Notes

This book gives general information. It isn't financial advice, and it's no substitute for a regulated adviser or a debt adviser who knows your situation. It recommends no product or provider. Schemes and rules are those for the UK as I found them in September 2026. They change, so check the current position.

I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 3 apart from one reference, 10, 12, 13 and 16. The comparison of the first and last weeks of the month in chapter 3 is a prediction you can test, and I've no study behind it. All sums of money in the examples are invented for illustration, including the salary, the fixed costs, the price of the washing machine and the balances.

Before you start. Citizens Advice, StepChange and National Debtline are named on the NHS page "Coping with financial worries". Control of money as a sign of domestic abuse, and the helpline number, are from the NHS page "Getting help for domestic violence and abuse".

Chapter 2. O'Donoghue and Rabin, "Doing it now or later", American Economic Review 89, 1999, pages 103 to 124. It's a theoretical paper. Shefrin and Thaler, "The behavioral life-cycle hypothesis", Economic Inquiry 26, 1988, pages 609 to 643. The authors drew their support mainly from published econometric studies of the time. The list of five reasons is mine.

Chapter 3. Shefrin and Thaler as above. That spending adjusts to the visible balance is my observation, and the chapter says so.

Chapter 4. Sussman and Alter, "The exception is the rule: underestimating and overspending on exceptional expenses", Journal of Consumer Research 39, 2012, pages 800 to 814. There were seven studies. The paper also found that people overspend on each exceptional purchase, which I haven't used. The exercise with twelve months of statements is mine.

Chapter 5. Zauberman and Lynch, "Resource slack and propensity to discount delayed investments of time versus money", Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 134, 2005, pages 23 to 37. Thaler and Benartzi, "Save More Tomorrow: using behavioral economics to increase employee saving", Journal of Political Economy 112, 2004, pages S164 to S187. The figures are from the first of three implementations the paper reports. That pay rises get absorbed into spending is my observation and is often called lifestyle creep. I haven't sourced it.

Chapter 6. Help to Save is described on the GOV.UK pages under "Get help with savings if you're on a low income". That page gives the eligibility rule, the monthly limits and the two bonuses. The test of whether fifty pounds could be done without is mine.

Chapter 7. The paragraph on interest is my own reasoning, and I haven't quoted any rate because they change. Ruberton, Gladstone and Lyubomirsky, "How your bank balance buys happiness: the importance of 'cash on hand' to life satisfaction", Emotion 16, 2016, pages 575 to 580. The costs of common household shocks are my own rough figures.

Chapter 8. Soman and Cheema, "Earmarking and partitioning: increasing saving by low-income households", Journal of Marketing Research 48, 2011, pages S14 to S22. I haven't read the full paper, so I can't tell you where the households were or how the money was divided. Ashraf, Karlan and Yin, "Tying Odysseus to the mast: evidence from a commitment savings product in the Philippines", Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, 2006, pages 635 to 672. Of 710 clients offered the account, 202 opened one. The 81 percentage point figure compares everyone offered the account with the comparison group, whether or not they took it up. The suggestions for setting up a pot are mine, and nobody has tested them as a set.

Chapter 9. Madrian and Shea, "The power of suggestion: inertia in 401(k) participation and savings behavior", Quarterly Journal of Economics 116, 2001, pages 1149 to 1187. Cribb and Emmerson, "What happens to workplace pension saving when employers are obliged to enrol employees automatically?", International Tax and Public Finance 27, 2020, pages 664 to 693. The age and earnings conditions for automatic enrolment and the minimum contributions are from the GOV.UK pages on workplace pensions. That automatic enrolment began in 2012 is general knowledge. The minimums apply to qualifying earnings, which is a band of your pay and not all of it, and some schemes work differently.

Chapter 11. The reasoning about interest and the suggestion of a small reserve are general guidance that I've met in many places. I tried to confirm them on the MoneyHelper website and the pages wouldn't load for me, so I haven't verified the wording. The figure of three months' essential outgoings is widely quoted and I haven't sourced it. The Universal Credit savings figure is from the GOV.UK Help to Save guidance. The debt advice services are from the NHS page named above.

Chapter 12. I haven't quoted the Financial Services Compensation Scheme limit because I couldn't confirm the current figure from its website. That employers will sometimes split pay between accounts, and that suppliers will often move a direct debit date, are general knowledge and vary.

Chapter 14. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule and its parts haven't been tested together, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.

Chapter 13. The second pot for annual costs is a common household practice and I haven't sourced it.

Chapter 15. I haven't studied saving apps and the chapter says so. Pension Wise is described from general knowledge, and I couldn't confirm its current terms. The percentage rule for irregular income and the windfall rule are mine. That the self-employed need to set money aside for tax is general knowledge, and HMRC's guidance gives the detail. MoneyHelper is a government-backed service, which I state from general knowledge.