We've all heard Clark encouraging people to adopt saving money as a lifestyle choice, but not everyone can easily heed the message. In fact, Americans spent almost $100 billion on gambling in 2007, but only saved just a little more than $50 billion, according to Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal.

So we are twice as likely to blow money in a casino or on lottery tickets than to save for our future! In fact, Clark calls the lotto "the ultimate tax on people who are choosing to reduce their wealth" so that the rare person can win.

Several years ago, the consumer champ was intrigued by a Forbes article that advocated for a combo savings/lottery ticket. The idea was that 50 cents out of every dollar spent on a lottery ticket would go into a personal savings account and the other 50 cents would pay for the jackpot.

Now, a Harvard professor has convinced a group of credit unions in Michigan to experiment with a similar approach. With the "Save To Win program," you buy a CD and are automatically entered into a raffle to win anywhere from several hundred dollars up to $100,000.

This is behavioral economics at work. You can harangue people all day long to get them to do what they know they should already be doing. But they may only start saving when you incentivize them.

If this is what it takes, then so be it. Clark hopes this becomes a national phenomenon and state lotteries consider implementing the Save To Win program.