I had a few long car rides today and wanted to share a few Hidden Brain podcast episodes that you might find useful:

• Misbehaving (24 minutes): Interview with behavioral economist Richard Thaler of “Nudge” fame. Discusses how traditional economics misses the boat when it comes to the foibles of human behavior (e.g., lack of self-control). Discusses research findings that explain why cabs aren’t available on a rainy day, why we use money differently depending on its source, how self-control is real work (including the marshmallow experiment) and importance of “hot” and “cold” states when it comes to decision-making.

• Decide Already (24 minutes): Harvard researcher Dan Gilbert explains how our imaginations are limiting factors in helping us predict our emotional state in the future. Gilbert describes various research studies, including the surprising relationship between freedom and happiness (think “paradox of choice”), how we underestimate how different we will be in the future and why we trust our judgment more than we should. Go to 14:20 into the podcast to hear him discuss the best way to help people make better predictions about their future self. It’s given me an idea about an activity to get “immediate gratification” teens to think about saving for retirement.  What Gilbert describes is similar to the storytelling that NGPF podcast guest Nancy Labricciosa uses in her classroom to focus young minds on saving for the future.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.