Why Money Decisions Feel Heavier Than They Should
Feeling exhausted by money? It's not laziness. Science shows financial decisions drain your mental energy faster than almost anything else.
By the time you sit down to manage your finances, you’ve already made over 200 decisions today: what to wear, what to eat, and which email to answer first. Whether to respond to that text now or later. Each decision, no matter how small, was withdrawn from the same mental account. By evening, your budget didn’t stand a chance.
You might think you’re bad with money when you’re actually just depleted.
Your Willpower Has a Fuel Tank
In the late 1990s, psychologist Roy Baumeister discovered something that changed how we understand self-control. He ran an experiment where participants were brought into a room that smelled like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Some people were told to eat cookies. Others were told to resist the cookies and eat radishes instead.
Afterward, both groups worked on an unsolvable puzzle. The cookie-eaters kept at it for an average of 19 minutes. The radish-eaters gave up after just 8 minutes.
The difference wasn’t motivation or intelligence. The radish group had already spent their self-control resisting those cookies. They had less left in the tank for the next challenge.
Baumeister called this “ego depletion.” Every act of self-control, every decision, every moment of resistance draws from the same limited pool of mental energy. And financial decisions require a lot of self-control.
Money Decisions Hit Different
Not all decisions drain you equally. Research by Kathleen Vohs and her colleagues found that thinking about money depletes self-control more quickly than other types of thinking. There’s something uniquely taxing about financial choices.
Part of the hesitation comes from uncertainty. Will this purchase be worth it? What if something better comes along? Another aspect involves the trade-offs; saying yes to one option often means saying no to another. Lastly, there’s the question of identity. What type of person spends this much on X? What does this purchase reflect about who I am?
There’s another layer too. When you choose a $15/month subscription, your brain treats it as a single decision. But you’re actually committing to that decision every single month, forever. The cognitive weight hits all at once, even though the payments stretch out indefinitely. No wonder signing up for things feels easier than canceling them.
The Modern Decision Load
Your grandparents had one phone company, one electric company, and maybe three TV channels. They walked into a store with eight types of cereal and picked one. Done.
You have 47 streaming options, 200 credit cards competing for your wallet, and an algorithm serving you “deals” before you’ve finished your morning coffee. Your phone buzzes with flash sales. Your inbox fills with “limited time offers.” Every retailer wants you to join their rewards program, choose a payment plan, and decide if you want the warranty.
According to estimates, the average adult makes around 35,000 decisions per day, and over 150 of those involve money directly or indirectly. Meanwhile, human cognitive resources have stayed exactly the same for thousands of years.
This is a mismatch problem, not a you problem.
What Happens When the Tank Runs Dry
When decision fatigue peaks, one of two things typically happens.
We might completely avoid making a decision. That pile of unopened mail on the counter? Those financial tasks you continually shift to tomorrow’s to-do list? That’s your brain conserving resources. The decision feels too burdensome, so we simply... don’t.
We often choose the easiest path. This includes making late-night impulse purchases, accepting the first insurance quote without comparing options, or keeping subscriptions we hardly use simply because canceling them would involve research, phone calls, and decision-making. It’s not that we are careless; our brains are simply trying to protect us by taking shortcuts.
A famous study of Israeli judges found that prisoners who appeared before the parole board early in the morning or right after lunch had a 65% chance of being released. Those who appeared late in a session, when the judges were tired from making decisions all day, had almost zero chance. The judges weren’t cruel. They were depleted. And the easy decision, the safe decision, was to say no.
Your brain does the same thing with money. When you’re tapped out, it reaches for whatever requires the least effort.
One Thing to Try This Week
This week, try one thing: notice when you’re being asked to decide about money. Don’t evaluate whether the decisions are good or bad. Don’t try to make better choices. Just notice how often it happens.
Count them if you want. Most people are shocked by the number.
Awareness of the load is the first step to lightening it. You can’t design around what you don’t see.
Next up, we’ll explore where all these decisions are actually coming from, and who profits from your exhaustion.
This content is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial or therapeutic advice. Consider speaking with qualified professionals for personalized guidance.