- I host a podcast called The Rewired Soul and I’ve interviewed some top personal finance authors.
- Daniel Crosby taught me that being right doesn’t make you smart, and Nick Maggiulli showed me it may take luck to buy a house.
- Brian Feroldi helped me see that no single person — not even Elon Musk — affects a stock price.
The public school system didn’t teach me anything about financial literacy, and neither did my lower-middle-class parents. Fortunately, I’m a very curious person who loves to read, and at the age of 35, I decided I was going to learn about investing, saving, and being smarter with my money. I’ve read dozens of books about personal finance to educate myself, and I’ve been fortunate enough to speak with some of the authors on my podcast, The Rewired Soul.
Daniel Crosby, Nick Maggiulli, and Brian Feroldi have taught me a ton through their amazing books, but I learned even more from being able to talk to them personally. Here are three of the biggest money lessons I learned from these personal finance experts.
1. Being right doesn’t make you smart
From a young age, we’re all taught to “trust our gut” and follow our intuition. As someone who has made a lot of terrible decisions based on my gut, I have firsthand experience with why this is terrible advice.
When I had Daniel Crosby come on the podcast to discuss his book, “The Laws of Wealth,” I learned more of the science behind why our intuition fails us regularly. More importantly, I learned why our egos stop us from figuring this out sooner.
Crosby specializes in behavioral finance, which takes a look at our irrational behaviors when it comes to money. He has a PhD in psychology and explained how our thinking is often flawed. This is why we buy high and sell low when investing even though we know we should do the opposite. It’s also why we think we can predict markets or don’t recognize the signs of a bubble.
I asked Crosby why we’re so oblivious to these mistakes we make on a regular basis while investing.
I learned that one of our biggest problems is that we highlight our wins and make excuses for our losses.
When we’re right, it’s because we’re a genius, but when we’re wrong, it was just bad luck. For behavioral finance experts like Crosby, outcomes aren’t what matter the most. The decision-making process is what matters the most.
If I ran across the freeway and survived, that wouldn’t make a good decision. Similarly, if I dump a ton of …….