Have you ever dismissed a concept because it sounds too “soft,” that it won’t help or be applicable to your practice, life, or clients? One of those concepts that has suffered from a branding problem in the financial world is mindfulness. However, with the increased focus on holistic financial planning, it’s gaining some ground a an increased reputation as a way to help achieve financial success. Let’s consider it in light of spending. News-flash: Excessive spending …
We define volatility composure as a combination of past experiences and behavioral patterns that describe how an investor typically reacts to changes in the market value of his or her investments as well as overall changes in the value of the stock market. How will the individual actually behave–as opposed to how they think they will behave–when the stock market goes haywire (as it is doing now for the first time in quite some time)? …
According to Vanguard’s Advisor Alpha study, working with an advisor can add incrementally to an investor’s portfolio. Half of the contribution of an advisor’s value is through behavioral guidance. This guidance includes helping clients to make better investing decisions, ignore the herds, and stick to a strategy. These findings beg the question: Would these benefits increase if we added a framework to the guidance that advisors provide? To create a better mousetrap of understanding …
The state of flow from a psychological perspective is when you are completely engrossed in a task and are able to work or create in a productive way. It requires removing all distractions and being in a state of deep concentration. You hear about flow when someone shares that she wrote a book in four weeks, or maybe spent 14 uninterrupted hours creating a sculpture. It’s almost superhuman, but it can happen when you …
One of the treasures I own is a set of my grandmother’s cookbooks from the 1960s and 1970s. They are full of newspaper clippings with recipes and notations regarding whether she tried the recipe or not. They are very retro: the kind of books you would find in a thrift store that only sold vintage bell bottoms and butterfly-collared shirts. One of them– the Better Homes & Gardens Meat Cookbook (1967) (yes, there are …