If money really grew on trees…
5 May, 2010
How often have we heard the expression, “money doesn’t grow on trees you know” usually said in reply to us pestering our parents for something that we felt we desperately needed as a child. We were pondering this concept in RaboDirect recently as we were digesting the data from our soon to be released National Savings Survey. Aussie savers are missing out on a staggering $4.7 billion in lost interest by leaving their savings languishing in a transaction account or low interest savings account.
This got us thinking about how best to illustrate how people react to money they can see and touch compared with money they can’t. After all, you wouldn’t walk past money lying on the street …would you?
I don’t know if any of you were around Circular Quay last week but you might have seen a very odd sight? On Monday, 17th May, RaboDirect sponsored a social experiment that involved planting an actual ‘money tree’ in Fleet Park, Circular Quay, Sydney to see how Australians reacted when faced with easy money growing on a tree.
The ‘money tree’ was covered in real $5 notes and unsuspecting passers by were secretly filmed for the experiment that is now available to view at www.rabodirect.com.au/moneytree. What do you think happened? Did people take it or not?
And don’t worry, no trees were harmed in the making of this experiment…a convincing but fake tree was used.
After a slow start where bystanders ignored the cash or simply took pictures of it, the tree was stripped bare in less than three hours as opportunistic passers-by worked together and employed various means to grab the cash. There is some great footage to be seen of total strangers joining together to help each other get their share.
Psychologist and financial decision-making expert, Rob Hall, closely monitored and analysed the behavioural experiment. He said: “The world of money exists in many forms that are rarely understood. Shares, savings and interest rates seem remote; cash on the other hand is the substance of dreams. The Money Tree brought dreams and reality together which for some meant making the most of the opportunity; a behaviour in stark contrast to the way in which many people treat the money in their accounts.”
In other words, when you see real money freely available you make the most of it compared to the money you don’t see every day and it’s this lazy money that’s costing you in lost interest that you should be earning. So don’t leave your money lazing around making money for your bank and not you. And it’s not just money in miserly paying savings accounts that you need think about. If you leave surplus cash in your everyday transaction account you’re losing out here too. Move the money you don’t spend into an online savings account.
The Money Tree was a bit of fun of course but there was a serious side to it. Don’t delay putting your lazy money to work a day longer.
