Link Roundup #70: 10 Things to Know This Week
Accelerate your personal finance knowledge with this regular feature on Ringgit Oh Ringgit – the Link Roundup! I promise you’ll find these 10 links informational 🙂
1. ‘I thought buying things would make me feel better. It didn’t’: The rise of emotional spending – The Guardian
The pandemic is naturally a stressful event for many people. Thus, we turn to activities that we think will make us feel better, including online shopping. Why wouldn’t we? That’s what the ads claim. They imply, with their beautiful, happy models and cheerful copywriting, that they will make life better for us.
But often, life didn’t get better. And even knowing this, I still fall to the lure of online shopping way more time than I care to admit. I tell myself that its ok, I can afford it, as long as I don’t use the evil buy now, pay later plans, I’m good.
Untimately, I am freaked out by how well the advertisers know how to apply behaviorial science and psychological tricks to get me to buy their products and services. And you should too.
2. New study finds money isn’t necessary to be happy but this is – The Ladders
..researchers surveyed the residents of two societies in which money plays a minimal role in everyday life: Bangladesh and the Solomon Islands. Not only did most people in these communities report high levels of happiness and contentment, but those living in specific areas with the lowest levels of monetization showed the highest happiness levels. Conversely, locals living in the most urbanized, money-centric regions of the two societies reported lower happiness levels.
…(the researchers found that) money is not necessary for happiness. However, stability is. In the West, money essentially equals stability. An American, German, or Italian isn’t going to be able to rest their head on the pillow each night and feel safe and secure in knowing they can provide for themselves and their loved ones without money. In these studied regions, however, money isn’t needed to lead a secure life – so residents don’t need money to be happy.
Great article, great food for thought. So it turns out the only reason why we think money is necessary to happiness is because we can’t experience stability and security without it, our consumerism culture demands payment for simply living. But in other countries/cultures, money isn’t as important because people can still provide for their loved ones.
3. Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome – Harvard Business Review
This article blew my mind. All my life I’ve been told to only work on my own confidence issues, all the imposter feelings are just in my head… But no, the data says otherwise – bias exists, the reason why we feel unwelcomed is because we are.
We don’t even get the same helpful guidance that men get.
4. These are the countries where cryptocurrency use is most common – World Economic Forum
Crypto is more popular in countries where remittance aka money transfer services are expensive. Good to keep this in mind, as in Malaysia we mostly dabble in crypto for its potential gainz.
5. Psychologists Say There Are Only 5 Kinds of People in the World. Which One Are You? – Inc
Check out one paragraph in the article, on personality type and investing behaviour:
Seek a financial investor who is high in agreeableness. Studies show agreeable investors are least likely to lose money from risky trading. Avoid an investor high in openness–that personality is associated with overconfidence that can lead an investor to take excessive risks.
That part is scary accurate for me, because I know I score very high on openness (I took the Financial Behaviour Test) and yes my risk tolerance is pretty high.
6. Wedding Planning: Critical Advice, Common Mistakes, And Taking On Debt – Ringgit and Sense
You know the classic wedding budget justification – it’s ok to spend because you can recover it back via money gifts? Yeah that strategy is risky – ask the thousands of newlyweds who had their fully-paid for wedding receptions cancelled due to Covid-19.
Click here to listen to the full episode on Spotify!
7. Why Is Customer Service So Bad? Because It’s Profitable. – Harvard Business Review
Huh! Bad customer service = harder for you to terminate a bad service = you’re more likely to remain out of desperation!
8. Director Mom Rewrites Resume Using Only Skills Gained From Motherhood—And We’d Hire Her
9. Mais launches e-Faraid to facilitate estate management for Muslims – Malay Mail
You can check the website at https://efaraid.mais.gov.my/EFARAID/faraidCalc.do
It’s good that they remind Muslims to settle debt, wife’s allocation under harta sepencarian (ask the lawyer, but as I understand it, wife can claim half of late husband’s properties if they gained said properties during the course of the marriage), wasiat etc BEFORE faraid system takes effect.
Originally tweeted by Suraya ringgitohringgit.com (@surayaror) on February 19, 2021.
10. MrMoneyTVChannel on TikTok
Mr Money Tv has always provided good financial education on various social media platform. I notice that recently they have expanded the team to cover more ground and channels, including TikTok.
This particular one is gold! Reading candlestick charts is pretty much trading 101.
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That’s it for this round, catch you next time! Want to submit a link you thought was great? Reach out to me on FB or Twitter.
To read past link roundups, please click here.