Category: Finance and behavior science
When we think of doing better with managing our personal financial situation, the “better” part typically comes with the picture of more technology, more data or just more external “stuff”. Yet, there is plenty of evidence that hardwired cognitive and behavioral biases are one of the biggest barriers and challenges preventing us from managing money better.
If you’ve ever made countless resolutions to “finally” bring your “finances” in “order”, only to be derailed again due to one challenge or other, to be flummoxed at the exact same spots as before – you’re not alone. There are as many solutions to the problem of solving personal finance for good as I can count into the four and five figures. Yet the problem continues to be intractable for many, compounded by the frustration of having followed yet another new app or mantra, only to fail again.
If there is one thing that characterizes the lives of women across multiple social strata – it is the severe lack of time and bandwidth that most of them battle constantly. The same amount of attention and mental capacity has to be apportioned between many equally important and demanding tasks – work, home, kids, and not least, money, for many busy women.
In a recent post, we saw how people across all socioeconomic categories heavily used their social networks to help them with their personal financial decisions. Interestingly, we also saw that the reliance on this network drops significantly as you climb up the ladder of wealth and status.
It would seem a matter of immense concern that those on the lower rungs, and presumably less financially savvy, would put themselves at risk of making decisions or taking actions that could hurt them financially. After all, how can the blind lead the blind effectively?
Continue reading “Surprise: In Money Matters, the Blind May Lead the Blind Better”
Here’s a pop quiz: Did you ask a friend or family member the last time you were pondering a financial decision? Why or why not? And if you did, did you actually take their advice?
The field of sociology is not one we immediately connect with the world of hard numbers, money and finance. Yet, it feels intuitive and natural that friends and family must have some bearing on an individual’s financial and particularly investment and savings activities. But how to get an objective view? And more importantly, what does that objective view imply for specific groups or segments, such as women, for example?