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/
My wife and I are setting up a customs screening station in our driveway. No, we’re not starting an international airport. And it’s not for solicitors, strangers or gift-bearing guests. It’s for us and our stuff. From now on, before anything new comes into the house, resident buyers will need to answer a series of…
Today, I’d like you to engage in a quick exercise with me. Please get out a pen and paper, and answer the following questions: You have something you want to do, and you’re not doing it… yet. What is it? What’s the next smallest step you can take to make that thing happen? Why am…
I ski the back-country a lot, so I pay close attention to reports of avalanches. In particular, I pay attention when a skier is caught and killed by one. This year alone there have been 20 avalanche fatalities in the United States. In January, there were nine fatalities in nine days. Very few avalanche accidents…
I have a question for you. Now, this will work best if you grab a piece of paper, and write out your answer. Here’s the question: Why is your money invested the way it is? Before you go on, write down your answer on that paper. I’ve had a blast with this question over…
A few years ago, a friend of mine who happens to be a really well-known journalist had a conversation with a really well-known academic. Because the conversation was private, I’m not mentioning names. But I did want to share one fascinating part of their discussion. They were talking about cognitive biases A cognitive bias is…
The more you consume, the less content you are. If you don’t believe me, think back to the last time you ate just a bit too much of your favourite ice cream. For me, that’s Jeni’s salty caramel. There are few things in life better than that first spoonful. Except, that is, for the second bite,…
I read somewhere that average Americans will spend more time planning their vacation to Disneyland than they will planning their financial future. I’m not sure that’s correct, but it wouldn’t surprise me. There are a number of reasons why we are hesitant to spend time planning for our financial future, but the biggest one is…
Finding time is hard. I often think about all the things I would do if I could just find the time. But really, what a crazy thing that is to say. Find the time? Where should I look? Did I hide it in the bushes outside the White House? Can I find it on Aisle…
There are two types of experts in the world: real experts, and fake ones. The real experts are the people who spend many years refining their knowledge and skill set in a particular area and becoming masters of pattern recognition. But all too often, they end up toiling away in relative obscurity and poverty, neither…
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…
