The Future You Technique
Put a face-aged photo of yourself on the fridge so you stop stealing from the person you'll become.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 80%
The Future You Technique makes the abstract distant self concrete by generating a face-aged image of yourself and putting it somewhere visible, like the fridge. The psychological problem is that people treat their 80- or 90-year-old self as a separate person and so spend mindlessly, effectively stealing from that future self. A tangible picture collapses that distance and reminds you the consequences of today's inaction land on the same 'you' who won't be able to work at 90. Altmix and Larsgaard have both actually run their faces through aging apps for this. It reframes saving as caring for a real person rather than a hypothetical.
Origin
The hosts have personally used face-aging apps 'just to see what you might look like as an 80-year-old,' and turned that novelty into a deliberate technique for connecting with the future self who bears the consequences of today's spending.
Core principles
- 01Your future self is you, not a separate person.
- 02Mindless spending steals from that future you.
- 03A tangible image collapses the psychological distance.
- 04Visual reminders make abstract retirement concrete.
How to run it
- 1
Age your own face
Run a photo of yourself through a face-aging app to produce an image of you as an old person.
- 2
Make it visible
Put the aged image somewhere you see it daily, such as the refrigerator.
Pro tip Especially effective for visual people who need to see the future self, not just think about it.
- 3
Spend against it
Before mindless spending or going into debt, recognize you'd be stealing from that future person who is actually you.
Watch out Treating your older self as a stranger is exactly the bias this technique is designed to break.
In the wild
Taha proposed making herself look really old with a face app and putting it on the fridge to remind herself she can't work on the computer 24/7 at age 90.
→ The hosts confirmed they'd done exactly this, using the aged image to feel connected to their future selves and save accordingly.
Common mistakes
Treating future you as a stranger
When the older version of you feels like a separate person, you discount their needs and spend money that person will need.
Is it for you?
Best for
Visual thinkers who feel disconnected from their older self.
Not ideal for
People who already save consistently and don't need the nudge.
From the transcript
“when you have a tangible image of yourself as an older person... it can be an incredible tool to help you to see that this…”
“that's not a separate person even though it feels like somebody that's completely removed that is you and you're going to be dealing with the…”
From the episode
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