategy Unit. Its remit wasn’t specifically geared towards behavioral science, but David Halpern began pushing his cause. Rather than trying to legislate pro-social behaviors — like saving for retirement or eating healthier — he argued that finding a way to nudge people toward these behaviors would be less punitive and more cost-effective. This idea, popular in academia, was quite new to government. Halpern left the Strategy Unit in 2007, but returned to government three years later. Now there was a new prime minister, David Cameron. Owing in part to Cameron’s personal enthusiasm, the Behavioral Insights Team was born, and set up shop right there in No. 10 Downing. It came to be called the Nudge Unit after the book of that name by the American academics Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.

SERVICE: What happened in 2010 was that there was a realization that there was really something about the world of behavioral economics and psychology that could be usefully brought to bear in public policy-making. So it was a coming together of a number of different routes that at the time started to enable us to say: We could create an institution out of these ideas rather than just think about them in application to ad hoc policy.

DUBNER: How would you describe overall the mission or missions of the Behavioral Insights Team?

GALLAGHER: The Behavioral Insights Team was created to spread a more nuanced understanding of human behavior into government policy. David Halpern says one of the dirty secrets of government is actually that we don’t know whether what we’re doing works a lot of the time. That, for me, was a real revelation.

This admission — that the government really had no idea whether its programs worked, whether it’s spending was justified — suggested a new approach to policy-making. An approach that leaned heavily on running randomized control trials — real experiments — on a small scale before running off to spend big piles of money.

SERVICE: I remember one early paper that I coauthored called “Test, Learn, Adapt,” which is all around running randomized-control trials as part of the public-policy making process. And at the time this was published, it was almost unheard of for a central government to be publishing a paper along those lines. But it ended up being one of the most widely read publications that the Cabinet Office — which is the central government department that coordinates the actions of other departments — had put out in that year. It did really feel like there was this major sea change in thinking that took place that was symbolized in the institution that was their Behavioral Insights Team.

DUBNER: Given the potential for controversy of something called the Nudge Unit within the government with its nod toward — as Richard Thaler, one of your intellectual patrons, calls it —“libertarian paternalism,” people could definitely get a little bit nervous about that. I gather that you were interested in some good early wins. Solid victories, as small as they may be that would indicate to the public and the press and the rest of the government that what you were doing was not some strange Big Brother subterfuge.

SERVICE: You’re absolutely right. It was quite important for us to be able to demonstrate in those early days that the principles that we might be applying could actually have an effect in practice. And the reality was that, back in 2010, we didn’t really know ourselves how effective they might be at scale in a policy context. We made this conscious effort to pick off a few areas that would be relatively uncontroversial, where you could show that small changes to the way that you run a policy or an intervention or a public service could have a disproportionate impact. The earliest example of this, which ended up becoming like the archetypal example our work, was the work that we began with the tax authority in the U.K.

While most people in the U.K., as in the U.S., have their taxes withheld automatically, that’s not the case for others: the self-employed, company directors, and so on.

SERVICE: There are about nine million of them. And very often these people fail to meet their deadlines. And the particular group of people in some of these earliest trials of which there were probably around 40 to 45,000 individuals. And each of them owe on average around £5,000 pounds. So we’re talking about fairly substantial sums of money.

To those delinquent taxpayers, the Nudge Unit invoked what psychologists call “social norms.”

SERVICE: We are influenced by what we see other people around us doing. And very often we underestimate the good behavior of others and drawing attention to what positive behaviors other people are actually doing, as opposed to what we perceive them to be doing, can have a strong positive impact.

For instance, the fact that most people pay their taxes on time is a social norm. So the Nudge Unit sent out a number of letters, with different wordings, to see which one would best persuade the tax delinquents to pay up. The winner? No threats, no cajoling. It simply read: “Nine out of ten people in the U.K. pay their taxes on time. You are currently in the very small minority of people who have not paid us yet.”

DUBNER: Talk for a moment about the magnitude of of the effect of that first trial?

SERVICE: The effects actually were surprising, even for us. The highest performing letter gets you about a five percentage point increase in payment rates within the deadline.

DUBNER: Five percentage points translating to what?

SERVICE: To about a 15 percent increase in payment within, I think, 23 days of sending a letter.

DUBNER: Wow, at the cost of close to zero?

SERVICE: Yeah, close to zero. That was what really started to pique the interest of other government departments.

Indeed, the Nudge Unit was beset by requests for help — from within the British government and elsewhere. It began to consult with a number of governments, and set up some satellite offices — in New York, Singapore, and Sydney. It inspired a similar unit in the States — we covered that in an earlier Freakonomics Radio episode called “The White House Gets Into the Nudge Business” — although, we should note, that was the Obama White House. The Trump White House isn’t very into the nudge business, at least not yet. The original, British Nudge Unit, meanwhile, has ensured its longevity by going quasi-private:

GALLAGHER: The unit is co-owned by the U.K. government, the cabinet office; Nesta, a social-innovation charity; and the employees.

And the Nudge Unit’s success led Rory Gallagher and Owain Service to want to spread the gospel via their book, Think Small.

SERVICE: It’s not just about public policy, but it’s about what you can do in your personal lives and your work lives. And that we felt was a missing space.

Coming up after the break: the kind of personal goals Service and Gallagher pursued:

GALLAGHER: I moved to Bondi Beach, a beautiful part of Sydney. And like all ex-pat Brits, I had the dream of wake up in the morning and going surfing every morning before work.

And what they learned about such pursuits.

SERVICE: It takes some effort. And it’s particularly tricky to do that once you’ve had a glass of wine.

*      *      *

Owain Service was by all appearances a most respectable citizen. Educated at Cambridge, now a senior official with the British government’s Behavioral Insights Team. He was, however, drinking a bit too much …

SERVICE: I realized that I had slipped into a bit of a routine in which I would come home from work, and I would generally be quite tired. And I’d feel like I deserved a glass of wine. So I’d maybe crack open a bottle of wine. Have a small glass. Prepare some dinner with my wife. Pour her a glass, maybe pour myself another glass over dinner. And over time I realized that I was slipping into what in the U.K. is referred to as “middle class drinking.” Which is when drinking becomes more of a habit than a treat.

The U.K.’s chief medical officer had released new guidelines recommending that adult men drink an average of no more than 3 to 4 units of alcohol per day.

SERVICE: But the reality is that a rule of that kind is actually quite difficult for somebody to apply in practice. What is a unit of alcohol? You can work it out, but it takes some effort. It’s particularly tricky to do that once you’ve had a glass of wine. I did think twice about including this in the book. I think it’s actually a really nice illustration of the practical effects that this thinking-small approach.

The “thinking-small approach,” as codified by Service and Rory Gallagher, calls for a seven-step path to problem-solving. The first is to set a goal. In this case — middle class drinking — that was pretty simple. Service wanted to cut back. The next step? Make a plan.

SERVICE: One of the key rules in the “plan” chapter is that if you really want to achieve something, you need to think about how you can make it simple for yourself to do the thing that you want yourself to do.

The Chief Medical Officer’s advice on drinking — no more than 3 to 4 units per day — was anything but simple. So Service’s plan included what’s called a bright line.

SERVICE: The principle of a bright line is that you set yourself a very clear rule that is obvious if you have transgressed. If your rule is, “Don’t drink more than three to four units of alcohol on average per day,” it’s quite difficult to know whether you stepped over that rule. The bright line that I set myself was no drinking during the week at home. It would be really obvious to me if I then stepped over that rule. And it resulted in me actually almost completely cutting out alcohol for my weekly routine.

DUBNER: And that was a positive effect for you, yes?

SERVICE: It was, actually. I estimated that I’ve drank about 80 fewer bottles of wine, although it’s probably a bit more now.

[MUSIC: Disk Eyes, “By The Slice”]

After the goal and the plan comes step three: making a commitment. Let’s say, for instance, you’ve made a commitment to exercise. Rory Gallagher, before he moved to Australia, had set a goal of keeping fit. He made a plan by joining a gym near his home in London. But he almost never went to the gym.

GALLAGHER: I was often working late in the office and by the time I commuted back, I was too tired to go to the gym. In this case, I thought the simple fix here would be simply to move that gym, rather than being where I lived, to being at work. And actually I found that didn’t quite have the effect that I had hoped it’d have. Because it was right on the doorstep of my work, I could always put it off for the next day.

Then, Gallagher had an idea. He commandeered the white board in the Nudge Unit’s office.

GALLAGHER: And I wrote up very clearly for all of the team to see that I would go to the gym twice a week for the next three months.

Voila: a commitment, made in public, which increased the stakes. He didn’t want his colleagues to see him fail. But there was another component: a “commitment referee,” someone willing to keep you on task. Gallagher says that significant others are terrible referees. When you don’t feel like following through, they’ll often conspire with you to let you off the hook. Instead, he turned to a colleague: Owain Service.

GALLAGHER: I asked Owain to be my commitment referee, to see if I actually followed through on this. But I also wanted to use a sort of reward to help give me that turbo boost or an incentive.

A reward. That’s the fourth step in thinking small.

SERVICE: Reward is about putting something meaningful at stake, using small rewards to build good habits.

For instance: if you go to the gym, as planned, you’ll allow yourself to binge-watch your favorite TV show while working out. We explored this pairing in an earlier episode — it’s called “temptation bundling.”

Katherine MILKMAN: So what if you only let yourself get a pedicure while catching up on overdue emails for work.

That’s Katie Milkman, from the University of Pennsylvania, who coined the phrase.

MILKMAN: Or only let yourself go to your very favorite restaurant whose hamburgers you crave while spending time with a difficult relative who you should see more of. Those would all be examples of temptation bundling.

In these cases, there’s a positive reward attached to a behavior that’s hard to commit to. You could, of course, also attach a punishment instead of a reward. That’s what Rory Gallagher decided to do with his exercise commitment. And he picked the worst possible punishment he could imagine:

GALLAGHER: I said that if I didn’t follow through on that commitment if I didn’t meet that goal that I would wear the shirt of the enemy team Arsenal, to the office. Owain happened to support them at the time.

DUBNER: You’re a Spurs supporter, I understand?

GALLAGHER: I am, that’s correct.

DUBNER: And so you hate Arsenal with every fiber in your body?

GALLAGHER: I wouldn’t go that far, but they’re certainly not our closest friends.

DUBNER: Do you think the punishment of possibly wearing the Arsenal jersey was what actually was most successful in urging you to follow through on your commitment?

GALLAGHER: I actually think it was a combination of things. First was actually being very specific about what my goal was. Before that, it was to get fit or go to the gym. But I didn’t have a specific goal. And in this case, this was to go twice a week for three months. I then made it very public and accountable, so rather than just thinking in my own head, it was up in the middle of the office for everyone to see. And each week I had to tick off which days I’d been to the gym. So it was a public accountability element to it. And then finally there was the punishment waiting for me at the end which I couldn’t bear to face.

DUBNER: And how often did you then go to the gym during those three months?

GALLAGHER: I did manage to stick to that. In fact, often more than twice.

So Gallagher never had to put on that Arsenal jersey — which, as a Spurs supporter, was its own reward. But, he says, it’s important to note that rewards can often backfire. Even financial rewards. Consider a study by the economists Bruno Frey and Felix Oberholzer-Gee. It concerned the Swiss government’s plan to build a facility to store nuclear waste. In surveys, roughly half of Swiss respondents said that despite the risk, they’d be okay with having the facility in their community. When asked why, they articulated a sense of civic duty. But then, when the economists reframed the survey, attaching a reward of several thousand dollars per person, per year, for living near such a nuclear-waste facility, they got a surprising result.

GALLAGHER: What they found is when they offered financial compensation with that, people’s willingness to accept that actually went down. And we see that in lots of other areas as well. There’s really interesting work going on at the minute to try to understand what motivates people, for example, to give blood. And the common hypothesis and some of the evidence seem to be that actually you need to appeal to people’s sense of reciprocity and social good in order to encourage people to give blood, and actually putting any sort of financial reward or prize around that would actually squeeze out those intrinsic motivations.

So the “reward” step of thinking small can obviously be tricky. The next step — less so. It calls for creating leverage by sharing your goal with others.

SERVICE: Share is about asking for help, tapping into your social networks and then using group power.

Step six? Feedback.

SERVICE: Feedback is about knowing where you stand in relation to your goal. It’s about making it timely and focused on effort and comparing your performance to those of other people. It’s no good to just say, “How am I doing?” You need specific, actionable feedback that enables you to do something with that feedback.

And finally, once you’ve mastered the first six steps, comes No. 7: “stick.”

SERVICE: Stick is about practicing with focus and effort. It’s about testing and learning and it’s about reflecting and celebrating success.

[MUSIC: Steve Rice, “Broad Street Bebop”]

This notion is probably familiar to most of you. It too showed up in a couple of our previous podcasts — specifically “How to Become Great at Just About Anything,” which featured the research of Anders Ericsson, and “How to Get More Grit in Your Life,” which featured the work of Angela Duckworth.

Angela DUCKWORTH: That’s right. I want to redefine genius, if you will. I want to define genius as greatness that isn’t necessarily effortless, but in fact greatness that is earned however you do earn it.

In Duckworth’s reckoning, that means finding a way to be resilient, to push through the inevitable failure that accompanies experimentation and growth. Rory Gallagher had one such failure when he first moved to Australia and found himself living next to a great surfing spot.

GALLAGHER: I moved to Bondi Beach, beautiful part of Sydney. And like all ex-pat Brits, had the dream of wake up in the morning and going surfing every morning before work. But goals are hard to achieve. And even with these tools, it’s not absolutely guaranteed that you’re going to get it right. You’re not gonna reach those goals unless you get the details right. In this case, I got the details wrong. First I said, “I’m going to commit to going surfing once a week. I’m going to buy a board and going to see if I can go with a friend.” But I got crucial details wrong in each of those aspects.

First was, although I made a commitment, I didn’t say specifically what day. And partly because surfing depends on the conditions, how big the waves or how small, it was very easy for me to say, “Well, the conditions aren’t quite right today. I’ll go another day.” Because I was doing other things like going for beach runs and cycling, I was able to sort of give myself the fallback that, “I’m doing other fitness work so it doesn’t really matter.”

Second of all, I didn’t test and learn. So what I really should have done is try to find out what type of board would work for me. But I dove in straight away, got this huge 10 foot board that I bought off GumTree. Very excited to get going. And then when I got home, I found out that the board didn’t actually fit in the lift in my apartment.   So in order to even get out the building, I required my partner to help me down this very tight stairwell, which somewhat took out the sort of spontaneity of waking up and going surfing when you require a hand just to get out of the building.

And third of all, I actually went surfing with a friend of mine, Jack, who was actually a pretty decent surfer. When we get down he just swam out to the back of the line up and start with these big waves. And I’d be floundering around in the wash. In this case, I really should have just joined a surf school or found someone else who was learning to surf and learned with them.

DUBNER: I have to say, it’s very comforting that someone as smart and experienced as yourself can fail so badly.

GALLAGHER: Of course. Achieving goals is a difficult thing. And it’s important to recognize when things aren’t working. And in this case, I recognized look, there are other things going on at the moment, that this wasn’t going to be something I could spend the time and effort to do. And actually I should focus on other parts of my life, which I felt were going to make me happier ultimately.

DUBNER: Look, I love the work that you’re involved in and I find it exciting and I think it’s revolutionary, frankly. That said, a lot of the solutions that have been proposed — that social science researchers come up with and that you then integrate — many of them strike me as essentially common sense. If you want to accomplish this behavior, you need to make some kind of commitment device, or if you want to tackle a big, broad, complex abstract problem, you need to think small and take small steps. Talk about the degree to which you’re not merely like a lot of academia does, canonizes or makes formal what people in the real world have known for millennia.

GALLAGHER: I think you’re right. We see this as applied common sense, but unfortunately it isn’t applied anywhere near commonly enough. Many people recognize the sorts of tools. But what this tries to do is help systematize that so they can apply it routinely in everyday life. And to take one of your examples around commitment devices — I mean I’m not sure people do realize how powerful they can be and often they get them wrong.

So just telling someone that you want to do something, people might see that as a commitment device. “I want to recycle more.” “I want to write a novel.” And just saying that publicly is my form of commitment device to the fact I’m going to follow through. If you do it in that very vague and open and public way, actually that has no effect at all and can actually backfire because you get a bit of a warm glow just by telling people of your good intentions. So in order for a commitment device to be effective, you need to make it specific. You need to write it down and make it accountable with a referee. So those small details can make all of the world of difference between people thinking they’re using these tools and actually potentially backfiring and using them in the way that they’re intended and having the outcomes that we want.

[MUSIC: John Swanson, “The Cougar That Got Away” (from Delta Blues 3)]

That was Rory Gallagher and his Nudge Unit colleague and Think Small coauthor Owain Service. Coming up next week on Freakonomics Radio — we continue this conversation — and expand it. Really, really expand it. We’ll hear from grit champion Angela Duckworth again.

Angela DUCKWORTH: The one problem that really confronts humanity in the 21st century is humanity itself.

And the temptation bundler Katie Milkman too:

Katherine MILKMAN: The biggest problem that needed solving was figuring out how to make behavior change stick.

Milkman and Duckworth are putting together a massive project with all kinds of scholars and all kinds of partners — banks and schools and fitness centers and drugstores. Their mission: to take everything that’s been learned so far in places like the Nudge Unit, in academic research departments, and apply it to one problem.

MILKMAN: A problem that, if we fixed it, could truly solve every social problem we could think of.

That’s next time, on Freakonomics Radio.

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Freakonomics Radio is produced by WNYC Studios and Dubner Productions. This episode was produced by Christopher Werth. Our staff also includes Shelley Lewis, Merritt Jacob, Greg Rosalsky, Stephanie Tam, Eliza Lambert, Alison Hockenberry, Emma Morgenstern, Harry Huggins, and Brian Gutierrez. You can subscribe to Freakonomics Radio on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts

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