Money, Mind And Meaning

Tune in to hear:- What event prompted Dr. Howard to move from using a  market efficiency / rational markets framework to a framework of behavioral finance?- How can we discover market inefficiencies that are exploitable if the price is almost always wrong and not reflecting true value?- If the behavioral dislocations of market prices are so vast, and the price is always wrong, why is the industry so bad at generating persistent returns?- It appears that the “best ideas” of active managers do out perform the benchmark, but career risk and other incentives cause them to over-diversify. Why are these “best ideas” so powerful?- When choosing a fund manager - people often approach it by asking an “easy question” such as: how much money do you manage or how long have you been doing this? Why might these not be an optimal measure of their investment proficiency?- If Dr. Howard were to design a behaviorally-informed manager due diligence process, what would it look like?- How does Dr. Howard find, select and coach hi

Tune in to hear:- What was the process of launching Dr. Biyani’s business Udemy like?- As an entrepreneur, how do you know when you’re a visionary that may be early to an idea vs. when the market is simply telling you your idea isn’t worthwhile?- What advantages does virtual learning have over traditional learning and where might it fall short?- Does Dr. Biyani think that a lot of the all-star talent in a particular field get pulled into online teaching, leaving universities weakened or less relevant?- How might platforms like Udemy democratize education and bring down the rising costs of education?- What are some of the benefits of having a cohort in a remote learning setting?- Dr. Biyani had a previous entrepreneurial venture with 1,000 employees that ended up having to shut its doors. What lessons did he take away from this experience that might be instructive to inspiring entrepreneurs?- How much does appropriate timing and the luck associated with that have to do with having a successful entrepreneurial

Tune in to hear:- What gap did Dr. Chase see in the market? How has investment talent been traditionally vetted and how does this compare to how it optimally should be?- What specific personality assessments do they use and how do they settle on these?- How do Drs. Chase and Pogge utilize Rorschachs to vet different personality styles?- Taking results from a test like The Big 5 at face value might not tell you enough about someone’s personality. How can we further break these down into their constituent parts?- When looking for asset managers - what are some personality attributes that might qualify as a red flag?- How do you adjust for potential lies and deceit occurring in personality testing?- How might the personalities of a closing pitcher and a hedge fund manager look similar or dissimilar?- How do you strike a balance between finding a good fit for your team’s culture and not making “cookie cutter” hires?- How might a more scientific vetting process open the door to more diversity and inclusion in the

Tune in to hear:- Why do conversations about finances often take on such a moralistic tenor?- Is the moralizing of money a uniquely American problem or does this happen all over the world?- How can we accrue the benefits of being well off without falling prey to the lack of passion that can accompany this at times?- The possession-self link states that we don’t necessarily differentiate between the things we are and who we are. How does this play out practically?- Those with a clear mental picture of their future have positive money experiences and those with a vague mental picture of their future have more negative money experiences. Is this a chicken and egg sort of phenomena?- How can one start to cultivate an internal locus of control?- Sarah created her own form of budget called the ‘Loaded’ budget - what is the psychological upside to using this budget?https://twitter.com/finance_therapyCompliance Code: 2380-OAS-8/25/2021

Tune in to hear:- In a study that Eben helped conduct, clients were three times as likely to say they are very knowledgable about markets than their advisors were likely to say about them. Men had a similarly outsized response and were three times more likely than women to say they were knowledgable. Are clients overestimating their ability to understand markets or are their advisors not giving them enough credit?- What can the financial services community do to minimize the delta between who people are and how we see them?- What is Eben’s take away from men, in general, being more confident in their financial aptitude than women? Are they merely being overconfident?- Should advisors really work to temper their clients’ expectations of forward returns?- How can advisors give plans that actually stick and resonate with their clients?- Is it a financial advisor’s job to be a watch person for financial bubbles?https://toewscorp.comhttps://biicoaching.com

Tune in to hear:- What is “flow” in a behavioral science context?- How do you begin to measure and study something like flow, which seems very ephemeral and hard to pin down?- Is it possible to reach a flow state performing a task/job you dislike?- How to we push past the stumbling block phase, with a challenging skill like drawing or skateboarding, and eventually work to a level of expertise or ease where flow states become possible?- We have a good sense of what flow looks like in athletics and fine arts, but how does it play out in financial professionals and what benefits does it accrue for them?- Is it within the scope of a financial advisor’s job to help their clients find flow?- If someone has never achieved a flow state, how might they begin to seek that experience out?- Has Jordan come across any surprising findings in his studies of motivation?linkedin.com/in/jordanhutchisonCompliance Code: 2239-OAS-8/9/2021

Tune in to hear:- What does Charlotte’s day to day role as a Chief Behavioral Officer look like?- Has the science of motivating employees shifted a great deal since The Great Depression or do other cultural or economic factors play into people’s loyalty to a particular company?- How accurately can people assess what motivates them to work?- What wrong assumptions do people routinely make about what motivates human behavior?- What is a simple randomized control trial (RCT) that a business could run without hiring 3rd party expertise?- What is Charlotte’s favorite RCT that she has overseen in her career?- Are their parts of human behavior that defy scientific examination?- What are some of the lessons we can learn from the “replication crisis?”www.peoplescience.comhttps://twitter.com/CharlotteBlankCompliance Code: 2237-OAS-8/9/2021

Tune in to hear:- Reese Harper has an advisory business, Dentist Advisors, that is exclusively for dentists. How did he take the first step to say no to everything else and how did choosing such a specific niche serve him well?- How did he land on dentists, in particular, as his niche?- Why do dentists, on average, retire 6 years later than their fellow Americans when they make 4x as much as the average American?- Dentists and Financial Advisors have the highest rates of suicide of any profession. What role does an advisor have in protecting and safeguarding the holistic wellness of their clients?- What is the most common contentious points for couples’ financial discussions?- What is the most unique & valuable element in Reese’s new mobile finance tool, Elements?- How can you use Elements to improve client behavior? www.getelements.comCompliance Code: 2055-OAS-7/20/2021

Tune in to hear:- How does Dr. Cherry implement “The Big 5” personality test in his practice? Does he approach clients with different personality traits in novel ways to better help them problem solve?- How were The Big 5 traits ultimately arrived upon?- How might one shift communication with their client if the client displays high levels of anxiety? Should the actual asset allocation look different for them or is the anxiety simply approached in the coaching process?- How can financial professional be authentic and transparent without making it totally about us and our story?- How does Dr. Cherry use life and money stories to help elicit trauma and what does he do with this information once it’s revealed?- What is “the stages of change” theory?- What is a money trauma that a client might need to admit before moving forward?- What’s the key difference between admitting you have a problem and acknowledging that?https://www.concurrentfp.com/financial-planner-dr-preston-cherryCompliance Code: 1938-OAS-6/30/2021

Tune in to hear:- How did Jeff’s professional path evolve from lawyer, to standup comedian and finally to behavioral science / economics?- What lessons could behavioral science stand to learn from the art of standup comedy?- If two different comedies tell a joke with similar content, the joke might land for one of them while feeling really caustic and tone deaf for the other. What might account for this difference and how can one exude more empathy and authenticity in such a retelling?-  What does Jeff mean when he says… “thinking a lot about money would be fine if, by thinking more about it, we were able to make better decisions?”- What is the pain of paying? How do companies wield this against us and how can we take the power back here?- Jeff talks about Ulysses’ contracts in his book. What can we learn from the myth of Ulysses and how can we practically utilize this to make better financial decisions?- Where is applied behavioral finance headed and where does Jeff want to take it at JP Morgan?www.jeffkreis

Tune in to hear:- On a previous podcast, Richard Nisbett expressed that the most central message of psychology is that we have no access to most of what goes on in our heads. What studies are illustrative of this dramatic conclusion he reached?- What are the implications of this stream of thought, particularly in regards to free will and determinism?- In light of this research, are things like introspection valuable or do they simply feel meaningful?- If environment is highly influential in our decision making process, what can we do to create environmental prompts to improve the decisions we make?- How can incentives for driving behavior backfire and why might consensus be a more powerful motivational tool?- How can we consider all sides, to more effectively protect ourselves from confirmation bias, in an age when it’s so easy for really harmful, unvetted ideas to get propagated and shared widely.- What’s a practical example of how one can use formal logic to improve decisions?Web: https://www.amazon.com/gp/

Tune in to hear:- How did Anthony move from being homeless, and in a great deal of debt, to being one of the nation’s top educators on money matters and part of the Dave Ramsey franchise? What four steps were critical in this journey?- Anthony stresses the importance of intentionality in one’s spiritual journey, network journey, net worth journey and their overall mindset. Are these elements broadly applicable to the general population, or did they simply work for Anthony?- Where does Anthony see the strongest tie between spiritual wealth and material wealth?- How can having a therapist help you be a better investor and further refine a goals-based investment approach?https://www.ramseysolutions.com/anthony-onealCompliance Code: 1836-OAS-6/14/2021

- Three steps to mastering personal finance.- What is the knowledge or education gap in financial literature that Joe Saul-Sehy’s new book ‘Stacked’ fills?- What role might humor play in a successful financial plan?- How can we move people towards financial goals that are more visceral and poignant and away from mimetic, or culturally inherited, goals?- Why is automation such a powerful financial tool and how does Joe recommend people best utilize it?- What advice does John Saul offer on finding a good financial advisor to partner with? What unique considerations might different people have when looking for a financial professional?- How to come up with good interview questions for prospective advisors.https://joesaulsehy.comhttps://www.stackingbenjamins.comCompliance Code: 1823-OAS-6/10/2021

Tune in to hear:- What is Colin’s perspective on the extreme fear and greed that arose throughout the pandemic in 2020? These are constants within the market, but why were they of particular interest in this cycle?- Are investors primed for misbehavior because of what we went through last year?- Learn more about Colin’s new book Fed Up: Success, Excess and Crisis Through the Eyes of a Hedge Fund Macro Trader- Colin believes that both Quantitative Easing and Central Banks have a net negative impact on the global economy. Why does the believe the current policy is failing?- How can investors balance, or keep in tension, a critique of the fed with the reality that the narrative has frequently left people behind who were angry with the fed?- There are lots of smart people that think racking up a national debt is relatively inconsequential, but Colin believes that it matters a great deal. What lead him to this perspective?- How is the fed fueling wealth inequality with their current policies?- What can we, as a na

Tune in to hear:- What might the personality of an ideal hire for a leadership position in asset management look like?- How can one measure things like emotional intelligence and curiosity that can seem kind of ethereal or hard to get your arms around?- Has Michael come across any counterintuitive, or surprising, discoveries in his research as he’s tried to fill talent gaps in the financial services industry?- How does a company best walk the line between having adequate conflict, to fully vet and consider all perspectives, but not such excessive conflict that it spills over into ugliness?- What does the concept of “psychological safety” mean and how can one achieve this perspective throughout their organization?- How do we get beyond just paying lip service to wanting productive conflict in an organization and actually get to a point where we can have these conversations?- What are some common behavioral traps within decision making processes used by asset managers, and how does Michael council people to beg

Tune in to hear:- Carl Richards speaks about serving real financial advisors. This of course presupposes the existence of fake financial advisors, so what’s the difference between a real financial advisor and a fake financial advisors?- What practical advice can help one avoid a financial advisor that doesn’t have your best interests at heart?- How do we help clients articulate powerful goals that are salient and motivating without failing prey to this trip of false precision?- How do we begin to see ourselves as we truly are, allowing us to become better financial advisors?- We have a tendency as a culture to always move the goalpost on what is enough - what can we do to cultivate a spirit of knowing when we have enough?- How might we look at asset classes like cryptocurrencies and NFTs through a behavioral finance lensWeb: www.thesocietyofadvice.comCompliance Code: 1688-OAS-5/20/2021

Tune in to hear:- Is the classic retirement trope of working hard until your 65 and retiring to a life of leisure sort of an antiquated way of thinking about retirement?- Is the prospect of people having to work later in their life net good or net negative for most individuals?- Research shows that people who are retired, on average, are happier than those who aren’t. However, there’s also an outlier group of retired individuals who are much more depressed than those who continue to work. Is this due to not having enough resources, not being engaged with a community or some mix of the two?- Is it a better approach to work really hard and retire earlier or to give yourself the space and time to explore hobbies alongside work and work later into life?- What are the upsides and downsides of “FIRE” (Financial Independence, Retire Early)?- Social security is the biggest pillar upon which the average person’s retirement plan rests, but we know that social security faces many problems if something isn’t done quickly

Tune in to hear:- Why might the narrative that “our parents’ generation had it much easier financially than we do now” be incorrect? What assumptions does it make?- When yields on a 50/50 stock and bond portfolio, yields are historically anemic right now. What are investors supposed to do in a time like this and how do we prevent them from just chasing yield and moving up the risk spectrum?- What has Michael’s personal experience with NFTs been like and how does he think about that part of the market?- Is the influx of active investment, particularly with commission free apps like Robinhood, likely to have a net positive or net negative effect on the markets and peoples’ understanding of them?- How can one temper being extremely active online with all the negative things that can come along with this?Web: www.michaelbatnick.comCompliance Code: 1517-OAS-5/4/2021

Tune in to hear:- Why is Adam Smith considered to be the original behavioral economist?- Mike is advocating for mission driven capitalism. How does this contrast with a more classic approach to Capitalism that’s focused on shareholder value?- Why might mission driven corporations outperform the S&P 500? Is there a specific mechanic at play here?- How can consumers and investors separate out true mission driven corporations from those that are merely posturing as mission driven corporations?- How does mission driven capitalism distinguish itself from other contemporary “do good” capitalism like ESG and impact investing?- Does Mike expect mission driven companies to have standard market returns or expect them to outperform?Web: themissioncorps.orgCompliance Code: 1447-OAS-4/28/2021

Tune in to hear:- Why do we often defer our dreams for so long and how might we be more proactive in seeking them out?- Reflecting back on their lives, many people wish they had taken more risks. Why might we see this with such clarity at the end of our lives, while actually living it in the present is so difficult for most of us?- Is “following your dream” good advice for everyone, or do you have to be situated in a certain way to pursue this in a meaningful way? Is this a biased concept that only accounts for those who are already privileged?- Being able to look beyond being burned out seems to be a necessary precursor to dreaming bigger. What manageable steps can we take to overcome burnout?- How can trauma play out intergenerationally?- How might we make trauma work for us instead of against us? What separates those whose traumas become maladaptive from those who use them to their benefit?- How can we think about unlearning bad behaviors?