Follow a philosophy so that there is always a smart place to get money
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Marshmallows and Investing?
Parents take note: Research on delayed gratification shows connections from children through adulthood.
Read More...How are foreign stocks doing compared to stocks in the United States? Fall 2012
Sometimes the medium term trend seems to weigh more heavily in our minds than the long or short term trends.
Read More...Suddenly Wealthy
Studies show that onetime windfalls can actually impoverish you. They make you feel rich, which inevitably leads to overspending. But wealth is what you save, not what you spend.
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Stress Is Not Your Enemy
How often do you intentionally push yourself to discomfort? Do you think the best retirement is relaxing and recreating? Think again.
Read More...Video: The Benefits of Having a Financial Advisor
If you want to get in shape and need push in the right direction, you hire a personal trainer. If you want advice and a push in the right direction to be in good financial shape, hire a financial advisor.
Read More...Women are more afraid of becoming “bag ladies” than men
Women are more afraid of becoming “bag ladies” than men, and it makes them approach investing and saving for retirement differently, assuming they have managed to tackle either of those chores.
Read More...Countering Resistance
Client resistance is an inevitable part of the financial planning process. It’s a sign the advisor is doing his or her job.
Read More...Radio: Grow Rich Slowly: The Four Secrets of an Automatic Millionaire
Listen to David John Marotta’s interview on growing rich slowly: the four secrets of an automatic millionaire
Read More...Best Marketing for a Small Business
For a small business, marketing and advertising seeks an answer to the question “How will prospective customers find me?” Most small businesses would benefit from enhancing their website presence by blogging and social media connections.
Read More...Economic Lessons from Farmville
To interest me, a game must have a simple but thought-provoking premise that allows for deep strategy. I’d never played Farmville but decided to recently because the parent company, Zynga, is going public this Thursday, December 15, 2011.
Read More...A Wealth of Satisfaction
True life planning begins when you realize you are unique. There will never be another you in the history of the universe. Your calling is yours alone. Understanding yourself is the first step in managing your financial affairs to support your life plan.
Read More...Three Reasons to Give Thanks
Here are three reasons to make time for thanksgiving during this national holiday weekend.
Read More...Economic Lessons from “Settlers of Catan”
What makes Catan particularly interesting is that just producing the most resources is not sufficient to win the game. Knowing what mix of resources you need to meet your objectives is critical.
Read More...Economic Lessons Learned from Chess
I love strategy games. Many people dismiss games as a waste of time. But at their best they teach principles of cause and effect that we can use as paradigms for real life.
Read More...Stop Telling Yourself These Three Financial Lies
Most of us rationalize why we can’t get our finances together right now. Many Americans prolong these excuses during their entire working careers. Here are three lies you must stop telling yourself in order to build a solid financial foundation.
Read More...Money Questions: Test Before You Invest
Q: I am 53 years old and have never invested in the stock market. I have inherited $150,000 from a family member, and my son is recommending that I invest this money in the market. Do you agree?
Read More...Video: The Four Deadly Sins of Investing
In both good times and bad times, investing is really about managing your emotions. If you want to be an investor, you have to grow to understand not only the relationship between risk and return, but also your own reaction to it.
Read More...Video: University Students and Credit Cards
Every University student knows they should have a credit card. You have to have a second form of ID on many financial transactions. You have to have one to establish good credit. And, the more you use them, the more you will accrue bonus points toward cash, mileage credits and various “free gifts”. P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But it doesn’t have to be you.
Read More...Financial Time Perspective
Philip Zimbardo’s latest book, “The Time Paradox” suggests that understanding your own time perspective may help you unlock the secrets of financial freedom. In other words, how we think determines who we are and what we do.
Read More...Behavioral Finance: Patience Is Its Own Reward
To process financial information, our minds often attempt unwise shortcuts. By understanding behavioral finance, we can limit the information we use and keep our decisions balanced and on track.
Read More...Behavioral Finance: Herd Mentality
One of the early studies on herd mentality was the Solomon Asch experiments in the 1950s. The setup was a mock vision test. In reality, all but one of the participants were actors, who after a few correct answers started agreeing unanimously on a wrong choice.
Read More...Behavioral Finance: Overconfidence
Think of confidence as a continuum: Lack of confidence is paralyzing, self-confidence is good, but overconfidence is deadly. Successful investors seek to find a balance between rashness and timidity. Understanding the psychology that causes us to act overconfidently will help you avoid it.
Read More...Behavioral Finance: Mental Accounting
The essence of successful financial planning is using your money to meet your life’s goals. Curiously our minds tend to fall prey to the fallacy that behavioral finance calls “mental accounting”.
Read More...Behavioral Finance: Anchoring
Our first reaction to a complicated situation, usually instinctive, often does not serve our best interests. One heuristic that the brain uses to solve complex evaluations is to make an initial guess and then adjust from that point. This mental process is called “anchoring.”
Read More...Loss Aversion
Psychologists suggest we feel a loss about 2.5 times as much as an equivalent gain. Even with a brilliant investment plan, it takes diligence to overcome our emotional biases and avoid making investing mistakes.
Read More...University Students: Getting Sucked Dry by Credit Cards
Last week we listed the ways university student are enticed into using credit cards. This week we will examine the economical impact of those initially small and convenient monthly payments.
Read More...University Students: Getting Suckered in with Credit Cards
Every University student knows they should have a credit card. You have to have a second form of ID on many financial transactions. You have to have one to establish good credit. And, the more you use them, the more you will accrue bonus points toward cash, mileage credits and various “free gifts”. P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But it doesn’t have to be you.
Read More...Familiarity Breeds Concentration
Investors have been told, “Invest in what you know.” While this may have been a good adage for avoiding investing in companies with no business models, it is a poor rule of thumb to use when building diversified portfolios.
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