Posts Tagged ‘Science’

Why financial planning is not common sense

And why that’s a good thing!

Mencken. Clear, simple and wrong. Paul Claireaux

Why financial planning is not common sense

And why that’s a good thing!

A 10 to 15-minute read – depending on your speed. Most of us look for common-sense answers to various questions in life. In this Insight, we’ll explore why that is often a bad idea, particularly when it comes to money. Common-sense answers to common and simple questions are helpful. But with complex questions (like making…

Who might be happy after a stock market crash?

and who might be seriously upset?

Who might be happy after a stock market crash?

and who might be seriously upset?

A 10 to 15-minute read – depending on your speed. By the end of this Insight (for investors of all ages), you’ll understand more than most people about this critically important paradox of investing. In short, you’ll know why stock market crashes can (simultaneously) be good news for some people and miserable for others! We…

Change three words you use each day

and transform your life for the better

Change three words to transform your life

Change three words you use each day

and transform your life for the better

During these extraordinary times, it’s easy to feel pressured (by others or ourselves) to do more of those things that we think we ‘should’ be doing. But that way of thinking doesn’t really help us to ‘achieve more’ at the best of times and it certainly won’t help now. So, let’s explore a different (and…

Two Nobel prize winners

with very different ideas on stock market pricing

Two Nobel Prize Winners. Paul Claireaux

Two Nobel prize winners

with very different ideas on stock market pricing

Some wealth managers promote their investment service as being robust because it’s based on the ideas of a Nobel Prize-winning economist. The trouble is, they don’t tell you about the other Nobel Prize winner of the same year, who had very different ‘herding’ ideas about what drives prices in stock markets. In this Insight, I…

Is your mood being manipulated?

To get you spending *all* your money today?

Jenny Shoo

Is your mood being manipulated?

To get you spending *all* your money today?

In this extract from Chapter 1 of my book, ‘Who misleads YOU about money?’ we’ll learn how we’re tricked into spending all our money today. This matters because the result is our failure to save for our big, long term financial life goals – for ourselves and our loved ones.

The Nobel name dropping game

depends on which name you drop

Modern Portfolio Theory. Paul Claireaux

The Nobel name dropping game

depends on which name you drop

Working inside the Financial Services industry for 25 years, and observing it from the outside for another ten, I guess I’ve seen a lot of what goes on. I know what good (and fair priced) financial products, and financial advisers, look like, and many of those advisers are really good at their job. However, they’re…

Does your adviser really understand risk?

And should you find out sooner rather than later?

Mencken. Clear, Simple & Wrong. Paul Claireaux

Does your adviser really understand risk?

And should you find out sooner rather than later?

Benoit Mandelbrot had a beautiful mind for risk. A Polish-born, French and American mathematician – he was the guy who discovered the idea of “self-similarity” in nature. You may have heard the term ‘Fractal’ which he coined to describe the beautiful and ‘apparently complex’ shapes in nature. This extraordinary simple concept explains how snowflakes are…

What stormy weather can teach us about stock markets

And why we cannot control either of them

What stormy weather can teach us about stock markets

And why we cannot control either of them

We regularly have stormy weather around the UK: Strong winds, flash floods, thunder, lightning and occasionally hailstorms strong enough to set off the alarms on cars. Believe it or not, thunderstorms can teach us a lot about economies, stock-markets and house prices too!

Why you need to beware of goal obsession

and how it could literally kill you

Aircraft into storm. Paul Claireaux

Why you need to beware of goal obsession

and how it could literally kill you

If you’re planning to travel by aeroplane again (at some time in the future!) you’ll be pleased to know that pilots are trained to avoid goal obsession. In this short Insight, I want to explore why you need to avoid goal obsession too – and why you need to be extra ‘wary’ of those around……

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