I recently got together with two of my best friends from high school, Jamie and Jason. We’ve been friends for over 30 years. We don’t see each other as often as we’d like to because life is busy. But when we do it’s always amazing. Sipping tea in the Sugarhouse neighbourhood of Salt Lake City,…
Articles by Carl Richards
Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner and a columnist for the New York Times, Morningstar magazine and Yahoo Finance. He is author of 2 books, The Behavior Gap & The One-Page Financial Plan. Carl lives with his family in Park City, Utah. You can find his work and sign up for his newsletter (which has an international audience) at www.behaviorgap.com/
Worry is a terrible strategy, but for a long time it was the only one I knew. Now, I consider this a safe place, so don’t judge me when I tell you a little story. For years, when I would send in the sketch that goes with my column for the New York Times, I…
Today, I want to talk to you about your worries. After all, who doesn’t love worrying? Thousands of years ago, it was part of what kept humans alive. Is that a lion in the bushes? Was that a tiger? Nine times out of ten, there probably was no large-toothed animal about to pounce. But worrying…
I don’t run into too many people who love to budget. And when you add another person to the mix, like a spouse or partner, there’s a good chance one of you will actually hate the idea. Budgeting clearly has a marketing problem. It’s a bit like flossing. We understand how important it is to…
Hey, I have a question for you. Do you remember being a kid and pretending you could fly? I sure do. Now, let me ask you another question. Do you remember jumping off a roof to test that theory? No? Ok, good. Me neither. You know why? Because even as kids, we knew what it…
This statement contradicts just about every evolutionary instinct we possess. We tend to seek out safety and avoid risk whenever possible. A classic example has to be the instinct that (still) tells us we are safer staying with the group. If members of the herd stray, they are easier for predators to pick off. Staying…
“I don’t know what to do.” I’ve heard those words a lot over the years. Smart, successful people with good educations would sit across from me and tell me they’d done little to no financial planning. They just didn’t know what to do, so they did nothing. I’m not surprised. Uncertainty has a way of…
You are not your spending thoughts. Spending without thinking about the long-term consequences is a problem. And by the long term, I mean just 30 days from now when the credit-card statement arrives. Some people label this type of spending “impulsive.” Others use the word “urge” to describe the feeling that comes just before they…
I’m going to assume for a minute that you’re one of the millions of people who have a recurrently frustrating relationship with spending. It probably starts with a commitment to sticking to your budget, and you do for a few days. Then, despite your resolve, you break down, pull out the credit card and do…
A while back my wife and I hired a financial planner. It was a big change to sit on the other side of the desk and see the process from the client’s perspective. I received some interesting reactions when I told people. The most common one was: Why does a Certified Financial Planner need to…