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Our data consistently tells us that in the arena of personal-finance outcomes, behaviors matter. They matter a lot. So we thought it was time to try and quantify—from a dollars and net-worth perspective—exactly how much is “a lot.” We’ll consider savings rate as a critical behavior. We have talked here before about the difference in savings rates between “high-potential” and “low-potential” individuals, as measured by scores on the DataPoints Building Wealth assessment. As a quick …
In pop psychology and social media, there seems to be more interest in pop personality than in financial behaviors when it comes to talking about the things that will have the greatest impact on how successful we are at accumulating wealth. Who doesn’t love a one-question quiz that asks you about your favorite color and then gives you a report telling you you’re a terrible investor because you like magenta? Tests like the Myers-Briggs …
Imagine that you can ask your prospective client only two questions before deciding if they are a good fit for your practice. What would you ask, and why? The statement above is an example of a structured interview question. Structured interviews are a systematic way to get to know a client, applicant, or other new colleague that links interview questions to topics or competencies that are critical to understand at the beginning of that …
An obvious mechanism to help an individual spend their cash flow in accordance with their financial goals is to employ a budget. But for many of us, the idea of constricting any behavior, especially how we spend our money, is unpleasant. Even if we label it using the euphemism of a “spending plan.” And, changing money attitudes is challenging even for experts. Volumes of advice and technologies are available to help with the mechanics of …
Suppose you are trying to understand the complex underlying personal characteristics of your client, a potential employee, or even yourself. In that case, it goes without saying that you need a good tool (i.e., a good assessment) to measure these not-so-obvious personal characteristics. This is the heart of psychometrics: the science of measuring individual differences (that is, our unique personal characteristics). Typically, psychometrics involves gathering multiple responses related to a characteristic to ensure you’re …