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Behavioural Insights
Thoughtful analysis of how psychology shapes financial behaviour, spending habits, and long term decision making, translating academic research into practical insights that help individuals make smarter, more intentional financial choices.
Can you Snowball and Avalanche your Savings?
I think most behavioural scientists, or anyone with an interest in personal finance, knows what avalanching and snowballing debt is. For...
Merle van den Akker
Oct 26, 20235 min read
Mental Accounting – but for Investing
I’ve been on a bit of a ‘behaviourally informed investing’ kick lately, as with a forever looming recession, biased investing is likely...
Merle van den Akker
Oct 12, 20234 min read
The Biased Investor: Market Downturn Edition
When it comes to behavioural finance, most people know which biases sit at the heart of investing. Hell, even I and several friends and...
Merle van den Akker
Oct 5, 20233 min read
ChatGPT: Does it do Financial Advice?
Depending on where you live, you may have different regulations around who (or what) is allowed to give personal financial advice....
Merle van den Akker
Jul 27, 20235 min read
The 50/30/20 Rule - Is it (still) Workable?
Personal finance is one of those fields which is riddled with rules of thumb to simplify what can be a highly complex field to navigate....
Merle van den Akker
Jun 15, 20236 min read
Money Management isn't Hard - It's Boring
I’ve been on a personal finance kick lately. My 3 previous posts were on the financial hierarchy, financial influencers (‘finfluencers’)...
Merle van den Akker
Mar 23, 20234 min read
Putting the FUN Back in Finance
In my previous post I outlined some reasons why I have strong and predominantly negative feelings towards a lot of finfluencers (not all...
Merle van den Akker
Mar 16, 20234 min read
Why I HATE Finfluencers
‘Finfluencers’ or just financial influencers, to explain what the term actually means, have been the bane of my existence. I have...
Merle van den Akker
Mar 9, 20235 min read
The Financial Hierarchy Explained - and What it Means for Financial Decision-Making
Behavioural scientists in the personal/consumer/household finance domain are trying to make people off better, financially. But very...
Merle van den Akker
Mar 2, 20235 min read
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