How to lock your money so you can't spend it

Why money you mean to keep gets spent

Money set aside in the same balance you spend from is protected only by memory and willpower. Every day it's one tap away, and every day something needs it: a friend, a sale, a hard week.

Locking money works because it changes that moment. There's a step and a cost between wanting the money and spending it, and you decided on both earlier, when you were thinking about the purpose, not the temptation.

The evidence is strong. In the Philippines, bank clients were offered a savings account they couldn't withdraw from until a date or a goal they chose. After a year, the group offered it had average savings balances 81 percentage points higher than the group that wasn't.^[1] In Kenya, simply giving people a safe place to keep money raised their health savings by 66%.^[2]

Nigerians have always known this. Ajo works partly because the money isn't with you. Researchers studying savings groups in Kenya heard members put it simply: you can't save alone.^[3] So does leaving money with a parent, or keeping the savings card at home. A lock gives you the same distance without handing your money to anyone.

What a good lock needs, with or without Delight

1. A named purpose. "Rent, due 1 March" is easier to protect than "savings".
2. A release condition decided in advance: a date, a target amount or a set period.
3. A cost for breaking it early. Not so high it traps you in an emergency, not so low it means nothing. The pause, and knowing the cost, is what does the work. In one experiment, higher early-withdrawal penalties sometimes increased, and never reduced, what people chose to put into a locked account.^[4]
4. Money can still go in. A lock should stop spending, not saving.
5. You can see it. Locked money you can see counts as progress. Money hidden in another app is easy to forget, and easy to raid.

How to lock money in Delight

1. Create a budget for the money you want to keep, such as Rent, School Fees or Emergency. Locks work on sub-budgets and standalone budgets, not on groups.
2. Open the budget and tap Add Control, or go to Hub › Controls, and choose a lock: "Next 24 hours", "Every Weekend", "Every Weekday", "Until Fully Funded" (it opens when the budget reaches its planned amount) or a "Custom Duration" of at least 6 hours.
3. Write why this lock matters to you (10 to 200 characters). It's shown on the lock as a reminder.
4. Read the terms, tick to agree and swipe to lock. While it's locked, you can't spend from the budget, send from it, move money out, edit it or close it. You can still add money.
5. For money you need months from now, use a Stack. A Stack is a savings goal attached to a repeating budget, with a target and a due date. Choose No, lock until due, and a share of every funding moves into it. Closing a locked Stack early costs 5% of its balance.