The term money scripts, describing the unconscious beliefs that underlie our financial decisions and behavior, has been used by financial planners and therapists for over 15 years. Since the term (coined by Brad Klontz, Ted Klontz, and I) was first published in my...
In two recent columns, I suggested that consuming a politically unbalanced media diet could negatively affect your long-term investment returns. The more strongly people buy into the rhetoric of their political parties, the more difficult it is to be pragmatic about...
Aligning your stated values and your spending is something I encourage as part of financial wellness. It isn’t always easy to do. For example, someone strongly concerned about climate change will likely avoid buying items like bottled water, plastic bags, aerosols,...
I recently asked an investor who had a history of making poor financial decisions to send me a list of his sources for news that impacted his financial decisions. They were all extreme in their political bent, with very low to mixed probability of being factual. There...
Part of supporting my clients’ financial wellbeing requires that I have a good grasp of current world economic, political, and financial events and how they apply to my clients personally and individually. It’s also important as a financial therapist to understand and...
Last week I described three common dynamics in couples where one partner is much wealthier than the other. Those are the “Funder and Beneficiary” where the wealthy partner pays for everything, the “Proportional Spenders” who contribute based on their income, and the...
