Money is more about mind than it is about math

We all know we should spend less than we earn and save the rest. That is all there is to personal finance. But we still struggle to live within our means. Sometimes it is really due to income, but it also due to our mindset. Advertisers use behavioral finance to trick us into buy more. We can do things to trick ourselves into making the right choices too. How our brains behave and act to certain external stimuli allows us to tame and use our brains to our advantage. I’ll break down psychological research and case studies into simple, actionable steps that can help you improve your personal finance.

You don’t quit because you are a quitter

According to a recent Deloitte Survey only 21% if the overall workforce (this includes people who are working for themselves) are passionate about their jobs. Which means the rest of the 79% of us are toiling in a job that we no longer love for one reason or the other.  Why is that?  Why are [...]

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Money can’t buy me love… or can it?

Can money buy love? Does money influence your feelings for someone? Does money influence your dating/marriage decision at all? Before you say “no” and dismiss my question as shallow, think about this - Would you marry someone who has $5000 in debt? How about $100,000? What if the $100,000 was for a law school student loan? [...]

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Future of shopping – Why does it matter to the consumers?

As I mentioned in my post on Wednesday – Do you think this is possible?, I have been researching improvements retailers have been making. They seem to be making an extra effort to get my business. Don’t they all do that already? That is why we have a spending problem, right? Retailers have always researched [...]

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What do a fly in the urinal, chocolate elephants and photocopiers have in common? Goals! – Part 2

Every year starts full of hope about lofty dreams and plans for the future. By February, only ~60% of us have the same enthusiasm, by mid year more than half of us will give up. According to a survey done by the Operations Research Corporations, 24% (one in four people) NEVER succeed and have failed [...]

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What do a fly in the urinal, chocolate elephants and photocopiers have in common? Goals! – Part 1

Another article about goals??? Oh no, not again! That is probably how readers who read multiple blogs feel There must be about 1985 blog posts about goals (ok. I totally made that number up, but it feels that way). Everywhere you go in the blogosphere, people are talking about getting SMART. But bear with me, [...]

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Do your commitments match your convictions?

This will be my last article for the year. I am writing this while relaxing with family and I hope you are too. During these last few days, all of us are looking back at 2011 and planning/scheming for 2012. We plan most parts of our life, our career, finances, retirement, kid’s education, etc. We [...]

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What do smart chess players and stupid criminals have in common?

At the doctor’s office the other day, my doctor was supposed to review some recent test results with me. Instead of explaining the test results to me however, she called someone else to consult and then shared to results of her conversation with me. My husband felt more confident in her as a result.  His [...]

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Goals make you miss good opportunities.

You might think I’m off my rocker, so let’s try an experiment.  Your goal is to get to San Francisco, CA from Los Angeles, CA. You have 3 kids in your car whose quiet time quota lasts about 7 and half hrs. There are several possible routes. The straight forward and the quickest route is [...]

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How to make 31 days seem better than a month?

Would you prefer a dishwasher with 9 years of warranty or 108 months of warranty? Would you prefer a watch that can stay underwater for 1.5 minutes or 90 seconds? Would you buy a smartphone that got a 4 out of a possible 5 rating or 798 points out of 1000? Would you prefer a [...]

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