Mind on My Money

How to invest wisely

John Nofsinger is an associate professor of finance at Washington State University and a speaker, writer, and scholar on behavioral finance. See full bio

September 1, 2009

Will You Save More Tomorrow?

If you plan to live a life of comfort in retirement, most of your retirement income will need to come from your savings. Social Security won't provide much and defined benefit retirement plans are becoming extinct. Read More

August 30, 2009

Opt-in and Opt-out Pension Design

The way in which a question is asked has a strong impact on the answer given or decision made. Consider the case of opting-in versus opting-out. To consent to be an organ donor in the U.S., you must sign a paper when getting your driver's license. This is an opt-in decision chosen by only about a quarter of the drivers. Read More

August 29, 2009

Combining Gambling and Saving

This program is designed to help lower income households save more. Low-income families in the United States play lotteries and they believe that they are more likely to become rich from lotteries than from saving. Thus, to encourage more savers and savings, consider a saving's product that has a lottery prize drawing. Read More

August 29, 2009

Designing Choices with Helping Biases

Decades of psychology research illustrates that people often don't know their own preferences for what they want. In other words, you can frame questions in different ways to elicit different responses. Read More

July 3, 2009

The Treasury Bubble

After witnessing the tech stock bubble and the real estate bubble, what is next? It is the US Treasury security market bubble. When will it burst and skyrocket interest rates? Read More

June 13, 2009

The Next Wave of Layoffs: Public Employees

The layoffs in the public sector are about to impact the unemployment figures. July is likely to be a bad month for state and local workers. Read More

June 10, 2009

Inflation or Deflation?

The news is full of economists concerned about either upcoming inflation or the current deflation. So which is right? Read More

May 24, 2009

Tax the Rich

Can the rich really pay for all this government spending. Numbers from the IRS and Congressional Budget Office explore the possibility. Read More

March 27, 2009

Wrong Medicine for this Economic Illness

It is a well researched and well known theory that economic/financial liberalization leads to economic growth. Read More

March 5, 2009

Psychology and Taxes on Capital

President Obama's proposed budget includes an increase in taxes on capital. That won't be very useful in generating tax revenue in the short-run. But it will also make fixing the broken economy even harder. Read More

Books by John Nofsinger, Ph.D.

Psychology of Investing (3rd Edition)

Behavioral Economics Basics

Why do we often think we know what we want, only to be disappointed with our purchases and choices? Behavioral economics studies just how irrational we humans can be.

Go to the Behavioral Economics Basics page for more on Behavioral Economics including:

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Books by John Nofsinger, Ph.D.

Behavioral Economics Basics

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