Advertising.

Most people are afraid?/too proud? to admit or even consider they may not be 100% rational or 100% in control of the own actions despite numerous studies showing you are not

Advertising, very obviously, manipulates people into making choices. Most of which are not in their interest. The original article even has an example; in the three kinds of ads for loan. One ad was twice as effective. In advertising, "effective", "conversion rate", etc all mean better at manipulating people into making the choice the advertiser wanted.

Some documentaries https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-great-documentary-films-... you can google for papers/studies. Or, just bury your head in the sand.

I read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell recently. He posted an exercise where by the end of it, it revealed certain internal biases I have towards black people people, namely that there's internal friction to associating positive words with black people as compared to association with white people (I'm not white).

I don't consider myself deliberately racist to black people. However, when I consider the representations of black people I get to see, it's usually negative (in the news, TV/movies) vs. the wide gradient I see for white people.

I know I unconsciously make connections between concepts, such as when I'm learning a new programming language, practicing an instrument, or reading article after article about a certain topic. I don't need to state a = b, because my mind will often make the connection for me. Given the amount of money and time invested in ads, surely I'm also influenced by messages that I consume and that they can affect how I connect certain concepts.

I've been able to attempt to counter it is to practice mindfulness, in order to be more conscious of these thoughts and question why certain feelings erupt. Additionally, reading more about automatic thoughts and the biases that influence them. Lastly, detaching myself from sources of 'bad' information, namely minimizing usage of Facebook Mobile (filled with ads) and television.

The bulk of Money Mustache advice is about avoiding paying money for stuff that doesn't really improve your life. This advice is actually more important for people who don't have money. As Mr. Money Mustache points out, most things we buy are "luxuries", we don't need them. And adding a little hardship to our lives, avoiding needless luxuries, actually improves our happiness. See, e.g., http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/08/29/luxury-is-just-ano... --or-- http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/07/frugality-the-new-...

In other words, "what the hell is someone doing buying a $1,200 tv on credit?!" What's wrong with a $400 tv? Or a $200 tv? Or no tv?

A $3 coffee everyday adds up to about $90 a month, when you can usually just drink free coffee from your office or buy some cheap pre-ground stuff.

Spending $5-6 for lunch each day at work can easily add up to another $100+ dollars a month, when you could just make a bunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and spend a fraction of that.

So there's close to $200 a month, right there.

If you're trying to retire early, it's definitely way tougher on a lower salary. But improving your spending habits is an important skill for everyone, especially for those making less.

Focus on earning more, not saving (on useless expenses).

Ideally. But in reality with bad habits you will spend that extra $1K you started earning.

>>Focus on earning more, not saving (on useless expenses).

Both. Without discipline its all useless. Why else do you think so many athletes or lottery winners lose those millions?

Do you know how many people pay the listing price of a car, yet cut coupons to save a few euros/dollars? A lot. It's ridiculous.

Some of the joys in life are simple things, such as drinking a $2-3 coffee or having a cocktail in a nice bar, etc.

The idea is that those small daily expenses tend to add up, and there may be a lot more of them than you realized.

"If you had stopped smoking 10 years ago you could afford to be driving around in a Ferrari right now."

"Do you smoke?"

"No."

"Then where's your Ferrari?"

Point is don't sweat the small things. Sure they add up, but you should dedicate a portion of your cash flow towards investments at the start of the pay cycle, not "what's left at the end." Then the rest can be spent on anything arbitrarily with a clear conscious.

The MMM philosophy isn't to deprive yourself. It's to learn to find satisfaction without the high cost.

Personally, I hate eating out every day. Packing a tupperware with leftovers is much more my style. I save about a thousand a year because of this, but I don't feel deprived at all.

Any investment advice is fairly useless without some money to begin with, investing is the art of bootstrapping.

Irrationality. They don't think the situation through.

"Do you know that my personal crusade in life (in the philosophical sense) is not merely to fight collectivism, nor to fight altruism? These are only consequences, effects, not causes. I am out after the real cause, the real root of evil on earth — the irrational." - Ayn Rand

Bad things happen to people when they decide to put their feelings above rational evidence and thought.

One thing that stuck out is in their Simplify [1] article, they recommend not having multiple savings accounts for medium to long term savings goals because that's complicated and the budget takes care of it in a simpler way.

In Mint it would be confusing to do that with a budget alone (the money accumulates as a negative budget amount and just looks like you're under budget by more every month), but they have the Goal feature that links a target date and amount with both a budget and one or more accounts (checking, savings, brokerage, etc.). Mint checks the balances for reporting goal progress.

I don't find this to be complicated or cause an excess focus on the location of money. The clear visibility is helpful and puts a sharp focus on both the budget and the (now smaller) balance of the main checking cash flow account. I know I'm not touching emergency savings, anniversary vacation savings, or whatever because there's no way to access the money without manually transferring it out of the dedicated savings account.

Is YNAB so good that one can really clearly see what is going on with both short term cash flow and slightly longer term savings going through just the budget and a checking account?

[1] https://www.youneedabudget.com/learn/guide/simplify

The way I see Mint vs YNAB is: Mint is reactive while YNAB is proactive.

... But it only takes one moment of weakness to see a new car, fall in love with it, be convinced your life will be better with it and the next thing you know you've committed to 48 payments.

I know that paying an exorbitant amount for a smartphone is not a wise financial move. But here I am anxiously awaiting the release of the Galaxy S7 to see how great it is. I'm sure I'll want one. I'm sure I'll tell myself my life will be better if I can take beautiful photos with the camera and it will be worth the cost in that regard. (My current phone's camera sucks)

I'm trying not be rude here, but that is one of the crazier things I've read. I understand splurging on something like a new pair of shoes or sunglasses, but how poor is your willpower and life planning that you just end up buying a brand new car you can't afford on a whim?

A new smart phone isn't so bad if you can afford it (and by that I mean you have the cash on hand for it upfront, and don't need to do a payment plan or something similar). If you're struggling to pay rent though, just get a refurbished 5s or something.