Dopamine is highly addictive. Unlike other addictive substances that are produced in laboratories, Breaking Bad style, or harvested in Columbia, it’s produced naturally by the human body. It’s what drives the sense of pleasure you get when you hit a target or achieve a goal. Its positive aspect is how it can motivate you to achieve success. However, the overriding desire to continually repeat that success can create a situation where many successful people find it difficult to enjoy their accomplishments. This is because our brains are hardwired to seek balance from extreme emotional states so that any big “high” is followed by a balancing low. Because of this, you can end up constantly setting yourself new targets to feel... Read More

In any investment portfolio, it’s normal to find that one asset class has outperformed the others in the recent past. Your mind, being an extrapolation machine, will often assume that what has happened in the past will continue into the future. This can cause you to be drawn to investments that have performed well recently, hoping their strong performance will continue. This behaviour would appear to be unique to investing because, in most other areas of life, you will generally look for good value. So, you’ll rush to the shops when there’s a sale, not when the price has recently increased. In reality, however, rather than recent price movements continuing forever, investment asset classes tend to “revert to the mean”.... Read More

Do you struggle to motivate yourself when it comes to certain financial-related tasks? If you do, you certainly aren’t alone. More people than you probably think, while they appreciate how important such tasks are, can be reluctant to knuckle down and get them done. There’s no one reason for this, and no simple solution to curing any procrastination blues you may be struggling with. Here’s what I think are the main reasons for inhibition, why a desire for perfection could be acting as a block, and some simple steps to overcome any reluctance you have to get financial tasks done. Making financial decisions can be intimidating Encouraging you to make important decisions about your finances (and, ultimately, your life) is... Read More

Financial planning has made significant strides over the past few decades giving you, as an investor today, advantages that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Some of the advances that have now become commonplace include: Access to online financial advice Low-cost investment administration options Digital signature capabilities Easy account aggregation software. Those, along with global equity portfolios with no upfront fees, are all technological advancements that have streamlined even the most complex of your financial tasks, allowing for more efficient personal financial management. Taken together, they mean that it’s easier than ever for you to implement your financial strategy in a sensible and cost-efficient manner. The growing tangle of financial administration Despite these advances, it’s likely that you are... Read More

Our daily lives revolve around making decisions, from what you have for breakfast in the morning to the time you decide to go to bed at night. But in a wider context, many of the bigger and more detailed decisions you have to make can have a long-lasting effect on your life. Important choices such as what you study at university, who you choose as your life partner, and where you decide to live can all have an effect on you that will reverberate for many years into the future. Because of the understandable high stakes involved in a lot of your decision-making, it’s important to give some thought to how you make decisions, and how you can give yourself... Read More