Could a platform that uses financial commitments to help individuals achieve their personal goals and New Year’s resolutions—providing both motivation and accountability—actually work?

GoalBounty is a new science-backed platform which motivates people to achieve their goals and new year resolutions – by using financial commitments. Whether its goals such as quitting smoking or losing weight, GoalBounty makes people put their money where their mouth is, when it comes to new year resolutions. If they succeed, they get their money back, but if they fail, the funds are donated to charity—blending financial incentives with support to ensure commitment and progress.

With GoalBounty, users pay a financial “bounty” upfront towards a goal they want to achieve. When users prove they have achieved their goal with evidence, they get their bounty refunded in full. Evidence can include photos, videos, screenshots or even a hair or nail analysis test which detects nicotine and alcohol usage up to 6 to 12 months prior to testing.

If users fail to achieve their goal, then GoalBounty keeps 90% of the bounty, and donates 10% to mental health charities and social causes, such as Samaritans, Shout and PTSD Resolution. To help users stay on track, GoalBounty provides automated follow-ups via SMS texts and email as well as regular progress reports. They also have an optional coaching subscription to provide people with further support and have their own Discord server where users can get peer support. Users are also signposted to free support groups like 12-Step Recovery (eg. Alcoholics Anonymous) for quitting alcohol, as well as to free resources such as PDF guides and downloadable positive mental rehearsal audios.

What experts are saying
The founder and CEO of GoalBounty is Nick Hatter, one of the UK’s leading psychotherapeutic life coaches with training and qualifications in Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBT), Therapeutic Coaching and Human Givens Psychotherapy, who has also coached doctors, clinical psychologists, neuroscientists, celebrities and athletes, and is the author of the self-help book, The 7 Questions.

Hatter says, “Money buys commitment – which is something I’ve learned from my 7+ years experience as a professional coach. As soon as people invest significant money into something, whether it’s coaching or personal goals, they often become much more committed.”

Despite its radical and potentially controversial approach to motivation, GoalBounty has received the backing of various medical and psychological experts. Dr Milan Mehta, a doctor and GP of 15+ years, says, “GoalBounty has a lot of potential. If people pay a bounty upfront, they are more likely to be committed to getting results and less likely to make excuses for themselves. A lot of people need help quitting drinking, smoking and vaping… and GoalBounty could be of great help for the right audience”. Meanwhile, Dr Shah Tarfarosh, a Psychiatrist who has trained at both the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, says, “GoalBounty applies smart psychological principles like loss aversion—where people are motivated to avoid losing money—to encourage goal achievement.”

“By combining financial accountability with follow-ups, it offers a structured way for individuals to stay on track with their goals. Approaches like this may help some people build better habits and work towards lasting changes”.

Why so many resolutions fail: what the science says
Researchers say that the most common reasons for slips in new year resolutions are due to a lack of personal control, excessive stress and negative emotion.

Hatter says, “When people are emotional, they can experience what is known as a cognitive distortion – an impaired way of thinking, perceiving and making decisions. Basically, emotional people become, for lack of a better phrasing, more stupid. Saying ‘no’ to a pint of ice cream, cigarette, a beer or a Netflix binge might be easy when you’re calm and everything is going well, but when you’re stressed or emotional, that’s when saying ‘no’ can become a whole lot harder”.

Another reason people fail to stick to resolutions could be a lack of accountability. One study by Dominican University of California found that people who formulated action commitments and sent their goals, action commitments and weekly progress reports to a supportive friend achieved significantly more compared to those who merely thought about their goals.

“Accountability can be a very powerful motivator – humans are social creatures with a need for status, and nobody likes to look bad or look like a failure”, Hatter says. “Bad habits and addictions can be extremely difficult to stop using willpower alone. It might work for a small percentage of people, but the majority need a lot of support. With no external accountability, it’s all too easy to slip back into bad habits or old behaviours without anyone knowing. But with GoalBounty, users get plenty of accountability and support, making it more likely that they will succeed.”