Draw Results and More Money Emotions
The giveaway winners of 4 copies of the book The Secret Language of Money by random draw are Aaron, Gene, Nora, and Adrian. The winners have been contacted by email. I accidentally jumped the gun and held the draw too early. Because I contacted the winners too early as well, I would have done a second draw for a fifth book for any last-second entries, but there weren’t any.
Thanks to all who entered the draw. Here are a few more interesting tidbits from the book.
Affinity Bias
Apparently, we tend to overestimate the value of things we like, such as familiar stocks and favourite sports teams. This explains why I always found so many willing Torontonians to take my bets against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1980s.
Compulsive Spending Cycle
I have always found the tendency for some people to buy things they don’t really want or need to be baffling. According to the authors, buying things makes some people feel good in powerful ways. Unfortunately, this immediately leads to shame for having spent money they can’t afford to lose. Then they need to spend again to feel better and the cycle continues.
Senior Citizen Vulnerability to Scams
This one is likely to be controversial. “The prefrontal cortex – the home of logic, level-headed decisions, and long-range planning – is the ideal resource for debunking a scam or outing a con.” But scams promise big returns quickly and this fires up the limbic system and bypasses the prefrontal cortex. But higher brain functions “tend to wane with advancing age” and the “very old are very prone to this sort of emotional hijacking.”
Politicians
No great insight here, but quite funny:
“Politicians seem to fulfill various roles in our lives. They watch out for the common good; they attend to all manner of logistics in the managing of the social order; and they lead us in times of trouble. And they do one more thing: Now and then, they flame out in entertainingly spectacular fireballs of scandal and self-destruction.”
Thanks to all who entered the draw. Here are a few more interesting tidbits from the book.
Affinity Bias
Apparently, we tend to overestimate the value of things we like, such as familiar stocks and favourite sports teams. This explains why I always found so many willing Torontonians to take my bets against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1980s.
Compulsive Spending Cycle
I have always found the tendency for some people to buy things they don’t really want or need to be baffling. According to the authors, buying things makes some people feel good in powerful ways. Unfortunately, this immediately leads to shame for having spent money they can’t afford to lose. Then they need to spend again to feel better and the cycle continues.
Senior Citizen Vulnerability to Scams
This one is likely to be controversial. “The prefrontal cortex – the home of logic, level-headed decisions, and long-range planning – is the ideal resource for debunking a scam or outing a con.” But scams promise big returns quickly and this fires up the limbic system and bypasses the prefrontal cortex. But higher brain functions “tend to wane with advancing age” and the “very old are very prone to this sort of emotional hijacking.”
Politicians
No great insight here, but quite funny:
“Politicians seem to fulfill various roles in our lives. They watch out for the common good; they attend to all manner of logistics in the managing of the social order; and they lead us in times of trouble. And they do one more thing: Now and then, they flame out in entertainingly spectacular fireballs of scandal and self-destruction.”
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