Small Change: Money Mishaps and How to Avoid Them

Description

Blending humour and behavioural economics, the New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational delves into the truly illogical world of personal finance to help people better understand why they make bad financial decisions, and gives them the knowledge they need to make better ones. Why does paying for things often feel like it causes physical pain? Why does it cost you money to act as your own real estate agent? Why are we comfortable overpaying for something now just because we've overpaid for it before? In Small Change, world renowned economist Dan Ariely answers these intriguing questions and many more as he explains how our irrational behaviour often interferes with our best intentions when it comes to managing our finances. Partnering with financial comedian and writer Jeff Kreisler, Ariely takes us deep inside our minds to expose the hidden motivations that are secretly driving our choices about money. Exploring a wide range of everyday topics - from credit card debt and household budgeting to holiday sales - Ariely and Kreisler demonstrate how our ideas about dollars and cents are often wrong and cost us more than we know. Mixing case studies and anecdotes with tangible advice and lessons, they cut through the unconscious fears and desires driving our worst financial instincts and teach us how to improve our money habits. Fascinating, engaging, funny and essential, Small Change is a sound investment, providing us with the practical tools we need to understand and improve our financial choices, save and spend smarter and ultimately live better. Published in the US as Dollars and Sense

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, and is the founder of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He lives in North Carolina with his family. Jeff Kreisler is an award-winning comedian and writer who writes for Comedy Central's InDecision 2008 and maintains a syndicated business humour column on Jim Cramer's website TheStreet. In addition to writing, he performs his stand-up comedy around the country. He lives in New York, NY.

Engaging and funny, rife with anecdotes and advice, the book defangs a difficult topic while teaching a lot. * Publishers Weekly * A user-friendly and often entertaining treatise on how to be a more discerning, vastly more aware handler of money. * Kirkus Reviews * If you want to know why you always buy a bigger television than you intended, or why you think it's perfectly fine to spend a few dollars on a cup of coffee at Starbucks, or why people feel better after taking a 50-cent aspirin but continue to complain of a throbbing skull when they're told the pill they took just cost one penny, Ariely has the answer. -- Daniel Gross * Newsweek * Ariely raises the bar for everyone. in the increasingly crowded field of popular cognitive science and behavioural economics, he writes with an unusual combination of verve and sagacity. * The Washington Post *