Decision makers often save money for a specific goal by forgoing discretionaryconsumption and instead putting the money toward the savings goal. Wehypothesized that reference points can be exploited to enhance this type ofsaving. In two hypothetical scenario studies, subjects made judgments of theirlikelihood to forgo a small expenditure in order to put the money toward thesavings goal. In Experiment 1, judgments were higher if the savings goal waspresented as composed of weekly subgoals (e.g., save $60 per week to buya $180 iPod). Experiment 2 replicated this finding and demonstrated thatthe subgoal manipulation increased judgments of likelihood to save money onlywhen the money saved from the foregone consumption would allow the decisionmaker to meet the weekly subgoal exactly (not under or overshoot it). Theseresults suggest a reference point mechanism and point to ways that behavioraldecision research can be harnessed to improve economic behaviors.

We examine a decision theoretic model of portfoliochoice in which investors face income risk that is not directlyinsurable.We consider the sensitivity of savings and portfolioallocation rules to different assumptions about utility, thestochastic process for income and asset returns, and market frictions(transactions costs and short-sale constraints).Under CRRA timeadditive utility, habit persistence utility, and for a broad range ofparameterizations, the model predicts that investors wish to borrowand invest all of their savings in stocks. This qualitativeimplication is robust to the introduction of significant transactioncosts in the stock market, and contrasts sharply with portfolioallocation models in which there is no labor income.