السبت، 8 ديسمبر 2018
Defining Goals for the Coming Year (and Reflecting on the Past Year)
In the past, I wrote a post in December each year evaluating the successes and failures of the previous year and establishing some goals for the coming year. Last year, I didn’t really do this, as I instead focused on more practical helpful guides, such as a review of goal-oriented planners and guides on low cost strategies for achieving common annual goals and resolutions, such as getting fit or building new friendships or saving money or reading more. Early this year, a few long time readers wrote in and asked about my goals for this year and whether I was going to share them, but I decided instead to wait until the end of the year, review my goals for the past year and how I did, look ahead at my goals for the coming year, and talk about some tools I use to help me with managing goals.
So, let’s get started with the most obvious question of all: why have annual goals?
Why I Use Annual Goals
Each year, I define a few goals for myself to ideally achieve in the coming year – usually, I define five goals.
I don’t do it because I believe there’s something magical about a year. I do it simply because a year is a reasonable timeline for reviewing and adjusting goals and themes.
For me, the most powerful unit of time for a big goal is a day, not a year. I center almost everything I do around one key question.
What can I do today to move forward on the big things in my life?
I don’t really want to wind up in old age full of regrets. I don’t want to leave things undone, and I don’t want to undermine my body and my mind if possible.
For me, the natural “meeting point” between “my life” and “today” is about a year, and thus it’s a natural place to review and rethink things. I spend some time each December rethinking what it is I want to be doing with my life and what exactly I need to do over the coming year to put myself on that path.
For me, the most important part of that is establishing good habits and improving old ones. When I set a goal for a year, it’s mostly oriented toward trying to improve my everyday behavior so that the big goal becomes inevitable.
I do that by breaking down a given year into quarters, the quarters into months, the months into weeks, and the weeks into individual days. At the end of each of those periods (and the start of the next), I review how things are going and set things for the next period.
At the end of a day, I look back over the day and ask myself whether or not I did my best in each of the areas I’m working on to improve myself, an idea taken straight from Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith. I then set up my to-do list for the next day and, in the morning, I review it and the tings I want to be working on. This is the nuts and bolts of building better habits.
At the end of a week, I mostly try to make sure there aren’t any big things left undone and think a little bit about how things are going.
At the end of a month, I think about whether or not I’m making meaningful progress toward what I want to do this year and I pick out a few new specific things to work on for the next month that usually are intended to nudge me toward my goal. (I call these “thirty day challenges,” as a month is a good period of time to figure out if something’s going to work well for me.)
At the end of a quarter, I tend to rework things, trying to eliminate things that aren’t really clicking and adding new things with a strong eye toward my annual goals.
In other words, it’s all about cycles and review, and the period of a year is a very useful one for setting big goals and themes.
Looking Back at My Goals This Year
I had three (or five, depending on your perspective) major goals that I wanted to work on for the past year.
The first was to strengthen my relationship with my kids as they approach their teen years. My oldest child is now a teenager and my middle child is a tween. I wanted to really focus on how to refactor my parenting strategies with respect for how my children were growing and changing.
I really broke this down into three goals, one for each child, so this was really three of my five goals/points of focus for the coming year. I wanted to establish a more mature relationship with each of my children individually that centered around helping them to prepare the runway into independent adulthood above all else. How could I do that most effectively for each child, given that they have very different personalities and values?
I think this goal was pretty successful. I believe I have a pretty strong rapport with each of my children – yes, even my teenager. I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about how to parent teenagers with a strong focus on preparing them for independent life. I do not want to be a “helicopter parent,” but I do want my children to feel always able to come to me for advice without threat of punishment for their mistakes, and I think we’re on a good track for that.
The second (or fourth, depending on how you count) was to take on a sequential series of home renovation projects with an eye toward doing them inexpensively and maximizing the usefulness and value of our home. This is a chain of projects that started with a small addition and is going to end up with a better office for me and a bedroom for my youngest child (who currently shares with his older brother).
This is about halfway done. The big task – the addition – is basically finished and will be completely done within a week. It just needs a few final things done to it. We handled many elements ourselves but hired a contractor to help with parts that we felt were beyond our abilities. The renovations of other rooms are all in progress and all well within our skill level. I’m estimating everything will be finished by February.
The final goal I had for the year was to achieve the rank of brown belt at my taekwondo school. I joined taekwondo two years ago because I wanted a more organized fitness program that I could do with my family – all of us participate in it. I’ve deeply enjoyed it so far. Although my progress was a little slower than anticipated, I’m only one level shy of my goal and should achieve my goal in February. This goal is definitely informing one of my 2019 goals.
All of these goals were constantly reviewed as the year went along, and my tactics definitely changed as the year went along. I took what was working and emphasized it and gave careful thought to what wasn’t working and tried to come up with fixes. I feel like my life is in a much better place because of this.
So, what are my goals for the coming year? Let’s start off first with what I consider the theme of the coming year.
This Year’s Theme
One of my favorite podcasts is Cortex, which is a podcast focused on reflection on how the digital tools we use every day impact our lives in ways both obvious and non-obvious. Each year, the two hosts discuss a “theme” that’s going to guide their life over the next year, usually summed up in a single word. It’s a really good unifying practice.
For me, the theme for the coming year is “character” (if you’re curious, the focus last year was “family”). I want to improve my personal character in a number of ways, and all of my major goals tie into that to a degree.
Goal #1 – Improve My Eating Habits
You might think of this as a weight loss goal, but it’s actually more oriented toward improving my normal habits regarding eating. I eat healthy foods – I just eat too much of them and I need to figure out better patterns for my own long term health.
So, let’s back this up a little bit. I’ve been a vegetarian for ten years. It’s a simple dietary approach that takes care of a couple of nagging digestive issues – my digestive and endocrine system simply doesn’t handle meat very well and it’s not particularly heart healthy, either.
The problem with being a vegetarian is that fruits and vegetables, for the most part, are low calorie foods, but they’re also not incredibly filling. I often find myself hungry again pretty quickly after eating.
Two years ago, I tried several approaches to fixing this as my annual goal and had some really nice success, but I found that some of the approaches weren’t really sustainable and in the past year I’ve gained a portion of that weight back. Again, it’s not because I eat unhealthy foods so much as I eat larger portions than I should.
This year, I’m going back to what worked so well two years ago and trying to do it in a way that will establish habits I can easily stick with. Again, two years ago, I found a really nice balance, but the challenge was that it fell apart when other aspects of my life became difficult. I want to really work on taking what worked so well back then and make it more sustainable, a permanent part of my life.
(What does this have to do with character? I basically wish to practice temperance and self-control with food.)
Goal #2 – Get Into “Black Belt” Shape
As I noted earlier, I’m approaching a brown belt in taekwondo after two years and a lot of training. While I’m more fit than I have been in years, the climb to actually achieving a black belt, which I’m hoping to achieve in 2020 or early 2021, requires a significantly higher level of fitness than I currently have. The things that were difficult when I first joined have now become easier, but now I’m starting to do things that are very difficult now (and would have been impossible when I started).
Mostly, I need to work on cardio – not getting winded during long kicking drills and sparring sessions – and core strength, especially balance and stretching. I need to be able to consistently kick really high and hold it there while balancing on one foot, and I need to be able to do it with speed and precision and force. I can do easier kicks and such, but harder ones – particularly the more difficult ones I’m now expected to do – are a real challenge.
I have a mentor helping me figure all of this out and we’ve worked out some things I can do at home. My goal is to make these things into a routine habit so that they’re just a normal part of my morning.
Beyond that, there’s also a need to focus on the tenets of taekwondo – courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit. My school puts a strong emphasis on those traits, which I’ll touch on again in a bit. I want to build those traits in myself.
Again, a big part of why I’m doing this is for personal health and for the reduction of long term health care costs. I want to live a long time and enjoy a high quality of life while doing so.
Goal #3 – Be a Better / More Virtuous Person
Over the last few years, I’ve spent a great deal of time studying the general question of what the purpose of life is and what is the best way to live this life we have. I was really kickstarted down this path by reading Emrys Westacott’s wonderful book The Wisdom of Frugality, which I reviewed in depth over the summer, along with a few books on stoicism recommended by a good friend.
One of the key elements that kept coming up in terms of various perspectives on “the good life” is the idea of being a virtuous person and living your day to day life as close as possible to your idea of what a good person is. As with everyone, the gap between who I actually am and my vision of an ideal person I wish that society was filled with is large at times. In the end, the only person in society that I can really control is me, so if I want society to be filled with virtuous people and I want to really sample the “good life,” I need to start with myself and my own virtues.
This notion was amplified around a year ago, when I read a biography of Benjamin Franklin and was taken by his practice of using “virtue cards” to focus himself on improving one aspect of his character each week on a rotating basis.
I dabbled with Franklin’s system back in the day, but didn’t really incorporate it into my daily life. That’s essentially the practice I’m going to dive into in 2019 – incorporating that system into daily life, with a somewhat modified list of virtues. As noted above, five of them are essentially borrowed straight from taekwondo.
The goal here is to simply be a better person, for myself, as an example for my family, and as a better citizen. I’m not saying I’m a bad person, but like virtually everyone on earth, I could be a better one in terms of character.
In practice, this comes down to a daily routine of reflecting on a list of thirteen virtues and striving to really nail one of them each week. Five of them are from goal #2, another is from goal #1, and the rest are basically borrowed straight from Ben Franklin’s list.
Goal #4 – Improve My Meditation and Reflection Practices
One practice I’ve done off and on over the past few years has been a daily meditation, where I basically just take fifteen minutes or so and try to clear my mind of that inner voice that seems to be constantly running by focusing on my breathing or some other focus point. It’s one of those things where I find a mild benefit from doing it once, but it seems to grow stronger and stronger as I chain together days of doing it. When I break that chain, the benefits persist for a while but eventually that voice gets pretty noisy and distracting again.
To an extent, the same is true for things like journaling and reading challenging books, but in different ways. I find that there’s a lot more benefit if I do those things every day and while I do them most days, I tend to nudge them aside on crazier days.
What I intend to do in the coming year is just raise the priority of these three things, making them into extremely important daily practices, each for different reasons.
The meditation daily practice is to help my focus and keep the constant internal monologue under control. When I do this consistently, I tend to be much more productive with writing and end up with more free time, but it takes a period of consistency to build it up.
The journaling daily practice is intended to help me work through the ins and outs of knotty problems in my life and thoughts I’m having. When I do this consistently, I tend to feel like I have a better grasp on my life as a whole and make better meaningful choices, but it takes a period of consistency to build it up.
The reading daily practice is something I already do, but I’m biting off a number of really challenging books in the coming year that are really going to require some focus and deep thinking, so it runs parallel with the other practices.
These are all extremely low cost routines that I think will serve as support for the other goals I have for the coming year.
Goal #5 – Prepare for a Three Month Sabbatical a Year from Now
Early in the following year, I want to take a three month “sabbatical” from writing for The Simple Dollar to focus on some other professional projects that I’ve allowed to go dormant while writing for The Simple Dollar devoured most of my professional focus.
This doesn’t mean my writing will disappear from the site. Rather, my goal is to have three months of articles done in advance before I start the sabbatical and they’ll just appear automatically while I’m doing other things.
During that sabbatical, I intend to still regularly brainstorm and briefly outline article ideas just to get them out of my head, but I’ll save all of those for when I return after about twelve weeks (I intend for the sabbatical to be twelve weeks long, with a single week at the end to get back in the groove of writing for The Simple Dollar as a regular routine).
My big goal in the coming year is to simply prepare in advance for this, something I’ve already started doing. This comes with trying a different approach to writing current articles for The Simple Dollar that I think will be somewhat more efficient than the practices I’ve been using in the past.
So, this mostly amounts to a significant change in my daily writing practices that I think will result in the ability to start putting aside articles for this planned sabbatical.
My Process for Approaching These Goals in Detail
So, as you’ve seen, I’ve already thought about these goals down to the daily level and even to the point of establishing normal life habits, which I think is the right approach for every big goal in life. If you can improve your normal routines and habits, that will put your whole life on an improved trajectory.
I’m using a number of approaches at once to make this happen, things I’ve been using in various ways over the last couple of years.
One, I’m relying very heavily on the daily process described in the book Triggers to establish better habits. I’m actually using this for most of my goals to some extent, but particularly my goal of better eating habits and my virtue-related goals. I’m using a simple graph paper notebook for this and doing it in month-long chunks, where I come up with my list of things I want to work on for the month during a monthly review and then review that list each morning (and a few times a day) and score myself on each one each evening, as described in that link.
Two, I’m using a print version of the Momentum Planner to help me organize the activities that aren’t behaviorally oriented, the discrete tasks I need to do. I mentioned last year during my comparison of goal-oriented planners that the Momentum Planner was my favorite one, but I decided this year to move to the print version rather than the PDF version. This planner basically operates in the same way that I do, in that it’s all about breaking down annual goals and plans down to quarterly chunks, then those quarterly chunks into monthly chunks, then those monthly chunks into weekly ones, and the weekly ones into daily ones. In other words, it perfectly lines up with how I review things. Speaking of reviews…
Three, I have a weekly review that’s really, really, really important for keeping things going. I do this really early on Sunday morning virtually every week (or at another time on Saturday or Sunday if early Sunday morning doesn’t work). Basically, I just go through the last week. Did I take care of all of my tasks that I wanted to do? Have I been making progress on the things I want to improve about myself? What’s coming up in the week to come? What big decisions am I going to have to make? I usually do this as a journal entry that focuses on the “week that was and the week to come.” Once a month, I incorporate some month-long things into this. Once a quarter, I look more discerningly at the things that I’m tracking and focusing on and ask whether or not they continue to be meaningful approaches to my current goals. Once a year… well, this article kind of sums that up.
This Will Work For Your Goals, Too
Although this basic system of goals is one that’s been refined gradually over the last ten or fifteen years or so (and some elements for even longer than that), I can tell you that these elements truly work for me. Almost everything of significance I’ve accomplished in my life has been due to good practices with goal setting, breaking down those goals into very small pieces, and taking action on those pieces.
A lot of the specific elements in this article are just specifics of how I make things work for me, but that overall pattern will work for you as long as you consistently stick with it. Take whatever your big goals for the coming year (or the next few years) are, keep breaking it down until it’s all about daily tasks and behavioral habits, and focus on nothing but those things except when you occasionally review and see whether or not you’re moving in the direction you want.
Nothing else matters more than the choice you’re making in the moment. If you can get yourself to where you’re consistently making the “good” choice, your entire life is going to be moving in a new and likely better direction. This applies to everything in life, but it applies particularly well to things like spending habits and matters of personal discipline.
Goals are all about giving those choices in the moment a bigger framework and direction, nothing more. What matters most is that you have ways to keep your focus on the day to day and momentary decisions and not get lost in a big goal.
Good luck!
The post Defining Goals for the Coming Year (and Reflecting on the Past Year) appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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Who Has the Best Deals on Holiday Lights: Target, Home Depot, or Sam’s Club?
Holiday shopping wisdom says you should wait until after Christmas to buy Christmas lights, which is 100 percent true if your sole focus is on price. However, as my wife and I discover every year, that’s a great way to limit your selection to nearly nothing.
Christmas lights are about the only reason I’ll venture out to stores on Black Friday or Thanksgiving weekend. My wife and I are staunch defenders of our large outdoor C9 lights and our one indoor tree’s C7s. The majority of our Christmas tree lights are smaller, much more efficient lights, and my father in law has attempted to sway us toward LED lights for the rest. Yet as much as I love the idea of reducing the seasonal electric bill and not searing my hand while replacing a flickering C9, LED technology still hasn’t quite produced a faithful replica of our current bulbs.
Yes, we know they use more energy. But we’re the ones paying that cost, replacing the bulbs and getting up on ladders to hang them, and it’s a modest burden to bear given how efficiently the rest of the house runs this time of year.
As it turns out, there are a lot of other people similarly attached to that big-bulb aesthetic, and they tend to shop at the same places we do. We’ve gone to our local Fred Meyer, a Kroger-owned Pacific Northwest superstore chain, on the day after Christmas and found replacement bulbs picked down to reds and greens. That’s fine when you only have to replace those colors, but really annoying when you start out with a multicolor strand that slowly turns into a red and green one with only sporadic traces of orange, pink, blue, and violet.
We also happen to live in a state that produced 5.2 million Christmas trees in 2016, the most of any state in the nation and nearly 2 million more than second-place North Carolina (3.5 million). More than 42,000 acres of Christmas trees are grown around us and, while 92 percent are exported to other states (California gets nearly half), the 8 percent that stay here bring visitors from all over the region to saw down trees, lash them to their cars, and pick up lights on the way home. By Christmas Eve, our stores are fairly picked over for Christmas lights even without a discount.
As with everything from holiday travel to holiday accommodations, buying Christmas lights during the holiday season isn’t about saving money: It’s about getting the best variety while it’s available, and finding the best bad deal on the table. While Fred Meyer likely isn’t in your backyard, I’ve picked three chains – Sam’s Club, Target, and Home Depot – that have a bit of a broader reach and went shopping for Christmas lights. Here’s what I came back with.
300-Light White LED Icicle Lights
- Sam’s Club: Member’s Mark, $19.96
- Home Depot: Home Accents Holiday, $39.98
- Target: Wondershop, $7.99 for 70 ($39.95 for 350)
This is one of the more frustrating aspects of shopping for Christmas lights: Proprietary packaging and inconsistent comparisons. At each spot, you can get 300 LED icicle lights, but Target metes them out in smaller strands, while Sam’s Club strings them together more tightly than competitors. The Sam’s Club strand is 18 feet long, with Home Depot’s stretching 26.5 feet and each of Target’s going 10 feet, for 54 feet in total. Sam’s Club easily has the best value per bulb (7 cents per bulb), but if you’re looking for coverage, Target’s 74 cents per foot is hard to beat.
200-Light LED Mini Lights
- Sam’s Club: Member’s Mark, $17.86
- Home Depot: Home Accents Holiday, $17.48
- Target: Wondershop, $21.99
Home Depot clearly wins on per-light cost, but coverage depends on what you’re looking for. Home Depot’s strands stretch nearly 70 feet, which puts some space between those lights. Sam’s Club comes a bit closer at 52 feet. Meanwhile, Target covers just 47 feet at its premium price.
LED C9 Lights
- Sam’s Club: Member’s Mark, 50 for $14.86
- Home Depot: Home Accents Holiday, 35 for $14.98
- Target: Wondershop, 50 for $13.98
While Sam’s Club packs 50 lights into 21 feet, Home Depot puts just 35 into 35 feet – making this yet another aesthetic choice. Target not only comes in cheaper, but splits the difference by stringing 50 lights over 34 feet.
LED Projection Lights
- Sam’s Club: Ion Holiday Party Plus, $29.91 on sale, reg. $49.98
- Home Depot: LightShow Projection Star Spinner, $39.98
- Target: Philips Christmas, $24.50 on sale, reg. $35.00
Occasionally, you’ll catch a deal. Both the Target and Sam’s Club models benefit from in-season sales. Otherwise, these projectors — which basically shower dots of light onto the side of your house to emulate Christmas lights — would be a lot closer to the same price.
LED Tree-Topper Star
Sam’s Club and Home Depot are selling the same 12-inch take on the multipointed Star of Bethlehem, so at least they’re consistent. Target’s most modestly-priced LED star is in the same price range, but is an 11-inch, five-pointed gold star with built-in LED lighting. At the very least, it’s distinguished itself from the others.
Remote-Controlled LED Candles, Set of Three
All have flickering LED bulbs, all have remote controls that control all three candles, and all will prevent you from keeping yourself awake at night wondering if that candle in the living room is still burning. However, in one of the few direct comparisons on the list, the order of value is clear.
Light-Up Lawn Reindeer
- Sam’s Club: National Tree Co. (60″ tall, 210 LEDs), $151.77
- Home Depot: Home Accents Holiday (63″ tall, 160 LEDs), $89.98
- Target: Philips (44″ tall, 120 LED), $68.00 on sale, reg. $85.00
When it comes to more elaborate decorations, Home Depot begins to pull away from the competition with a larger (and generally cheaper) selection of large outdoor holiday decor, with everything from inflatable Santas to light-up reindeer like this one if you’re compelled to go all out.
The Verdict
While that doesn’t cover every type of Christmas light you can buy, the comparisons listed above give you an idea of just how tight pricing can be at this time of year. If you’re looking to create a holiday theme park in your front yard, Home Depot might be your best bet, with a wider selection of large, outdoor Christmas decorations. Otherwise, look for weekly deals as the holiday season progresses — but don’t wait too long if there’s something out there you actually love.
Related Reading:
- An Overlooked Credit Card Perk That Could Save You Money This Holiday Season
- 15 Frugal Holiday Gift Ideas
- Not Just Wrapping Paper: How Post-Holiday Clearances Can Slash Your Budget All Year Long
The post Who Has the Best Deals on Holiday Lights: Target, Home Depot, or Sam’s Club? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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الجمعة، 7 ديسمبر 2018
Pocono airport receives grant
Source Business - poconorecord.com https://ift.tt/2rq9JUo
How to Drive Retail Sales with Beacon Technology
With online shopping growing in popularity, retailers need to come up with new ways to keep their customers engaged to drive sales.
Retail stores are no longer just competing with other neighboring shops. Consumers can shop for virtually anything from the comfort of their own homes or even on the go from ecommerce shops.
If your retail business can’t adapt to new technology and the latest trends, you’ll struggle for survival in the coming years.
Beacon technology is definitely something your business should consider using. While the term may sound futuristic and complex, it’s actually quite simple.
You’ll be using beacons to track your customers, similarly to GPS. Although beacons and GPS are often confused and associated with each other, they’re not the same.
GPS technology needs three major components to work:
- satellites
- ground stations
- receivers
Receivers, such as a cell phone or a car, send signals to satellites that calculate the distance between each one. As a result, these calculations can pinpoint exactly where the receiver is located.
Beacons are far less complex.
These devices are small and not very expensive. They run on battery power.
Instead of broadcasting their locations to multiple satellites, beacons simply share their locations with devices capable of receiving their identities.
It’s easy to install beacons throughout your retail store locations. Implementing this technology in your retail shops will help you increase sales by personalizing the customer experience.
If you have never used beacon technology before, this is the perfect guide for you. I’ll show you how to leverage this technology to drive retail sales.
You’ll even learn how beacons can help generate revenue for ecommerce businesses without physical locations.
Encourage customers to download your mobile app
The first thing you need to do is get people to download your mobile application.
If your retail store doesn’t have an app, you’ll have to put your beacon technology strategy on hold until the app is built. Your app is a great way to increase sales by encouraging mobile spending.
I’ve spoken to many business owners who are hesitant to launch apps for their retail stores. They don’t think it’s necessary because their clientele would rather shop in person than online.
Sure, some people would rather see, touch, feel, and try on items in person as opposed to online, but the reality is they are still using mobile devices during the process.
In fact, 80% of people have used their mobile devices inside of physical stores to improve their shopping experiences.
This is how consumers are using their devices:
You need to make sure your mobile app has all of these functions.
If you think your app needs improvement, you should read my guide on the top successful features of a mobile commerce app.
People won’t want to download your app unless it improves their shopping experience. But if your app does all of the things on the list above, it will be easier for you to get more downloads.
But you can’t just assume your customers will download the app simply because it’s available.
You need to promote it on all your distribution channels.
Share a link to the app store on your website. Talk about it on social media. Include a download link in your email campaigns.
Give your customers an incentive to download it, such as a coupon or discount off their next purchases.
Once the app is installed on their mobile devices, you’ll be able to use beacons to drive sales.
Monitor customer movement in your stores
If you have beacons set up throughout your retail store, you can track the way users shop.
It’s simple. When a customer who has your app walks past a beacon, the beacon transmits a signal.
Here’s a visual representation of the way this works:
As you can see, the example above ends with the customer receiving a targeted, personalized message.
But you need to make sure there are specific parameters set up before a message gets sent. Here’s what I mean.
Let’s say your retail store sells clothing.
A male customer who has your mobile app on his smartphone comes in to buy a new pair of jeans. But in order to get to the men’s jeans section, he needs to walk past the baby clothes and footwear.
If you have beacons installed in those locations of the store that automatically trigger a message about those departments, it’s ineffective. In fact, this strategy will probably backfire.
We know that 52% of app users find push notifications annoying and distracting.
Further, 46% of people will disable push notifications if they receive more than two from the same app in one week. And 32% of users will stop using an app altogether if they get six or more notifications a week.
Make sure your message is relevant and timely, which I’ll discuss in greater detail shortly.
You can send the user a message if they are spending long periods of time near a certain beacon.
For instance, if that shopper in the above example is spending 15 minutes in the men’s jeans section, it’s a safe assumption they’re shopping for that product.
Improve in-store navigation
If you have a small boutique retail shop, your customers may not need much help getting around your store. The layout is probably pretty self-explanatory.
But that’s not the case for all retail locations.
Sometimes, it feels you can get lost inside these big shops. Customers spend more time trying to find their way around than they do shopping.
What’s your current system for helping customers navigate through the store?
Maybe you have a store map at the entrance or signs above each aisle.
But that doesn’t help someone who is in aisle 14 and the product they’re looking for is in aisle 26. They aren’t going to walk back to the entrance to read the map, and they certainly can’t read the signs that far away.
Traditionally, this is how retail shops operate. But now, with the help of technology, you can create a map function in the mobile app.
Take a look at how Target puts a creative twist on this simple feature:
Its customers can use this tool to create a shopping list before they arrive at the retail location.
When they arrive, the map will indicate where to find the items they need. This makes it easy for them to navigate around the store without getting lost.
Beacons placed throughout the store will show where the item is in relationship to the signal being transmitted from the phone.
Send timely discounts
As I said earlier, you want to make sure that any messages you send to your customers are timely and relevant.
For the most part, you can’t go wrong with sending a discount. Everyone wants to get a deal.
Think about the shopping experience from the perspective of your customers. As they browse around the store, they get a notification on their device.
Which type of message do you think would entice them to make a purchase?
“We sell winter coats and jackets!”
or
“20% off all winter coats and jackets!”
This is a rhetorical question. Obviously, the discount is more enticing.
Furthermore, discounts and coupons are the number one reason why shoppers would agree to in-store tracking and push notifications.
Stick to what you know your customers want. Don’t try to make things more complicated than they need to be.
If you send them a push notification or message that’s for something other than a discount, it’ll annoy them. Then you run the risk of that customer disabling their location settings or turning off push notifications for your app.
Target nearby customers
Customers don’t need to be in your retail store to benefit from your beacon technology campaigns.
You can use beacons to target customers who are in the area.
If you place beacons around stores, you can send a message to customers giving them a reason to come in and shop.
Take a look at this example from Charlotte Russe:
A customer who passes a beacon near the store could be sent this type of push notification.
Take a moment to look at the time this message was sent.
It’s reflects my previous point about timely discounts.
The in-store promotion is being run 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM. The push notification was sent at 2:40 PM to someone in the area.
You can use this strategy to run flash sales and other promotions as well.
It makes much more sense to send an in-store promotion to someone in the area than to every single app user. If people aren’t in the area, the promotion won’t be relevant to them.
Improve customer profiles
Everything I’ve talked about so far involves timing concurrent with shopper’s behavior. But you can leverage beacon technology for future actions as well.
Collect data on the ways customers shop in your store. Then use that information to improve their profiles.
Right now, you are probably using data such as online browsing behavior and purchase history to send personalized recommendations to your customers.
For example, if a customer browses for headphones online but doesn’t purchase them, you may send them a follow-up email the next day with a discount on headphones.
You can do the same using beacon technology.
Consumers are willing to share personal data if it improves their shopping experience:
As you can see from the data, younger generations are more comfortable with this type of technology than older generations.
That said, it’s more likely that a Millennial will install your retail app on their phone than a Baby Boomer, so you should be in the clear here.
Besides, in order for you to proceed with beacons, you’ll need to request location permission from users as they install your app on their devices. Otherwise, you’d be in violation of their privacy rights.
Customers who spend longer periods of time in certain sections of your retail store are obviously interested in those products.
Include that information in their customer profiles.
The next time they launch the app or shop online while signed into their profiles, recommend those types of products on their homepages.
Use beacons for your ecommerce shop
The majority of the discussed ideas in this post are relevant to physical retail stores.
Yes, there were some examples of how retail shopping behavior can improve online shopping experiences as well.
But beacon technology can also be used for ecommerce shops without physical stores. You just need to get a bit more creative.
For starters, you still need to encourage your customers to download your app for this strategy to work effectively.
Focus on it no matter what. Just look at the way mobile commerce is trending upward:
Then you can put beacons in locations related to what you’re selling. Here’s what I mean.
If you sell surfboards, kayaks, paddleboards, etc., you can put beacons by a beach. When a customer with your app goes to the beach, they’ll get a notification about those types of products.
If your ecommerce shop sells sports jerseys and other fan apparel, you can put beacons outside of various sports stadiums.
For example, if a customer walks by Fenway Park in Boston, they’ll get a notification about discounted Red Sox jerseys and hats.
This would make more sense than sending them a notification about a team that plays in Los Angeles.
The promotions are still timely and relevant, improving the user experience. This type of message would definitely entice the app user to buy from your ecommerce shop.
Conclusion
Retailers need to adapt to new technology trends if they want to survive today and in the future.
Beacon technology is a great place for your retail store to start.
First, you need to make sure as many customers as possible download your mobile app.
Then, you can place beacons throughout your store to monitor their shopping behavior.
Use this information to send them timely, relevant, and personalized messages that will improve their shopping experience and drive sales. Beacons can be used to target customers in the vicinity of your shop by enticing them to come in and buy something.
Once you collect data about customer in-store shopping behavior, you’ll be able to improve their customer profiles.
Ecommerce shops without physical stores can benefit from this technology as well. You just need to think outside the box to find places for your beacons.
If you follow the tips I’ve outlined above, your retail stores and ecommerce shops will generate more sales with the help of beacon technology.
How is your retail business using beacons to improve the customer experience?
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Keeping Down with the Joneses
Sarah and I live in an area where most of the homes near ours are similar to our own and most of the families near us have a similar level of income and external signs of spending.
This isn’t a particularly bad thing, but it’s not a particularly good thing, either.
On the one hand, if there’s no one nearby that’s clearly much more affluent than us, there’s not much of a desire to “keep up with the Joneses.” Aside from people doing regular things like vehicle upgrades (most people here tend to buy modest late model used cars and drive them until they’re getting pretty old) and modest yard landscaping, there’s not a lot to “keep up with.”
At the same time, however, there’s no one nearby that’s clearly less affluent than us, so there’s no motivation to “keep down with the Joneses.” As I said, we live in an area where everyone seems to have very similar external levels of spending, so you don’t see people living in really small homes (ours is of moderate size) or driving older cars.
This concept of “keeping down with the Joneses” is an interesting one, so let’s dig into it a little bit.
As is widely known, we tend to try to match our lifestyles to the people we associate with the most, and the area in which we live – particularly the area within a block or two of us – provides a constant example along those lines. People tend to live a lifestyle roughly equal to the lifestyle lived by others that live near them, in other words. You don’t typically see a ramshackle house next to a really nice house. You don’t typically see an old rusty car parked regularly next to a house with brand new cars. While there might occasionally be an outlier here, it’s not an extreme outlier.
The idea of “keeping up with the Joneses” comes from someone who perceives that their level of affluence is lower than those that live around them. They see the neighbor having a nicer home and driving a nicer car and having nicer clothes and going on amazing trips and so on and they want that lifestyle. Often, they feel as though they should have that lifestyle because they live close to the proverbial Joneses, so they spend beyond their means to try to keep up.
On the other hand, the idea of “keeping down with the Joneses” comes from someone who perceives that their level of affluence is higher than those that live around them. In this case, the person is nudged by the people around them to lower their level of affluence. There’s less social pressure to buy a new car or to have perfect yard landscaping or to dress everyone in really nice clothes and so on.
In other words, if you live in an area where you’re on the low end of affluence, there’s a subtle pressure to “keep up with the Joneses” which can encourage more spending on unnecessary things, whereas if you live in an area where you’re on the high end of affluence, there’s no pressure to keep up and, if anything, there’s a nudge to “keep down with the Joneses” and keep your spending on unnecessary things in check.
Here’s the cold, hard truth: I’d far rather be in a situation where I was nudged to “keep down with the Joneses” than “keep up with the Joneses.” I’d rather live near people who were at or, even better, just a bit below my own level of affluence so that the subtle hints I get from my environment about spending nudged me to spend less, not more.
In other words, if I were buying a home, I’d rather have one of the nicer homes in a less expensive neighborhood (that still met my criteria) than a low end home in an expensive neighborhood. I’d say that I live currently in an average home in my area, so I’m not really nudged either way. If I lived in an area where I was on the low end of the relative level of spending, I’d probably want to move to a new area so that I wasn’t constantly nudged to spend more and more and more.
How can you apply this idea of “keeping down with the Joneses” without moving to a new home, though?
The easiest thing you can do is cultivate and strengthen friendships with people who don’t spend extravagantly. Ideally, you’ll want to have friendships with people whose spending and possessions don’t make you feel as though you’re not spending enough. If they make you feel anything at all, they should make you feel as though you’re spending too much on possessions and experiences.
It’s simple: surround yourself with people who really enjoy and appreciate free and low cost experiences and don’t have a drive to accumulate expensive possessions. Look in your social circle for those people and accentuate those relationships. Seek out new connections with people who feel similarly.
A good place to start is in your own neighborhood. Walk around and look at the homes of people who aren’t trying to one-up each other with expensive purchases. Look for the more modest homes where people appear to be doing interesting things and get to know those people. I’ve made several friendships within a few blocks of my home by doing that very thing – if I see someone doing something interesting at their house, I’ll stop by and say hello and get to know that person. I’ve actually knocked on people’s doors before because I saw an interesting project in progress in their driveway, just to ask about it, and each time it’s been the beginning of a friendship (or at least a healthy acquaintanceship).
Another thing to do is spend your social time and your free time in situations that aren’t centered around spending and don’t require an expensive purchase. Go to a friend’s house, or invite a friend over. Don’t engage in “retail therapy.” Find free things to do when you’re out and about. Don’t go to expensive events with any regularity. Don’t join an expensive club with a high membership fee (unless there’s a professional reason to do so).
Along those lines, avoid media that’s crowded with advertisements or lauds affluent lifestyles. Both of these things essentially create a virtual sense of “keeping up with the Joneses” that you don’t need in your life.
Instead, read meaningful books and, when checking out media sources, choose those that don’t prop up an affluent lifestyle and instead laud a frugal one. Again, you want your focus to be filled with subtle cues encouraging a practice of “keeping down with the Joneses,” not up with them. Choose media that focuses on the meaningful lives of people who practice frugality rather than consumption. Find media that matches what you value and make that your center (though it’s always good to explore other perspectives sometimes).
Finally – and this is fairly obvious – don’t overlook the value of moving. I know, I know, I said things that didn’t involve moving, but if you’re in a situation where you’re really stretching your financial picture just to keep up with the people in your neighborhood and to keep up an expensive property, it might be worth your while to simply move to a less affluent neighborhood or to an apartment. There are definitely cost of living reasons to do so – it’s far less expensive to cover the mortgage, utilities, and taxes on a more modest property in a more modest area with a lower cost of living – but in a more modest area, there’s far less compulsion to “keep up with the Joneses.” Rather, if you’re in one of the nicer houses in the neighborhood, there’s even a slight compulsion to “keep down with the Joneses,” which is a far healthier state for your pocketbook.
Good luck!
The post Keeping Down with the Joneses appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
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I’m Second-Guessing the Way We’ve Been Saving for Stepdaughter’s College
Dear Frank,
We laugh about saving for college when kids are very small. They’re little bundles of joy who simply need to be fed and clothed. Why fret about what’s going to happen 18 years from now? And then, all of a sudden, they’re not small anymore. They grow like very opinionated weeds and have their own senses of humor and points of view. And body hair.
I can imagine you’re not the only parent quietly panicking at this as you glance over your stepdaughter’s shoulder trying to decipher how they’re teaching math these days. This very far-off life event is not actually that far off.
The good news is that you’re saving. The bad news is that your money probably isn’t working hard enough for you while it waits for your stepdaughter to make some big decisions about her future.
A 529 savings plan is a solid option because it’s a tax-free investment account. But the penalty is steep for those non-educational withdrawals: a 10% penalty on top of income tax. However, it’s important to note that those funds can be used for almost any educational endeavor, and you can change the beneficiary on the account in the event she doesn’t need all the money.
Another option is a custodial account. As long as the account earns less than around $2,100 per year, the earnings are taxed at the child’s rate instead of the parents’.
This type of account can negatively affect how much need-based financial aid she’s eligible for when she applies to school. But the benefit of a custodial account as a college savings plan is that she gets control of the money when she’s 18. That can sound scary right now with a new teenager in the house, but it means that if she chooses not to go to college, she can still use that money toward her future financial security.
Every method of saving for college — from 529s to savings bonds to stuffing cash under the mattress — will have drawbacks. At this point, what’s essential is that the money you’ve already saved gets into an investment account of some sort. When the time rolls around — oh, and it’s about to roll around — you want that money to stretch as far as it possibly can.
Have a tricky money question? Write to Dear Penny at https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/dear-penny
Lisa Rowan is a personal finance expert and senior writer at The Penny Hoarder, and the voice behind Dear Penny. For more practical money tips, visit www.thepennyhoarder.com.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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Attractive bond rates may be just one of the reasons to consider a credit union
Rock-bottom interest rates mean savers have seen their returns dwindle in recent years.
Savers looking for an alternative might want to consider a credit union, which sometimes offer better rates.
What is a credit union?
A credit union is a non-profit making co-operative controlled by its members who pool their money together and lend to one another. Once dubbed the ‘poor man’s bank’, their popularity is growing with the number of members hitting two million for the first time this year, according to the Bank of England.
There are more than 380 credit unions in the UK. They operate on the principle of helping people and often have savings rates better than those offered by high street banks.
Like banks, credit unions accept deposits, provide loans and mortgages as well as a host of other financial services. However, unlike banks, credit unions don’t have to pay shareholders, so the cash can be used to reward members.
They are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and up to £85,000 of your money is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Alternative to major lenders
Credit unions provide a useful alternative for people who have trouble getting credit from major lenders. While some unions offer a fixed rate on savings many still pay a yearly dividend, which is how profits are shared with members.
Andrew Hagger, a personal finance expert at Moneycomms, says: “Unfortunately, many people probably aren’t aware they have one in their local area. They are all individual providers offering different products, so as a consumer you have to do a bit of digging around.”
As an example, My Community Bank is currently offering very attractive rates. Its one- and two-year fixed-rate bonds both pay 2.20% AER, while its three-year fixed-rate bond pays 2.25% AER. The minimum you need to open an account, which needs to be opened online, is £1,000 and the maximum you can save is £50,000.
There are other restrictions. As it is a fixed-term bond, you can’t withdraw the funds early. You must also have a job in what the Office for National Statistics designates a ‘minor’ occupation. This includes nurses, teachers and engineers. A full list is on the My Community Bank website.
“Many people probably don’t realise they have a credit union in their area”
Not just for savings
Credit unions are also seen as a cheaper alternative to payday lenders and sometimes offer better rates than high street lenders.
However, some credit unions may require you to have been with them a certain amount of time before they will lend to you. Be cautious, though, as rates can start from as low as 6% but can go as high as 43%.
My Community Bank, for example, offers loans from £1,500 to £15,000 over one to five years at an APR of between 5.9% and 42.6%, depending on your circumstances.
Meanwhile, credit union retailCURe, which launched last year, offer interest rates ranging from 7.4% APR to 26.8% APR on loans from £250 to £10,000.
You can find out more about local credit unions at Findyourcreditunion.co.uk or you can contact the Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul.org).
Note: Rates are correct as of 20 November 2018.
FEATURED PRODUCT
retailCURe Easy Access Savings Account
RetailCURe’s savings account pays 1% AER as well as the annual dividend. You can access your account online or with the mobile app and deposit up to a maximum of £15,000. In order to qualify for the account, you have to work in retail. You can withdraw money whenever you want by transferring electronically to a nominated account.
Section
Free Tag
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الخميس، 6 ديسمبر 2018
Don’t Pay Rush Fees! Ship Packages by These Dates So They Arrive by Dec. 24
Here’s a simple way to save money this holiday season: Avoid unnecessary shipping costs.
If you’re sending gifts to friends and family away from home, do it early. You still have plenty of time to get packages to your loved ones before Christmas without paying extra for expedited shipping.
To help you plan ahead, we’ve rounded up standard shipping deadlines for the major postal services.
Note: Deadlines are for delivery by Dec. 24 within the continental U.S., unless otherwise noted.
U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Shipping Deadline
Ship by Dec. 14 via USPS Retail Ground or Media Mail for standard rates.
USPS Retail Ground is the most common service for gifts and merchandise. Prices are based on delivery distance and the weight of your package(s). You’ll use Media Mail for books, film and printed materials of several pages.
For holiday cards and other envelopes or lightweight packages, ship by Dec. 20. You can mail these items with a regular First Class postage stamp.
For later deadlines and expedited shipping rates, visit USPS.com.
United Parcel Service (UPS) Shipping Deadline
Ship before Dec. 18 via UPS Ground or UPS 3 Day Select.
UPS Ground delivers in one to five business days, depending on the shipping distance. UPS 3 Day Select delivers by the end of the third business day and does not deliver on Christmas Eve.
For later deadlines and expedited shipping rates, see the UPS 2018 year-end holiday schedule.
FedEx Shipping Deadline
Ship by Dec. 18 via FedEx Ground or Home Delivery.
FedEx Ground delivers in one to five business days, depending on your location in the continental U.S. See this handy map for delivery times in your area.
FedEx Home Delivery offers faster delivery to residential addresses. Ship packages up to 70 pounds for delivery within one to five business days.
For later deadlines and expedited shipping rates, visit FedEx.com.
Happy Holidays, Penny Hoarders!
Dana Sitar (dana@thepennyhoarder.com) is a branded content editor at The Penny Hoarder. Say hi and tell her a good joke on Twitter @danasitar.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.
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Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, and He’ll Take a Free Photo With Your Pet!
Remember getting your photo taken with Santa at the mall when you were a kid?
Whether you went willingly or had to be dragged by your hair like yours truly, photos with Santa are a time-honored Christmas tradition… for human children.
But if your only babies are fur babies, you can still participate in this slightly awkward Yuletide ritual. And it won’t cost you a thing.
Santa Claus is coming to PetSmart, and he’ll pose with your pet for a free photo.
Head to PetSmart for a Photo With Santa Claus
If you want a Christmas keepsake photo of Fido or Sassy on Santa’s lap, it’s easy to participate. All you have to do is head to a participating PetSmart on Dec. 8-9 or Dec. 15-16 between noon and 4 p.m. local time.
Santa will gamely smile while holding your furry companion, but we’re still not sure whether he’s granting any wishes. He’d have to speak pet, after all.
Jamie Cattanach’s writing has been featured at The Write Life, Word Riot, Nashville Review and elsewhere. Find @JamieCattanach on Twitter to wave hello.
Jessica Gray is an editorial assistant at The Penny Hoarder and plans to bring her naughty pets to see Santa this weekend. She updated this post for 2018.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.
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The Psychology of Human Misjudgment
Recently, I came across a wonderful 1995 speech by Charlie Munger to an audience at Harvard University, and I wanted to share it with you along with some of my thoughts on it. A lot of thoughts, actually. I think this is one of those longer articles with lots of things to think about that you might want to bookmark and come back to multiple times in the future.
Munger, for those unaware, is the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett. Buffett has described Munger as his partner and it’s fair to say that at least some of Buffett’s success and the success of Berkshire Hathaway comes from that partnership.
Here’s the speech I’m referring to:
If you can’t see the embedded video above, here’s a quick link to it; if you’d rather read than watch a video, here’s a written version of the speech with a few minor differences (I think this is Munger’s notes from the speech, which he followed pretty closely).
The core idea of the speech is that humans often operate in a counterproductive fashion and understanding why is helpful in everyday life and in investing. Humans spend an awful lot of their time doing things that are fairly obviously not the best thing they could be doing.
Why do we do this? The big reason is that our nervous system and body evolved to handle life as hunter-gatherers on the savannah, not life as an information worker or a retail worker in a city. Our instinct in terms of what to do with our time is honed for hunter-gatherer life and that often runs directly in opposition to what is the best choice for ourselves in modern life.
Munger finds that split deeply fascinating and has observed and studied it throughout his life. Over that lifetime, he’s home up with a list of 25 biases that most people instinctively fall into, where our gut instinct is almost entirely opposed to the fairly obvious “better thing” we should be doing.
I found this list of Munger’s biases wonderful and wanted to share them with you, along with a few thoughts on each. Just being aware of these biases and trying to push back against the ones that affect us the most can have an incredibly powerful impact on the quality of our lives. Awareness is not a perfect solution, though; it takes effort to really overcome most of these.
Reward and Punishment Superresponse Tendency
We tend to favor whichever option before us offers rewards and avoids punishment in the short term. We will do whatever will lead to money, friendship, sex, prestige, and fun in the short term and strongly avoid punishment and harm in the short term. Even more so, once we see that a particular behavior results in a short term reward, we tend to repeat it.
The problem is that many things that offer those kinds of short term rewards tend to have harmful effects in the long term, and the things that are painful in the short term often have great long term benefits.
For example, spending all of your money on something fun today is an obvious temptation and short term reward, but the long term cost of it is immense. Most people figure out that some balance is needed, but they often rely on the bias toward short term pleasure as much as possible, which is why most Americans wind up living paycheck to paycheck and a lot of Americans accumulate credit card debt.
On the other hand, exercise is often very hard work and not particularly pleasurable in the short term, even though it has enormous long term benefits. I tend to not enjoy the hardest parts of exercise, but I really enjoy how I feel afterwards and it begins to be a lasting and permanent feeling if I exercise regularly (I tend to go in streaks with this, where I exercise regularly for a while then hit a life disruption and slack off for a while.)
The key to overcoming this is to think often about the long term impact of everything you’re doing and emphasize it strongly in your mind. When you’ve got a little downtime – you’re commuting or you’re waiting for an appointment – don’t play a smartphone game or read social media. Instead, mull over some of your recent decisions and your upcoming ones and think about them with a huge weight on the long term. You might find that the decision looks very differently.
Liking/Loving Tendency
We tend to ignore faults in people and things we like and in people and things that like us. While this is a powerful trait to have when forming social groups as it leads to a reciprocal bond of friendship, it’s constantly used against us in marketing, where we’re lured to like products by use of other things we like – sex appeal, motherhood, and so on.
It also leads us to overlooking flaws in people and things we like, which can lead to situations where those flaws are damaging to us, such as when we continue to love and care for someone who steals from us.
How can we overcome this? First of all, surround yourself with good people and make an effort to like them and bond with them. Think of people in your life that you consider to be good or great people and fill your time and your social circle with them. Second, try to avoid media sources that rely heavily on advertisement and product placement. In general, you’re better off avoiding most media outside of books and films and media sources you highly trust. Doing things like channel surfing or staring at social media almost always leads to a distortion in our perspectives because of the like/love tendency.
Disliking/Hating Tendency
This is basically the reverse of the item above. We tend to find unnecessary fault and amplify the faults while ignoring the virtues of people and things we dislike and people and things we perceive as disliking us. This is almost never useful, and it’s easily exploited into awful behavior.
We fall into this trap when we stereotype people or things based on one or two minor details or because of the tenuous word of someone or something we think we trust. Great examples of this include actual racism and bigotry, negative advertising, political extremism, workplace gossip, and an awful lot of social media.
The best way I’ve found for overcoming this bias is to take something I don’t like and intentionally start naming good things about it. Sometimes, I have to do research to figure it out, so I’ll Google “why do people like X” and find out what good traits that person or thing has. If that won’t work, I might ask people who seem to like the thing I’m trying to learn more about.
Doubt-Avoidance Tendency
We tend to avoid situations where we’re doubtful and instead choose situations where we’re certain. While this makes sense in situations where there is an imminent physical threat, it’s often disastrous in the modern world.
Avoiding doubt means that we often make nuanced decisions very quickly without really thinking them out. We’ll encounter a difficult decision and either try to avoid that decision entirely or else make a snap decision without considering it very carefully, particularly when it’s not obviously clear to us what the best decision actually is.
The best solution here is to consistently rethink our ordinary decisions without assuming that we’re making the right call. Again, the best process here is that when you have some downtime, you take some recent choices you’ve made, even if they seem completely normal, and think through whether or not it’s really the best choice. Strip away your default tendency to assume that it’s a good choice, because it may not be – if you feel that tendency to stick with it without a reason, you’re seeing this very bias at work.
Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency
This follows tightly with the doubt-avoidance tendency from above. Once we’ve made a particular decision once, we’re often compelled to repeat it rather than doubting that we made the right decision in the first place.
This tends to pop up whenever we find ourselves in a rut in life. We keep doing the same things and following the same habits, but we rarely sit down and actually question most of them. We usually only question the most egregiously negative habits and routines that we follow. We buy the same things at the store without rethinking whether we’re buying the right version or even whether we really need to make the purchase at all. We hold onto the same political beliefs even though the world around us might be changing.
The best counter against this that I’ve found is to stop myself when I’m doing something very ordinary and ask myself why exactly I’m doing this or why I believe this particular thing. Why am I buying this particular item at the grocery store? Why am I doing the dishes this way? Don’t just assume that it’s the right thing to do because you’ve always done it that way. Instead, try to figure out whether it’s actually solving a problem and, if it is, whether it’s actually a good solution to that problem. I do this fairly regularly and I actually have a reminder on my phone that goes off once a day in the middle of the afternoon that asks me why I’m doing what I’m doing right now.
Curiosity Tendency
Humans are naturally curious creatures. While that can be an incredibly powerful force for good, as it encourages us to learn new things, it can easily be exploited into time wasting. Think about how our curiosity works against us when we reload social media yet again to get the latest updates, even though there’s nothing really new there.
The trick here is to channel curiosity when it’s useful and shut it down when it’s not useful. It’s not an easy thing to do, however.
One good counterstrategy against the curiosity tendency is to ask yourself a simple question whenever you’re about to read something or “check” something: what am I hoping to get out of this that’s actually worthwhile? If you can’t immediately name something, then that thing you’re reading or checking probably isn’t fulfilling a valuable place in your life and you should strongly consider cutting it or sharply reducing the time you spend with it.
Kantian Fairness Tendency
This is just a fancy name for the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We tend to go through most of life treating others as we would like to be treated and, over time, that develops into a lot of cultural norms, like basic traffic rules and being polite to others.
When people seem to violate those norms – as can happen when we meet a rude person or someone from another culture – we often get very offended, far more than the act is actually worth. Think about what happens when someone speeds by you in traffic or “cuts you off” in traffic (from your perspective). Most of us get mad; it’s road rage. However, the other person likely has no idea that they’ve done anything egregious and would feel bad if they realized it. Someone might “cut you off” when they just think everyone is taking turns and it’s their turn. We just blow it out of proportion in our own heads.
The best solution is to not sweat the little stuff in life and let it be if someone commits a minor offense or speeds around you or seemingly cuts in line in front of you. There are bigger things to worry about in life. Instead, channel your energy toward achieving your own goals efficiently. Rather than getting irate about the guy who just cut you off and slamming on your horn and yelling in your car, just focus on getting to your destination safely and efficiently. The guy cutting you off costs you maybe a second, but that rage can disrupt you for hours.
Envy/Jealousy Tendency
This pops up when we desire something that someone else has. Think of the jealousy you feel when someone has something you desire or when a friend is able to do something that you can’t afford to do. This can often lead to negative feelings toward the other person as well as negative feelings toward ourselves, neither of which really makes much sense.
The thing that people overlook is that someone else’s fortune has very little to do with them. Someone else acquiring something has very little impact whatsoever on your ability to acquire it. The only way to improve your ability to have something is to improve your own situation. Feeling negativity towards others because of their acquisitions or achievements gains you nothing. What matters is improving you.
Whenever you feel jealous or envious of someone else, ask yourself whether you really want what they have. Is that something you truly want? Then, if you do, ask yourself what you need to do to achieve a life situation where you can have that thing. What do you need to improve so that you can get there? Blame and negative feelings don’t help.
Reciprocation Tendency
For the most part, people tend to reciprocate the behaviors of those around them. If people are nice to you, you tend to be nice back; if people aren’t nice to you, you generally tend to not be kind in return. If someone does you a favor, you tend to do something in return.
That’s a solid way to behave in polite society, but it’s also a behavior that’s easily exploited by the “foot in door” technique. In other words, someone will start out by asking a big favor from you, and then will appear to offer you a favor in return by cutting back on their initially-asked favor. Because we tend to reciprocate favors, we’ll often want to extend a favor in return and say yes to the smaller request. Clever marketers take advantage of this; it’s why when you talk to charities, they’ll often give you a high number first, but the number they’re actually hoping to get is much smaller. They’ll do you a “favor” of cutting back on the request if you do a “favor” by saying yes.
A good way to cut through that bias is to decide what price you’re willing to pay before interacting and simply saying “no” if someone tries to interact before you can make that decision. I have no qualms saying “no” to anyone who asks me for a charitable gift, because I want to make up my mind on my own regarding how I want to give and where. Just have a policy of saying “no” to anyone asking you for a lot of money or a big favor without a relationship already in place. You can always rethink things and decide to give tomorrow or buy tomorrow, after all.
Influence-from-Mere-Association Tendency
If you see something collected with other things you think of as “good,” you tend to think of that new thing as “good” as well. Similarly, if you see something collected with other things you think of as “bad,” you tend to think of it as “bad.”
How is that bad? There are many ways. For example, a gambler might look at recent instances of putting a coin in a slot machine and winning as being on a “hot streak” and think of putting coins in a slot machine going forward as a “good move.” It leads to some pretty bad stereotyping behaviors, too, as you might begin to associate a person who has two or three good traits as having other good traits, even when that’s not necessarily true. This is why, for example, news anchors are often attractive.
In situations where there’s not much at risk, this is an okay bias to have, but whenever you’re about to invest money or time, ask yourself what’s different about this time than last time. Is it really a repeat of the same thing? With a slot machine, for example, the tumblers are very unlikely to repeat what they did before, even though our brain is seeing a pattern. When you’re about to spend resources, stop for a second and ask if the pattern you’re seeing is real or not.
Simple, Pain-Avoiding Psychological Denial
This one’s easy – we avoid painful situations through denial. We pretend it’s not happening. We use vices to help us ignore them. We come up with all manner of things to help us avoid facing the harsh reality.
Of course, there is almost no situation in which denying the truth will make things better in the future. It is purely a short-term tactic, one that’s likely to leave things even worse when you are finally forced to face facts.
The best approach is to openly face the truth and don’t look away. Stare it right in the face and recognize that this is simply how things are. Avoiding it by delaying it or by falling into chemical dependency will not make it better. Rather, this is the truth and the question becomes how you can make things as good as possible from here.
Excessive Self-Regard Tendency
People tend to overestimate their abilities, overvalue their possessions, overvalue their decisions and opinions, and tend to naturally like people who are similar to themselves (because if they’re like me, they must be good). We all do it to some extent; others are almost insufferable for it.
When this lines up with other biases, like pain avoidance, it can lead us straight into making rash decisions which often come back to bite us because we simply didn’t think them through. You’re also very likely to fall into “groupthink,” where you congregate with and overvalue the opinions of those who happen to agree with you.
There are a number of things we can all do to overcome this bias.
The biggest one is to not overlook poor performance. If we have achieved poor results, we should look at ourselves first and foremost. When we’re falling prey to excessive self-regard, we look for others to blame when our performance falls short. “It can’t possibly be MY fault… I’m great!” The thing is, most of the time, poor performance is at least somewhat caused by you and your inflated regard for your abilities. If you fail at something, step back and look at yourself. Where did you fall short? Avoid blaming others.
When you’re making important decisions or following important procedures, use a checklist. Prepare the checklist when you’re not in the heat of the moment and then rely on it when you’re actually doing something important or making a decision. That way, if you fail, the next step is easy – you need to revise and improve that checklist!
Another great tactic is to trust the feedback of honest people in your life. Most people in your life are not going to give you faulty one-on-one feedback. If your boss gives you a mediocre performance review, it’s virtually never because your boss has a vendetta. It’s almost always because your performance is faulty and it’s easier for your boss to mold you into a better employee than to move on. The same is true of anything told to you in a one-on-one situation in confidence. Trust the advice and feedback of people in your life.
Overoptimism Tendency
We tend to believe that our future is rosy and that it’s a straight line from here to the success and goals we desire. When we think of our life in the future, it’s what we want it to be and we don’t even think of things going wrong most of the time. We buy into the notion that everything will just work out.
There’s nothing wrong with a rosy daydream, but when you start taking action based on that overly optimistic view of the future, then you start making mistakes.
There are two good techniques I’ve found for getting around this.
One, don’t make a major decision without doing the homework, trust the numbers, and assume things will go somewhat poorly. Whenever I jump into things with the assumption that everything will turn out rosy, I usually fall flat on my face. Instead, I’ve found it’s much better if I assume things will actually go pretty poorly. I usually try to set deadlines that assume that many things will go wrong. I try to set goals that assume some setbacks along the way. I use pretty modest assessments of investment returns and I usually calculate things where I’m investing notably less than I think I can actually pull off.
Two, I ask for outside advice. I find that other people tend to offer a healthy dose of reality when I ask people I trust in a one-on-one situation what they think of my plans. It can hurt, sure, but it’s often what I want to hear. I usually ask people to pick apart my plan and tell me where it’s likely to go awry, and I trust them.
Deprival-Superreaction Tendency
We tend to greatly overreact to losses or to small deprivations. The joy we get from getting, say, $50 is far less than the negative feelings we get from losing $50 or having $50 taken away from us.
This takes a lot of different twists and turns, most of which go in a direction that’s pretty harmful for us. One of the worst is the sunk cost fallacy, where we tend to far overweigh the options that keep us from even the smallest losses and often choose them over options that are much better overall. For example, on a trip, someone might absolutely insist that you go to an event where you pre-bought $10 tickets, even though some other event is far more enjoyable, because of the cost you already sunk into those tickets.
Another example is that we’re often lured by near misses, which cause us to keep trying and often to keep losing money. For example, if we see two red sevens on a slot machine, we’re likely to dump in another quarter. If we knock over four out of five milk bottles at the carnival, we’re likely to pony up another dollar for a throw.
The best way to avoid this kind of bias is to look at situations discretely without using recent events to sway you. For example, with the tickets, their cost is already spent regardless of what you do, so you should choose the more enjoyable option in the moment. All the tickets actually do is give you another option of things to do, but that might not necessarily be the best option. (I tend to think empty seats at a sporting event are an example of people overcoming the sunk cost fallacy.) If you’re playing a carnival game, consider each play independently of what came before and spend that money accordingly.
Social-Proof Tendency
Whenever we’re in a situation where we’re uncertain as to what to do next, we tend to just do whatever most of the people around us are doing. Most of the things we do in our lives, things like bathing and eating regular meal times, are done because of social proof – that’s what other people do, right?
Sometimes, this is good. It can be really useful for finding a big event, as the crowd is usually moving toward it. A lot of healthy behaviors (like good hygiene) are reinforced by social proof, too.
There are also many negative examples of social proof, like investment bubbles – lots of other people are investing, so I should invest in this thing, too! – and why salespeople try to isolate people who are close to buying from other casual customers (because other casual customers often leave) and product placement and reality television (that’s not how other people actually live, so you shouldn’t use it as social proof).
There are several good ways to avoid this social proof effect if you begin to sense it’s leading you astray. For starters, simply isolate yourself for a bit and ask whether or not that group behavior really makes any sense. Think through many of your life processes when you’re alone and even develop checklists. If you’re unsure, get into a one-on-one situation with someone you trust (or the most seemingly trustworthy person available) and ask that person for advice.
Contrast-Misreaction Tendency
This occurs any time we misjudge a situation because it’s out of the normal context. For example, think of a slightly chilly day in August. We’ll probably overreact to that chilly day and dress excessively warmly because of the context of hot days around it. We’ll also tend to overlook minor changes over time as we continue to think of things as the “normal” they’ve always been – the “boiling frog effect.” (I tend to think some of the challenge many people have with climate change comes from this effect, actually, as climate change is very small on a day-to-day basis and thus it seems normal.)
While this can be helpful in a lot of situations because it allows us to filter out a lot of information about our environment and instead focus on the things that are significantly different (which are usually the most important things), it can cause us to fall into a number of bad situations.
One of the worst is price anchoring, where we’re shown items that are way overpriced before seeing an item that’s at least closer to reasonable pricing and that last item seems like a bargain. Another example is expensive add-ons, where when we’re buying something expensive, an add-on seems small, but outside of that expensive purchase, we’d probably balk at such an expense (think of the “extended warranties” offered when buying an expensive electronic device).
The best defense here is to slow down. Don’t ever make purchases in the heat of the moment. Ask if you can hold off on that purchase for a day or two, then consider that purchase outside of that situation. If they say “no,” then just skip the purchase.
Stress-Influence Tendency
While light stress can often improve performance, adding too much stress often forces people into a fight-or-flight response where they make extremely impulsive decisions and their performance becomes disastrous. I notice this myself when I’m “hurrying too much” to get a task done and I end up mucking the whole thing up.
Often, stress is very much self-induced. We often have a lot more time to think through a situation than we realize and stress is often created by giving too much power to outside forces and their condensed timelines. At the same time, if we’re applying stress to others (say, if we’re in a management situation), if we apply too much, the results are going to be terrible.
What can you do to dig out of stress-influenced misjudgments? It’s easy. When you find yourself in a high-stress situation that’s causing you to make poor decisions and have bad performance, focus on removing some of the issues that are causing the stress. If it’s workplace stress, talk to your supervisor (or their supervisor) and discuss exactly what is stressing you and what can be done to reduce that stressor. If it’s in other aspects of your life, back away from those situations as much as possible. Stress can make all of your decisions poor.
Availability-Misweighing Tendency
We often make decisions based mostly on what’s recently been available to us. We don’t consider, for example, things that are stowed away in our closet or old memories or old relationships when we’re trying to solve a problem.
While that’s a good way to quickly come up with a “good enough” solution to a problem, it often leads to ruts in our thinking. We wind up watching the same types of television shows, going to the same restaurants, eating the same meals. We wind up hanging out with the same people and use the same tactics at work. This often amplifies the other biases on this list, too, because we often will make misjudgments based on a small pool of information (that which is easily available or in our recent memories).
How do we get around this? Checklists are one good strategy. Make checklists for many of your common decisions and tasks so that you have a standard and well-considered plan to move through. Another strategy is to sometimes do research even on ordinary decisions. Rather than just eating at the usual place, find out what restaurants are available in your area, particularly ones that seem to be better reviewed than your usual haunts. Do this by checking out different review websites, looking at different restaurants, and talking to different people for restaurant suggestions – in short, get information from new sources.
Use-It-or-Lose-It Tendency
Our skills slowly degrade with disuse, even if we don’t realize it. We tend to think that our skills remain largely the same even if we haven’t used them regularly in a long while.
For example, my computer programming skills have somewhat eroded since I wrote code literally every day as part of my job. I still work on independent projects, but I’m not as sharp as I once was.
However, I find that skills where I was once very strong come back to me pretty quickly without much practice, while learning new skills can take a long time. I can get back up to speed pretty quickly for a programming project (at least good enough to get the results I wanted), but it would take me much longer to learn the banjo.
What can you do about this? If you have skills in your life that you rely on, continually practice them in a meaningful way. Don’t let a skill that you truly rely on atrophy – make room in your life to practice that skill every day if necessary. It’s a good idea to make a list of skills to maintain and practice and make room in your life to practice them. Furthermore, try to learn skills to fluency, as I did with computer programming. Fluency means that you can simply practice that skill in pretty much any environment with minimal aid; you don’t need help interpreting sheet music or even need it at all to play a nice song on the piano, for example.
Drug-Misinfluence Tendency
There are a lot of substances out there – alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, oxycodone, and so on – that alter one’s way of thinking and cause a person to make irrational decisions. Not only do individual uses damage your ability to think well, consistent use does even more lasting damage, and the addictive element can cause a person to fall right into a routine that’s very hard to get out of.
In short, drugs can really mess up your thinking and your long term plans. Any benefit you might get from consumption is not worth the severe cost.
The solution for this one is simple: don’t use any addictive substances that alter your thinking. Hard drugs should be utterly avoided, in particular.
Senescence-Misinfluence Tendency
As we age, it becomes harder to learn new skills and older skills can begin to deteriorate at a faster rate. It happens with different people at different ages, but it inevitably happens if we live long enough.
There’s a way to delay this onset, though, and that’s by constantly learning new skills and ideas and practicing old ones. Fill your life with learning and practicing new skills that you enjoy, starting at an early age and carrying that practice around with you for life.
You can’t stop the inevitable march of time, but you can certainly delay many of the effects.
Authority-Misinfluence Tendency
People tend to follow those who have authority or who have claimed it for themselves. This tends to rest on top of the many other tendencies listed here – by trusting in an authority of some kind, people relieve themselves of much of the confusion and stress of independent thinking and decision making. The authority does that – the follower just does as they’re told and doesn’t have to worry about it.
This is great in the case of a benevolent and wise leader, but a lot of leaders aren’t benevolent and wise, and even great leaders are sometimes misunderstood. Allowing someone else to do most of the thinking for you can quite often lead to disaster.
So, what’s the solution? Be very selective as to who you follow. The people whose orders you follow or ideas you accept without much question should be of the highest character and someone whom you can trust in almost every way. Also, if you find yourself uncomfortable with an idea or an order, don’t default to accepting it just because of authority. The police officer can be wrong. The manager can be wrong. They’re human, just like you.
Twaddle Tendency
In any field, some people tend to produce quality work while others produce junk. In some situations, such as peer-reviewed science, there are systems in place to catch that junk (but even those systems aren’t perfect). In others, like the internet, there’s not much of a filter, which means that the individual has to determine what’s junk and what’s valuable.
This isn’t done with maliciousness most of the time. It’s often the result of someone grossly overinflating their own sense of competence. They truly believe they have knowledge or skills far greater than they actually do and they act in accordance to their own inflated views of their knowledge and talents.
So, how do you filter out “twaddle”? The best way is to have sources of information that you trust because they’ve proven that trust many times. Rely on those sources first and foremost and then require other sources to earn that trust over a long period of time. It’s worth noting that no source is perfect, but good sources will prove themselves over time.
Reason-Respective Tendency
People are inherently attracted by things that make sense and avoid things that don’t make sense. This is why, over the long term, sensible arguments and facts tend to win out.
Notice that I said “over the long term.”
In the short term, nonsensical things and false statements can be presented to make it appear as though they’re sensible or true. This will typically be uncovered over time, but it can trick people in the short term.
Thus, it’s usually a good idea to look for supporting evidence and reasoning before following a high-impact order or adopting a strong opinion. Why is this order being given? What is the thinking behind this opinion? Keep asking why until it makes iron-clad sense, and if it stops making sense, don’t follow the order or adopt the opinion.
Lollapalooza Tendency
This final tendency is simply the combination of multiple tendencies. Whenever multiple tendencies combine together in one situation, they can be very powerful in terms of nudging people into bad thinking.
For example, a religious cult might combine a drug-misinfluence tendency, a twaddle tendency, an authority-misinfluence tendency, and others into one dangerous package.
The best way to handle a confluence of bad tendencies is to trust your gut that something isn’t quite right and then step back and pull on threads to see if you can see any bad tendencies at work, one at a time. Peel it apart carefully. You might just find a mess of bad tendencies all piled up.
Final Thoughts
Quite honestly, I could have written a short article about each of these, how they affect our day to day lives, and how we can work to overcome them. We all fall prey to many of these biases, often with strong negative impact.
Overall, I think a few strategies are really useful for countering lots of these biases at the same time.
First, reflect on recent mistakes, figure out what went wrong, and visualize that situation going forward with better practices (and better results). Simply walk through recent things you’ve done in your mind – particularly those where you think the outcome could have been better or those you’ve just taken for granted for a while – and ask yourself if you were making any mistakes. If you uncover something, consider how you could have done it better and visualize yourself doing it better going forward. I often do this while driving somewhere, but for me, the most powerful tactic for this process is journaling. I often do “three morning pages,” where I simply fill three pages of a journal with whatever’s on my mind, and this type of “after action report” fills up a lot of those entries.
Second, use checklists for important tasks. Plan the steps of your actions carefully outside of the heat of the moment, then follow the checklist you’ve built when you’re actually doing it. I’ve found myself doing this with more and more things in my life. I have a “morning routine” checklist, an “evening routine” checklist, and a “kids get home from school” checklist. I also have a “article preparation” checklist for my professional work that I repeat for each and every article you read on The Simple Dollar. I just follow those checklists automatically each day and, once every month or two, I sit down and think about whether those checklists continue to make sense.
Third, trust the advice of people you trust and respect, especially when it’s given one on one. If you have supervisors you respect, trust their performance reviews. If you have friends who you trust, put a ton of value in their advice. This is especially true when the comments are given in a one-on-one fashion, where there’s no audience and no other motivation than to help you get on a good path.
Fourth, don’t believe you’re always right. Most people think, “Well, I don’t do that!” The thing is, most of us actually do this all the time. We assume we’re right, regardless of what other people are saying. We’re very overconfident in our opinions, our skills, and our performance, and when people point out flaws in our opinions and skills and performance, we often don’t react in a way that leads to an improvement in ourselves. Our goal should always be opinions that are better informed, skills that are sharper, and performances with better results, and when we defend flaws in opinions, half-baked skills, or bad performance by excusing it or blaming others or being overly defensive, we really only hurt ourselves and we usually end up looking far worse than if we were to simply admit fault and strive for the best.
Finally, if you’re unhappy with something in your life, face it now rather than later. Don’t let it fester. Don’t put it off. Don’t let it get worse. Deal with it now, when solving the issue is easier than it probably will be later.
These five tactics strike down a lot of Munger’s twenty five biases, and if you consistently use these tactics, you’ll find yourself consistently in a better place with your money and with every aspect of your life.
Good luck!
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