Your personal experiences with money make up maybe 0.00000001% of what's happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works. Financial decisions often seem irrational to others, but they make perfect sense to the person making them.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Luck and risk are siblings. They are both the reality that every outcome in life is guided by forces other than individual effort.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
When judging others, attributing success to luck makes you look jealous and mean, even if we know it exists. And when judging yourself, attributing success to luck can be too demoralizing to accept.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
To make money they didn’t have and didn't need, they risked what they did have and did need. And that’s foolish. It is just plain foolish. If you risk something that is important to you for something that is unimportant to you, it just does not make any sense.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
You can be optimistic that the long-term growth trajectory is up and to the right, but equally sure that the road between now and then is filled with landmines, and always will be.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The man who can do the average thing when all those around him are going crazy.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
You're not a spreadsheet. You're a person. A screwed up, emotional person.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
It may be rational to want a fever if you have an infection. But it’s not reasonable.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
That philosophy—aiming to be reasonable instead of rational—is one more people should consider when making decisions with their money.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The researchers argued that when using their strategy “the expected retirement wealth is 90% higher compared to life-cycle funds.” It is also 100% less reasonable.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
risk-averse gatekeepers with zero imagination. In other words, bankers.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
save for things you can’t possibly predict or even comprehend—the financial equivalent of field mice.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
the most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Sunk costs—anchoring decisions to past efforts that can't be refunded—are a devil in a world where people change over time.
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Responding to critics who said his actions were wrong and what he should have done was obvious, Immelt told his successor, “Every job looks easy when you're not the one doing it.”
—The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The more you want something to be true, the more likely you are to believe a story that overestimates the odds of it being true.