To Rationalize or Not? That is the Question. In the last blog, we introduced the six psychological money traps people use to undermine financial and life success, the RAPIDS, which are: Rationalization, Avoidance, Projection of Blame, Idealization, Denial and Splitting. We suggest you read or re-read the previous blog before reading more today. The following two paragraphs represent only a

Avoidance: The Psychological Money Trap We All Use “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” (Mark Twain) Question: Why is procrastination so costly? Answer: Because… Time is money. Accomplishing priorities increases financial success. The early bird gets the worm. It causes “learned helplessness” and “down time.” All of the above are correct We believe

Why do people behave irrationally with money? Think About The Kinds Of Behaviors Driven By Money: People steal and kill over money—evidence financial crimes and murders People marry or divorce over money—Think, Ana Nicole Smith, the ex-playboy model who married a billionaire who was 63 years older! People worry endlessly about money—The American Psychological Association reported that money is the

Two Keys to Life Success: Prosperity Thinking and… Today, we begin a series of blogs that emphasizes a different and often overlooked area of psychology of money: communication. What do we mean when we say Prosperity Thinking? Prosperity Thinking is when you align your beliefs, expectations, feelings and goals with realistic levels of abundance, optimism and confidence. It includes much

A Rich and Full Description of Empathy Of all the blogs we have written, this one requires more time to take in and understand. It is very difficult to communicate a rich and full description of empathy in just words since empathy is a complex and profound experience. However, we will give it a try. One famous literary quote comes

He is Feeling… What is This Man Feeling? When we began doing empathy training in 1974, many people didn’t quite know the meaning of empathy. We view it to be: experiencing another person’s inner world, understanding it and mirroring back its essence in a way the person feels “seen” or “heard.” Scientific studies on empathy reveal nonverbal communication is more

Maximize Your Verbal Impact! Want to Maximize the Impact of Your Words? Although nonverbal empathy usually communicates more powerfully than verbal empathy, the words a listener mirrors back to the speaker are still vitally important. Here are eight key guidelines for being empathic when you listen to a speaker: Maintain the focus on the speaker (necessary) As soon as you

Navigating the Communication Highway There are three basic ways to evaluate a listener’s response for its empahic accuracy: Subtractive (-) responses – What you say is inaccurate. It takes away from what speaker says. The speaker slows down, has to explain what she means, feels interrupted or loses train of thought. Speaker has to expend more effort to communicate and

Money and the Gender Gap By now, you know me as President of Psychology of Money Consultants and as a clinical psychologist and money and life coach. But something you probably don’t know about me is that as a UCLA student, I was a sportswriter who wrote a column on handicapping horse races for the Daily Bruin. I mention this