Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the Life-Changing Science of Behavioral Economics

Protect and grow your finances with help from this definitive and practical guide to behavioral economics—revised and updated to reflect new economic realities.

In their fascinating investigation of the ways we handle money, Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich reveal the psychological forces—the patterns of thinking and decision making—behind seemingly irrational behavior. They explain why so many otherwise savvy people make foolish financial choices: why investors are too quick to sell winning stocks and too slow to sell losing shares, why home sellers leave money on the table and home buyers don’t get the biggest bang for their buck, why borrowers pay too much credit card interest and savers can’t sock away as much as they’d like, and why so many of us can’t control our spending. Focusing on the decisions we make every day, Belsky and Gilovich provide invaluable guidance for avoiding the financial faux pas that can cost thousands of dollars each year.

Filled with fresh insight; practical advice; and lively, illustrative anecdotes, this book gives you the tools you need to harness the powerful science of behavioral economics in any financial environment.

• How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life
• How to Lie with Statistics
• The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read: The Proven Way to Beat the "Pros" and Take Control of Your Financial Future
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
• Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
• Your Money and Your Brain: How the New Science of Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich
• How to Think About Money
• Where Are the Customers' Yachts?: or A Good Hard Look at Wall Street
• Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
• Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions