The mother forced herself to save by punishing herself if she did not.

The $2000 in the saving account was earmarked for the dowry, and she would not touch it. So, she had to save every month to pay back the loan to the bank. The longer she took to do this, the more interest she paid.

This is a kind of non-rational trick that some people use to "trick themselves into doing the right thing". This is like paying some random stranger $100 if you do not accomplish some task.

Well, some people in rich countries take out a mortgage and buy a house on similar grounds.

With the differences of:

1. Immediate use of the home 2. Collateral that can be taken back of the loan isn't repaid 3. Often the collateral gains in value over the duration of the loan 4. The interest rate on the loan is way lower than a personal loan or a credit card.

I mostly agree.

However, (3) is a bug that's just commonly encountered (hopefully temporarily) in some countries that restrict construction way too much at the moment. One can hope.

The mother knew (from experience?) that she did not have the necessary impulse-control, or intrinsic motivation, to save money for such a long-term thing as a dowry.

I was really taken by this example because my initial reaction was "just try harder". My first-world perspective has always been "if you failed, its a personal short-coming. You need to become better".

This mother's solution is based off a fundamentally different philosophy; "I am not capable of that kind of self-control. I'll modify the environment".