Original image: Enes Kartal Every day we make decisions to live a life of our choosing. But yet, when asked about what our ideal life could look like, it’s often quite different from the one we’re living right now. Our decisions link our current life to the life we’d like. With every decision, we’re either establishing a new boundary, moving a boundary or removing a boundary. Unfortunately, if we spend too much time removing boundaries, we will become increasingly frustrated, resentful, irritable and unhappy with our life.

It’s hard not to become fixated on getting things perfect. It may not be in all areas of our lives, but for almost all of us, we have skills, relationships and responsibilities where we want to show up as perfect. As Dave and Hester Vaughan (yourjourneyforlife.com) often say, “Messy, not perfect!”

This is the heading of a blog by Jason Collins (PhD in economics and evolutionary biology) in which he argues that the extensive list of cognitive biases listed on Wikipedia is what he sees as “the fundamental problem with behavioural economics.” I suspect that many a recent convert to the field of behavioural economics or finance (call it what you will) may be left somewhat perplexed by that view.

This was the title of a podcast I listened to recently and that made mention of a US based financial advice firm that had conducted a survey among its clients early in 2020 (pre-Covid). Respondents were asked two questions:

The website of a Cape Town based divorce lawyer lists money as being among the top 10 reasons for failed marriages. And it would seem that it is not necessarily a lack of financial resources that is to blame but rather spouses' lack of compatibility in this department. 

The press has recently been reporting that government seeks to introduce some form of prescribed asset regime for retirement funds. While details regarding the nature and scope thereof are currently unknown, at the very least it would be reasonable to expect such regulations to impact investment returns adversely. What we have been told so far is that government intends starting discussions with stakeholders around using the nation’s retirement savings pool to help it balance its books.