People’s financial behaviour is often times not as rational as it may at first appear. What may seem to the world at large to be a simple transaction may in fact be an attempt by the person to achieve some deeply personal goal, such as buying a new car to feel more manly or buying tickets for an entire football season may be to appear more secure than one’s neighbours. Whatever the deeper reasons may be, behaviour change courses must in some manner address these reasons to be effective for the long term. All behaviour is intended to achieve a goal and to change a behaviour one must be sure that the new behaviour does indeed achieve that goal.

Everyone knows in his mind how to achieve wealth: make money and spend less than is made. Just knowing this fact does not ensure that a person will practice this behaviour. People spend money for many more reasons than just to get what is needed. Emotions come into play in most public financial transactions, from saving face all the way through primal dominance displays spending money can be a public display for attention in its most basic form. This is why effective behaviour change courses take this component into account from the beginning.