When it comes to money, everyone makes bad decisions. And it’s not because contributing to a 401(k) requires a PhD in physics. It’s often because our brains are hard-wired to prioritize short-term gains over long-term benefits.
“Traditional economic theory suggests that investors are rational decision-makers, carefully weighing all available information to make choices that result in the best possible outcome,” a Legg Mason report on behavioral finance explains.
Years of behavioral economic research have shown how untrue that is. Here are a few ways your brain trips you up and tips to help you avoid falling into these cognitive traps.
We procrastinate.
One of the most significant psychological factors impeding people from achieving their savings and retirement goals is inertia. There are various ways inertia — sometimes called the status quo bias — manifests itself. It can be as simple as keeping the same cable plan that costs $120 a month even though a competitor cable provider has a similar plan for $100.
Saving in a 401(k) plan is another big one: Studies have found that despite being given the opportunity to enroll in a 401(k), with an employer match, employees tend to be passive. Procrastination sets in; it’s much easier to just imagine doing the right thing in the future. Many more employees say they plan to take action and enroll than actually do.
That’s why more companies have found success with automatic enrollment: In one company that adopted automatic enrollment (when employees first become eligible for the savings plan, they’re automatically enrolled unless they opt out), 401(k) participation rates for new workers increased from 49% to 86%. (But be aware there’s also a downside to automatic enrollment. A 2013 report from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College showed that if you start workers at a low default contribution, they rarely take action to increase their rates over time and may still come up short as they near retirement.)
So how can you overcome your tendency to do nothing? Automate as many aspects of your finances as you can. Set up automatic bill pay for recurring bills. Save in a 401(k) plan if you have one and see if your plan offers an auto-increase feature. Another way to get motivated is to imagine life 20 or 30 years from now. A study by two researchers found that people shown vivid images of their older selves — where they looked 68 or 70 — were more likely to make decisions that favored long-term rewards.
We hate losing.
Loss aversion is the tendency to avoid accepting the reality of losing money. Put simply, you just can’t bear to admit you made a mistake – and it’s something that should be familiar to investors who find themselves holding onto a loser stock.