‘Finance’ is one field where the sheer usage of the term could give jitters to few. Just like how food, cloth and shelter are the basic needs, knowledge of finance and its management are essential to every individual. Do you know what is certain about our life – the fact that it is uncertain! Sounds cliched but a fact is a fact. As the world is embracing pandemic, which resulted in job losses and downward spiraling economy, we also witnessed that the stock market hit rock bottom in March-April 2020 and as I write this post, is trading at all-time highs. Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) best defines present-day world. How do we guard ourselves financially  in the VUCA world so that we can have a peaceful sleep at night? Morgan Housel has the answer in his book “The Psychology of Money”.

Did you just buy something in one of the festival flash sales and repented your decision because soon after the purchase you realised that it wasn’t something that you really needed? Wondering how it happened! You just fell prey to one of the weapons of influence-‘Scarcity’. Dr Robert Cialdini, a professor of Psychology, in his book ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’, lists out six powerful weapons of influence that are employed by people around us including salesmen, teachers, parents, children etc to persuade us and surrender to their requests. 

Have you ever felt like banging your ahead against the wall for any decision you made, going by your intuitive judgment? Have you ever thought why a single failed decision of a successful person tumbles his/her reputation like a pack of cards? Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Laureate has answered them all in his best-selling book “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.