Category: Behavioral Economics
Castle-in-the-Sky Investing
In 1981, I read a fascinating book that explored the question of why some countries were rich and others weren’t. The name of the book was Wealth and Poverty and its author’s name was George Gilder. For an economics book, it garnered a surprising amount of buzz. It was kind of the Capital in the…
Egotrage: Taking a Step Back Socially to Advance Two Steps Financially
I remember the feeling of dread when I signed up for my first two graduate school courses at Baruch College in 1997. Those two courses would cost me roughly $1,200. Throw in the cost of the Long Island Railroad and books and my first semester in grad school was going to add $1,800 to my…
Discipline Is the Key to Ending Financial Moronity
Anyone familiar with this blog knows that prior to my 40th birthday, I was a financial moron. And that’s not me be self-deprecating. It’s just the cold, hard truth. Heck, I didn’t even know what an emergency fund was until I was 42. The good news for the financially moronic, however, is this: personal finance…
SAT Smart Vs. Compound-Interest Smart
During my public service days, I had a very interesting co-worker named Tony. To the casual observer, we were very similar. We were both the same age, worked in the same department, and had the exact same titles. We were both construction inspectors. But beyond those superficial characteristics, we were very different. I, for lack…
Just Because Someone Has More Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have Enough
Several years ago I had a problem. I wanted to get into shape, but I didn’t want to spend a dime on a gym membership or drop some serious coin on a home gym. To solve this problem, I fired up Google and did a search on “building muscle without equipment,” or something to that…