Charles Phillips

Co-founder and CEO @sawacredit. Using behavioral science to create a community financial support platform to help build financial health. #fintech #startups

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

Sharing our TL;DR highlights from Sawa 2023 over on Substack https://t.co/RRu5WUJ88c

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

The bad news is we’re not alone. The good news is we’re not alone.

At Sawa, we believe there’s untapped power in the community — to save, to buffer financial shocks, and to build lasting wealth that can transform generations.

More from Barron’s: https://t.co/Qwwujxilfi

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

Most of us are living on the financial edge:

• 65% of working Americans say they frequently live paycheck to paycheck
• 35% of households say they don’t have money left at the end of most months
• 30% of households report they run out of money at the end of every month

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

What if everyone had a path to homeownership?

What if we all had a financial cushion?

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

What $500 means to Zinida Moore: an experimental program in Chicago gave 5,000 Chicagaons $500 a month for a year, no strings attached.

What happened next?
https://t.co/oG35206p1T

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

A little cushion can be life-changing — Zinida raised her credit enough to qualify for a mortgage, for example, she paid three months ahead on her rent, and she was able to take off work for a few days to visit her sister and her mother.

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

Researchers Garriy Shteynberg and Adam D. Galinsky found that simply knowing someone has the same goal as you makes you more likely to achieve that goal. This implicit coordination is one of the untapped powers of community.

Read more here:
https://t.co/QFLpF0mnK5

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

We often think community = commenting. What if I told you our behaviors and our ability to achieve our goal is impacted by what we KNOW about other people even without any interaction, discussion, or communication with them.

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

More on how we can activate this psychological mechanism for good in this week’s edition of SAWA SAWA.

https://t.co/DUKK61miYd

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

I’m trying to lose 10 pounds. I’ve been trying for a while—no one else in my immediate orbit is trying seriously, so I feel very alone. I recently had dinner with a friend, and he mentioned he too is trying to lose weight. I’m much more likely to lose the weight now.

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

When we know other people share our same goal, we adopt our goal with more vigor and intensity and engage in more goal-consistent behaviors, according to research from Garriy Shteynberg and Adam D. Galinsky:

https://t.co/XhcIc9SYiV

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

https://t.co/dW8f2Fb9Gv

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

“Will someone help me if I need it?”

Chat with an expert/peer feature shown to increase member trust and decrease anxiety — even though not many people actually used the feature!

Simply having the option to access a person is all it takes to feel supported.

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

Sources and links:
'Repayment-by-Purchase' Helps Consumers to Reduce Credit Card Debt, Harvard Business School
https://t.co/KD7R0BIpw9

If You Are Going to Pay Within the Next 24 Hours, Press 1: Automatic Planning Prompt Reduces Credit Card Delinquency
https://t.co/Tz4pbPxmre

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

“If you are going to pay within the next 24 hours, press 1…”

Specificity is powerful.

[Charles Phillips @cphillsawa]

For more, read the latest edition of the SAWA SAWA newsletter
https://t.co/VfgQN0ll0k