Part 3: Bad Behavior

The challenge in writing about behavioral finance is that there is so much wonderful work already in circulation. For those who want to better understand the subject, a few books stand out:

  • Danny Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow.
  • Richard Thaler: Misbehaving.
  • Jason Zweig: Your Money and Your Brain.
  • Morgan Housel: The Psychology of Money.

I don’t want to duplicate the content of these marvelous books, so I focus on the errors I have personally observed in money management over the past three decades.

To make these easier to follow, they are organized into three sections:

1. Avoidable mistakes

2. Emotional decision-making

3. Cognitive deficits

Let’s examine how our brains lead us to bad behaviors that harm our wealth and learn what we can do to stop outsmarting ourselves.