Mar 6, 2020

Bias plays a part in many of the decisions we make each day but are you letting these predispositions influence your investments? Let’s look at four of the biases that affect your finances and explain how they can limit your ability to maximize your retirement savings.

Get the show notes and additional resources here: https://johnsonbrunetti.com/?p=4923 

Today's show rundown: 

0:19 – Mailbag question #1: At the age of 79 and retired for 10 years, I think I finally have peace of mind that we won’t run out of money. Now I think we’ll have a million or more that we’ll never spend and we don’t have kids to pass it onto. Should we just start spending a lot to make up for all the years of savings?

1:46 – Is this a great example of why planning is so crucial? You don’t want to have any regrets.

3:08 – Mailbag question #2: I’ve been approached about buying an insurance policy that would cover all of my cemetery and funeral home costs when I die. I’ll have more than enough for these expenses, but I like the idea of my kids knowing there’s money already earmarked for these costs. Is this a good purchase?

5:07 – Mailbag question #3: I’m 54 and planned to retire in my mid-60s. Recently I’ve had a lot of success with my side business. I think I can sustain myself just doing this if I focused on it full-time. What do I need to consider if I semi-retire early and do this instead?

8:46 – First investing bias: Confirmation bias. This puts you at risk of investing in something that isn’t as good as you believe.  

12:19 – Loss-aversion bias, what does this mean for your finances?

13:25 – There’s this big misnomer that wealthy people can afford to lose more money but they actually take a more conservative approach.

14:16 – Familiarity bias doesn’t force you to get out of your comfort zone and find better investments.

16:11 – The last one is self-attribution bias. What is this all about?