The other day, a friend of mine was slightly amused after I bombarded him with reasons why he should always check management fees before selecting a Mutual Fund or (even better) an ETF. His words: “C’mon, what difference does a management fee…
The tendency to find order to ambiguous stimuli is built into the cognitive machinery we use to understand the world. That predisposition to impose order can be so automatic and so unchecked that we often end up believing in the…
Do you have lots of time to read lengthy articles, including some of my blogs? Nowadays, fewer and fewer of us own that luxury. Thus, I will share very brief tips and snippets of useful life hacks that can serve…
“The Moon is made of green cheese.” While we might like to believe that we are all perfectly rational, reality is far different. Unfortunately, we tend to be susceptible to the manipulative messages that the financial industry and the popular…
Also known as the “I knew it all along” effect. Hindsight bias refers to our tendency to take facts now known and interpret them in a way that explains past events. In retrospect everything seems clear and inevitable. This is a…
A close relative to the previously mentioned Confirmation Bias, Overconfidence is the tendency to overestimate our own abilities (i.e., we aren’t as smart as we think we are). We tend to think that we are much better forecasters and estimators than we…
We let confirmation bias take control of our mind by only seeking out information from sources that agree with our pre-existing beliefs. Conversely, we tend to ignore and dismiss information (= disconfirming evidence) which tend to disprove our initial impressions. It’s the tendency to interpret the glass…
Endowment Effect is the tendency to fall in love with what we own and makes us resist change. Or in other words, this is the tendency to consider something you own to be worth more than it would be, if you didn’t…
Most of us have a good reputation with ourselves. You associate all of your financial successes with skill, but all your financial failures with bad luck or the “unfair” market. Rather than admitting and learning from your mistakes, you ignore them, bury…
Social scientists have proven that—emotionally—a loss “weighs” at least twice that of a similar gain. That might be great for aspiring body-builders, but not so great for us regular Joes. It’s the actual gaining or losing and your feelings about it that…