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Who is right about your money: traditional economists or self-help authors?

clearerthinking.org · 4,946 words · saved by 1 readers

Personal finance can be pretty confusing. How much should you save? How should you approach paying off your student debt? And what’s the deal with stocks, shares, mortgages and pensions? These high-stakes questions involve a lot of math and a lot of jargon, so it’s unsurprising that people turn to popular self-help books for guidance. These books typically offer relatively simple advice. But do they give good advice? The self-help industry is often criticized for spouting B.S. — can you trust it in the realm of personal finance? Economist and finance professor James J. Choi was interested in whether popular finance books give the same advice as academic economists. He surveyed the 50 most popular personal finance books on Goodreads, including bestsellers such as Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad and Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover. He found that popular authors and traditional economic models sometimes agreed on what individuals should do to manage their finances, but at other tim

Personal finance can be pretty confusing. How much should you save? How should you approach paying off your student debt? And what’s the deal with stocks, shares, mortgages and pensions? These high-stakes questions involve a lot of math and a lot of jargon, so it’s unsurprising that people turn to popular self-help books for guidance. These books typically offer relatively simple advice. But do they give good advice? The self-help industry is often criticized for spouting B.S. — can you trust it in the realm of personal finance? Economist and finance professor James J. Choi was interested in w

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