It’s remarkable how much psychology plays a role in money-related decisions.
You: In everything, really.
True, there’s a psychological element to nearly every choice you make.
By the way I just got an email that Total Candor won an award from the US Commerce Association.
You: Congratulations!
No.
You: No?
No. It didn’t pass the smell test.
You: How did you know?
First off, I’m always incredibly skeptical of winning any award I don’t apply for. Second, the name sounded scam-worthy.
You: Scam-worthy?
I’m just saying: it sounds big and impressive yet no one has ever heard of it. Two seconds on google later, I pressed the delete button.
You: Still, short of telling folks you won an award that might not have been all that impressive, what’s the harm?
None, but no doubt other businesses purchased the little plaques the US Commerce Association is hawking. Worse, some prospective customers probably became actual customers of such businesses thinking that the awards displayed were impressive.
You have to be careful. Just because someone has initials after his name, doesn’t mean the person is impressive – or has done anything relevant to your decision-making process. Just because a website is called freecreditreport.com doesn’t mean it’s a place you can get a credit report for free without any strings attached (Visit annualcreditreport.com for that).
You: You forgot to put the link to the first web site.
No I didn’t. Want more psychology?
I just finished breezing through this week’s carnival of personal finance, which featured my Negotiate your cable bill – How I lowered my cable bill. A great article which takes the ups and downs of psychology and decision-making to a most humorous yet effective level is Realm of Prosperity’s The Infomercial Copycat Method of Debt Reduction.
The infomercial article was one of my recent favorites. I think you’ll enjoy it as well.
H0w has psychology or re-framing a decision affected your course of action?
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