I will say, the inherent problem with the pay-yourself-first mindset is that it completely sidesteps addressing the root cause of why you are otherwise spending all your money in the first place. It can fall under the umbrella of the whole "tricks and tips to save more without having to face the actual problem" school of thought. It's much better to work on deprogramming the consumerism out of yourself entirely.
Obviously this doesn't apply to people who pay themselves first out of convenience (payroll deductions) or for some other reason besides trying to trick themselves.
I don't think that pay yourself first people are generally trying to trick themselves into not spending all of their money. Or at least I haven't much of that, anecdotally. In fact, they are usually the more fiscally minded because they have actually thought about it and applied this approach. Whereas the consumeristic folks are more like to be spending most of their money and if they happen to have any left over, they try to save it or otherwise throw it at their debt. (More than half of working adults have credit card debt.)
Paying myself first started with my first full time job, at which point I finally had more than my barebones expenses (rent, gas, groceries) and access to a retirement account. But my parents started me on a savings account as a child so it wasn't like saving was a new concept, it was drilled in from a young age.
Like I said, this doesn't apply to people who do it for some other reason. But the strategy is definitely presented as pay yourself first... or there won't be anything left afterwards. I think it's worth questioning that narrative and the programming that results in it.
I think it's because for most people, money is as much psychological as it is math. Behavioral economics is a "thing" for a reason; if everyone was the Rational Man, who made financially rational decisions at all times, then we wouldn't need commercials to persuade us to buy things we don't need, or this blog to remind us that those things come at the cost of freedom, or Dave Ramsey to yell at people and get them to stop being quite so stupid, or any of a thousand other things.
For example: do you pay off debt by tackling the lowest balance first, or the highest interest rate? Logically, you'd do the latter, as it minimizes interest payments. But a lot of people have better success by doing the former, because seeing immediate progress on the debt gives them a big boost and helps them stay focused on the long-term goal.
Or a personal example: over the years, I have noticed in myself a tendency to be willing to spend more when I feel flush. Now, the reality is that I am always flush, because I have so much in savings, we haven't had to worry about being able to pay bills in, basically, ever, etc. But when the checking account is low, I almost subconsciuously revert to poverty mindset -- now I'm shopping at Lidl, making sure to plan menus and eat at home, looking for free things to do on the weekend, etc.
OTOH, I get a big chunk of my pay on 12/31, and we also tend to be on vacation then, and I have noticed the combination of those two things makes me far likelier to allow myself a splurge on something interesting. My plan has always been to save the end-of-year money; we don't include it in our budget, and I've always viewed it as a painless opportunity to save extra. And yet somehow, every year, by the time we get home from vacation, a chunk of that money is gone.
Now, I'm reasonably intelligent, reasonably self-aware, definitely over-educated in general, and good at math in particular. So I figure if I'm susceptible to those sorts of seemingly-irrational behaviors, then I have to assume most other people are as well.
Yes, it is always good to evaluate the messaging we receive and try to figure out why we make mathematically irrational decisions. But not everyone wants to, not everyone can, and even those of us who spend far too much time navel-gazing can still find ourselves being unwittingly stupid. So do we jump on ourselves for being stupid, vow to do better, and then repeat the cycle over and over again (like yo-yo dieting, which we all know is super effective)? Or do we acknowledge that we're not always able (for whatever reason) to make the logical decision, and figure out how to best work around with the imperfection that is us?
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Do the work -- do the analysis, figure out triggers, think about why you think X is good/worthy when it is clearly not to your long-term benefit, etc. etc. etc. But while you're doing all of that, set up systems that put inertia in your favor -- make it so that you have to actually make a conscious decision to make a bad financial decision. And "pay yourself first" seems to be a pretty decent guardrail to start with.
