Nudge

Rearrange Your Kitchen: Place fruits, vegetables, and other healthy snacks at eye level in your fridge or on your countertops. This makes them the first thing you see and more likely to be chosen.

Prep Healthy Meals in Advance: Spend some time each week preparing healthy meals that can easily be heated up. This makes the healthier choice the easier and default option during a busy week.

Use Smaller Plates: Automatically reduce portion sizes by using smaller plates for your meals. This can help control calorie intake without feeling like you're restricting yourself.

Opt for Water: Make water your default drink choice by carrying a reusable water bottle with you. This helps you stay hydrated and avoid sugary drinks without having to think about it too much.

Customize Your Menus: When eating out, don't be afraid to ask for healthier substitutions, like swapping fries for a salad. This makes it easier to stick to healthier choices even when you're not cooking.

A school cafeteria that replaces its front-and-center display of cookies and chips with fruits, yogurt, and whole-grain options, making these healthier choices more visible and accessible to students.

A company that modifies its vending machines to feature water, unsweetened teas, and healthy snack bars at eye level, while placing less healthy options in less accessible spots, encouraging employees to make healthier choices without removing options.

Review Your Current Retirement Plan Enrollment: If you're not already enrolled in your employer's retirement savings plan, check if they offer automatic enrollment. If they do, and you're not part of it, consider opting in to start saving without having to make a conscious decision each time.

Increase Your Savings Rate Automatically: Many plans allow you to automatically increase your contribution rate over time. Set up an annual increase in your contribution, even if it's just 1%. This leverages the power of inertia in your favor, gradually increasing your savings rate without feeling a significant impact on your disposable income.

Opt for Default Investment Options if Unsure: If choosing between investment options feels overwhelming, start with the default option provided by your plan. These are often designed as balanced choices suitable for a wide range of investors. You can always adjust your investments later as you learn more.

Set Up an Emergency Fund: To avoid dipping into your retirement savings for unexpected expenses, start an emergency fund. Aim for an amount that covers 3-6 months of living expenses. This provides financial security and ensures that your retirement savings can continue growing uninterrupted.

Imagine you've just started a new job, and during orientation, you're informed that you'll be automatically enrolled in the company's 401(k) plan, with 3% of your salary being contributed unless you decide otherwise. You decide to stick with this arrangement, appreciating the simplicity of starting to save for retirement without needing to fill out additional paperwork.

Your friend tells you about how their employer offers a feature where their retirement plan contribution increases by 1% every year. They signed up for it three years ago and hardly noticed the difference in their paycheck, but were pleasantly surprised to see how much more they had saved for retirement compared to sticking with a static contribution rate.

Compare Your Energy Usage: Start by tracking your own energy consumption. Many utility companies provide detailed usage reports. Look for a comparison feature or ask if they can provide how your consumption stacks up against the average in your neighborhood.

Make Small Changes: Once you know where you stand, identify areas for improvement. This could be as simple as turning off lights when not in use, setting your thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer and lower in the winter, or using energy-efficient appliances.

Share Your Progress: Talk about the changes you've made and the impact on your energy consumption with friends and neighbors. This not only reinforces your commitment but might also encourage them to evaluate their own usage.

Join or Start a Community Initiative: Look for local energy conservation challenges or start one in your community. This could involve collective goals, like reducing the neighborhood's energy consumption by a certain percentage, and celebrating achievements together.

A neighborhood association creates a monthly newsletter that includes anonymous rankings of homes by energy efficiency based on data provided by the local utility company. This sparks a friendly competition among neighbors to climb up the ranks by adopting more energy-efficient practices.

An app that syncs with your home's smart meter to provide real-time feedback on your energy usage compared to the average in your area. It offers tips and challenges, like 'Can you use less energy than 75% of your neighbors this week?' to motivate reductions in consumption.

Read Nutritional Labels Carefully: Whenever you're grocery shopping, take a moment to look at the nutritional labels on the products. Pay attention to serving sizes, calories, and the amounts of sugar, fat, and sodium. This will help you make more informed choices about what you're putting into your body.

Look for Key Nutritional Labels: Keep an eye out for food products that have clear, easy-to-understand labels like 'low sodium', 'no added sugars', or 'high in fiber'. These labels can quickly guide you towards healthier options without having to decipher complex nutritional information.

Use a Nutrition Tracking App: To make it easier to understand and keep track of what you're eating, consider using a nutrition tracking app. Many of these apps allow you to scan barcodes and instantly see a breakdown of the nutritional content, making it simpler to make healthy choices on the go.

Educate Yourself on Nutritional Basics: Spend some time learning about basic nutrition – what nutrients your body needs and in what amounts. This foundational knowledge will make it easier for you to interpret nutritional labels and understand which foods align with your health goals.

When choosing between two brands of yogurt, one might use the nutritional label to identify that one has significantly less added sugar than the other, making a more informed, healthier choice based on personal dietary goals.

A shopper uses a nutrition tracking app to scan the barcode of a packaged meal. The app reveals that the meal is high in sodium, prompting the shopper to choose a healthier alternative that aligns better with their low-sodium diet.

Start with a Goal: Before diving into investment options, clearly define your financial goals. Are you saving for retirement, a house, or perhaps your child's education? This will help narrow down the types of funds that align with your objectives.

Seek Simplified Investment Platforms: Look for investment platforms that offer a curated selection of funds. These platforms often use algorithms or expert analysis to select a range of funds that cater to different risk tolerances and investment goals, making the choice easier for you.

Educate Yourself on the Basics: While relying on curated selections, it's also beneficial to have a basic understanding of different types of investment funds (e.g., index funds, mutual funds, ETFs). This knowledge will make you more confident in your choices.

Use Robo-Advisors: Consider using robo-advisors, which are digital platforms that provide automated, algorithm-driven financial planning services with little to no human supervision. They often offer simplified investment options based on your risk tolerance and goals.

Review Regularly, But Don’t Overdo It: Set a schedule to review your investments periodically (e.g., annually) to ensure they still align with your goals. However, avoid the temptation to constantly check or change your investments, as this can lead to decision fatigue and potentially rash decisions.

An individual looking to start investing for retirement signs up with a popular robo-advisor platform. After answering a series of questions about their risk tolerance and retirement goals, they are presented with a small, curated selection of diversified portfolios. They choose one that aligns with their risk tolerance and goal timeline, simplifying their entry into investing.

A person interested in socially responsible investing (SRI) seeks out an investment platform that specializes in SRI and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) funds. The platform offers a limited selection of highly vetted funds that meet strict sustainability criteria. This allows the investor to easily choose funds that align with their values without having to sift through hundreds of options.