Nicole Lapin

So today I want to give you three New Year's money resolutions that actually work.

Not because they're clever or trendy, but because they're backed by psychology, behavioral science and real research on how humans change.

And they will absolutely move the needle on your financial life.

So let's get into it.

Here's resolution number one.

Make your friction your financial superpower.

Most people believe that willpower drives financial progress.

It does not.

What actually drives progress is friction, strategically adding or removing little steps that change your behavior without relying on motivation.

I want you to think about friction like a financial remote control.

You can turn your good habits up or bad habits down simply by adjusting how easy or how hard they are.

This idea is backed by behavioral economics research and the work of Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler, who found that people naturally default to whatever is easiest, even if it's bad for them financially.

So your resolution this year is this.

Make the bad behaviors harder and the good behaviors so easy.

Here are tactical ways to do that.

I'll start with some ways to add friction to your spending.

Delete your saved credit cards from Amazon, Uber Eats, Target, everywhere.

It adds about 30 seconds to checkout, and those 30 seconds are the difference between impulse spending and intentional spending.

Turn off tap to pay on your phone.

Tap to pay is frictionless, way too frictionless.