The fast brain is the home of impressions, affect, intuitions, impulse, and feelings. It is more sensitive to incremental change than it is to levels: Standing way ahead of the pack isn’t necessarily pleasant if you don’t feel you’re moving forward from where you are. Meanwhile, making progress toward a goal, even when just getting started, is a

Having more—especially more than others—is psychologically meaningful. To think otherwise would be naïve.174

As we’ll see in the square, having a clear and up-to-date set of expectations for our investments is elusive, explaining why so many people have poor investment experiences. At the time of “consumption”—the moment you officially own the stock or bond or fund—none of your senses is engaged. Because nothing happens. Indeed, with investment products,

Jason Zweig notes that “Approximately 99% of the time, the single most important thing investors should do is absolutely nothing.”

who we are now and who we will become. We cherish both presence and progress as each galvanizes a meaningful life, albeit in different ways. The goal here is not to declare victory on the philosophers’ ancient battlefield of being versus becoming; that’s not possible. But with awareness of the tension, and perhaps some preparation and perspective

With the growth of financial assets, there’s an overarching rule for managing expectations: The price you pay is a primary determinant of long-term results. Specifically, the more you pay, the less you will get. The less you pay, the more growth you will find.

People who have more money are not necessarily happier—though some are. If anything, money alleviates sadness more than it inspires joy. In day-to-day living, beyond a modest income, more money doesn’t help. But research reveals that those who live with purpose and embrace the adaptive self tend to be more content. In that case, money—when spent

Purpose Funded contentment starts with figuring out the stories that define us. There is no general formula for discovering what each of us should or can attach meaning to. We can find purpose through family, career, community, faith, country, or any other number of personal passions or interests. How you identify or choose what defines you is the

It resembles a “normal” distribution, with short “tails” and a fat middle. From this we can see that in any given one-year period, the U.S. stock market usually returns somewhere between +40% and -20%, which is a wide range. The most common result is between flat and +20%. But then contrast that to the rolling ten-year results: There are no “tails”