Whenever I surf television cable news channels, I can’t help but notice the plethora of ads for financial planning. Some of them sound compelling, even to me. I often find myself thinking, “Dang, that’s exactly what we do.” Then I notice the...
I pay a lot of attention to current events, both domestic and global, consciously choosing to consume a balanced diet of news sources that lean left, right, and in the middle. Even with trying to look at issues from both sides and be aware of my own biases, I still...
Last week we looked at four types of “stinking thinking,” cognitive biases that can contribute to poor investment decisions. Here are six more. Monte Carlo Fallacy. This is placing too much emphasis on the likelihood of an event happening, just because it...
“I reject your reality and substitute my own.” As youngsters, my kids used to quote this line from host Adam Savage of Mythbusters, one of their favorite TV shows. While he was being humorous, he was also describing the human condition. Regardless of the...
Suppose you have a net worth of one thousand dollars, while your friend has one million dollars. Would you consider yourselves to be in the same financial category? Almost certainly not. The comparison is absurd. Your friend’s one million is a thousand times...
Are you a workaholic, or are you someone who works hard at what you love to do? Does the distinction really matter? As a recovering workaholic who loves what I do, I have to say that it does. Even though workaholism is generally considered a mark of success and...
