Real Life
21 Best Online Proofreading Jobs For Beginners
If you have a keen eye for finding spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes, here’s how you can find online proofreading jobs to make some extra money.
The post 21 Best Online Proofreading Jobs For Beginners appeared first on Bible Money Matters and was written by Lorraine Smithills. Copyright © Bible Money Matters – please visit biblemoneymatters.com for more great content.
Pizza Delivery is for Millionaires
My son and I are having a beautiful Saturday night here at home. The sun is setting over the mountains outside my bedroom window and I’ve just finished baking a pizza which I am about to serve up for his dinner. Although our day has been very simple, there has been an underlying magic within […]
50+ of the Best Debt Free Quotes to Motivate You to Finally Dump Your Debt
Sometimes the best motivator is a hug, and sometimes it’s a swift kick in the butt from some cold hard truth! Here are the best debt free quotes to do just that! I love a good underdog story! Seriously, I love it when a person is down on their luck, and they spend all their […]
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The post 50+ of the Best Debt Free Quotes to Motivate You to Finally Dump Your Debt appeared first on Money for the Mamas.
How to Be Confident but Not Arrogant
Confidence is a belief in oneself, the conviction that one has the ability to meet life's challenges and to succeed—and the willingness to act accordingly.
It was a total miscalculation on my part. And I got some serious feedback to prove it.
1. Know what you’re here to do
The conviction that you have the ability to meet a challenge begins with being super clear about what challenge you’re there to meet.
2. Listen like you mean it
Ask probing questions to extract more meaning.
3. Let them see the sausage-making
Confidence is knowing you don’t know everything.
4. Say the bold thing
Arrogance encourages you to say what someone wants to hear; confidence allows you to say what they need to hear.
5 Investing Strategies That Can Harm Your Portfolio
If you’re educating yourself on how to invest your money for the first time, books such as Thinking, Fast and Slow, The Little Book of Behavioral Investing, and Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism may already be on your reading list. But you shouldn't stop there. Many investors are surprised to learn that building wealth isn’t based purely on graphs and facts you can learn from books. In fact, psychology plays a huge role in the process. Cognitive psychology shows that the ways we manage our money has a lot to do with fear, excitement, greed, and personal biases.
We often imagine that investors are always rational and make consistent decisions based on new information. However, statistics show that only 20% of individual investors and 30% of institutional investors act rationally. In real life, investors are closer to behavioral finance, which means that they’re influenced by personal beliefs, impulses, and emotions. Even if you did your homework and researched the best investment strategies, emotional behaviors might prevent you from applying them correctly, so it's important to know some of the types of irrational behaviors that can sabotage you.
Five types of irrational behavior that can sabotage your investment portfolio are:
- Overconfidence
- Loss aversion
- Familiarity bias
- Framing
- Anchoring
1. Overconfidence, or the irrational exuberance trap
Studies have shown that people generally believe they are better than average, even when that’s not the case. After a series of successful investments, it's common for investors to assume they have it all figured out. But in reality, it takes years to become an experienced investor, and even the best investors make mistakes.
After the excitement of the first successful investment, it’s easy to become overconfident in your abilities and forget that chance plays a major role in the financial market. One of the most important lessons in investing is that you can never know too much, so no matter what your financial situation is, manage your portfolio prudently.
2. Loss aversion
The more you invest, the more you realize that loss is inevitable. After all, the higher the risk, the higher the reward. But while many investors accept risk in theory, they aren’t ready to deal with loss. This is called loss aversion, and it can prevent you from making a profit. According to researchers, investors experience the pain of a loss twice as strongly as a success, and they’ll do whatever they can to avoid it. As a result, when they notice that an investment is losing them money, whether that investment is a house, stock, or currency, they hold on to it for as long as possible to avoid the sense of finality of the loss. But that can turn out to be a huge mistake and end up losing you more money in the long run.
There are other, more effective ways to limit losses. For example, if you’re trading Forex, you can try copy trading, where live trading results are openly published online, and you can copy the actions of more experienced traders. Or if you’re trading stocks, you can simply set a stop-loss order. This is designed to limit your loss on a security position and make you sell the stock if it drops below a certain value. Of course, there will always be cases when a stock rebounds after an initial drop, but especially as a new trader, it’s wiser to protect your portfolio proactively.
3. Familiarity bias
Although diversification is a surefire way to minimize the risk of loss, gain more return opportunities, and safeguard your portfolio against the volatility of the market, research shows that investors tend to stick to assets they know and are comfortable with. This is called a familiarity bias, and it can be detrimental to your portfolio.
One study has shown that beginner investors in particular stick to domestic stocks, such as large telecom companies or factories in their area, without realizing that these businesses may be sinking. Or even worse, people invest only in their employer’s stock, and when that employer goes out of business, they lose both their job and their profit.
Diversifying can be a bit uncomfortable at first since it means researching stocks out of your comfort zone, but overcoming your familiarity bias is important if you want to protect your portfolio. Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. Instead, cast a wide net when choosing investments.
4. Framing
The ability to put things into perspective and estimate the impact that events will have in the long run is crucial in trading. However, this ability takes years to develop. When you're new to investing, you’re much more likely to inadvertently practice framing – a cognitive error where you have a narrow-minded approach and evaluate investments in isolation rather than as a cohesive whole.
According to Harry Markowitz’s modern portfolio theory, the assets in your portfolio shouldn’t stand alone. Instead, you should consider how they fit into your general portfolio and, when necessary, readjust the portfolio to reflect the new reality of the market. Cryptocurrency is a perfect example of framing. People who bought Bitcoin in its early days and held onto it are probably very happy, but if they didn’t invest in anything else in the meantime, their portfolio consists entirely of crypto now, and that’s a risky move.
5. Anchoring, or the confirmation trap
The confirmation trap, also known as anchoring or “the house money effect,” occurs when an investor relies relentlessly on a single investment, simply because it worked out well once. Another example of anchoring is when someone takes information from only one source because they were right the first time. But as any experienced investor will tell you, one positive experience is not a guarantee of future success. While learning from the past can sometimes help you understand future numbers, it can also prevent you from making fresh choices based on more relevant insights. To prevent anchoring from limiting your options, always try to view an investment opportunity from different perspectives, stay open-minded, and talk to several consultants before making a decision.
What Home Offices Would Look Like If They Were Designed by David Lynch, Wes Anderson, and Other Iconic Movie Directors
It goes without saying that 2020 was the year when everyone embraced working from home — whether they liked it or not. When this whole mess started in the spring of 2020, a lot of people thought their new remote-work setup was a temporary thing, so they didnât think too much of it. Fast forward […] More
The post What Home Offices Would Look Like If They Were Designed by David Lynch, Wes Anderson, and Other Iconic Movie Directors appeared first on Fancy Pants Homes.
How to Add Your Business to Yelp and Optimize Your Listing
Yelp is one of the most popular local business information websites in the U.S. As a small-business owner, should you invest the time and effort into maintaining a Yelp listing? Learn the pros and cons of Yelp, how to optimize your listing, and how to use the site to reach more customers.
How to Add Your Business to Yelp and Optimize Your Listing is a post from Money Crashers.
10 Hideous Cabin Decor Fails You Won’t Be Able To Erase From Your Memory
We love a cozy cabin as much as anyone, but some people take the mountain theme a bit (OK, a lot) too far. Here’s the worst of the worst of woodsy decor.
The post 10 Hideous Cabin Decor Fails You Won’t Be Able To Erase From Your Memory appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
By the numbers: My spending for March 2019
March was a mixed month in my financial world. I ended March with a slightly higher net worth (up 0.6%) but my spending was the highest it’s been this year: $5989.10. Yet, that spending was mostly mindful. I wasn’t frittering away money on silly things.
If I wasn’t buying dumb stuff, then where did my money go? A few worthwhile places:
- I spent $653.31 on the yard and garden. Specifically, Kim and I tore out a big cedar tree in the corner of the yard, then converted that space to a small orchard. I use the word “orchard” loosely here. We planted three fruit trees, four blueberries, four grape vines, and a bunch of strawberries. I hope to write about this more in the near future.
- I spent $625.72 on health and fitness. In the middle of the month, I had quite a scare. Out of nowhere, I had chest pains, so I visited the local hospital ER. My co-pays and prescriptions are reflected in March’s spending — and there’s more to come. (We’re about to have a l-o-n-g article on the $6800 hospital bill I received in the mail yesterday. That’ll happen in April or May.) Meanwhile, Kim had knee surgery at the end of the month. I paid for some of her stuff out of my pocket.
- I spent $579.36 on gifts in March, which is very very unusual.
- I paid the $450 annual fee on my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. (Yes, I know this seems like a lot. But remember the card comes with a $300 travel credit, which means my effective annual fee is $150. I believe I receive $150 in value from the card’s other benefits.)
I don’t consider any of that spending frivolous although I recognize that some of it isn’t necessary. (Do we need an orchard? Do I need to give gifts?)