{"id":58166,"date":"2021-06-06T06:56:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T11:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58166"},"modified":"2021-06-06T06:56:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T11:56:51","slug":"dont-go-picking-up-quarters-in-front-of-a-steamroller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58166","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Go Picking Up Quarters in Front of a Steamroller"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Don\u2019t Go Picking Up Quarters in Front of a Steamroller<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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\"Do<\/p>\n
Photo by\u00a0Leroy Evans<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

How did you go bankrupt?
\n<\/em>Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
\n<\/em>\u2015 Ernest Hemingway,\u00a0The Sun Also Rises<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Winning the lottery sounds like a dream come true, until you understand\u00a0most<\/em>\u00a0people who win end up broke a few years later. (Most\u00a0don\u2019t invest their money properly<\/a>\u00a0to make it last.)<\/p>\n

Everyone knows the possibility of making a large sum of money fast is a thrill, especially if you end up turning a small amount of money into a heap of cash. Maybe that\u2019s why Americans on average\u00a0spend over $1,000<\/a>\u00a0a year on lottery tickets?<\/p>\n

Now, you\u2019re probably thinking that investing, especially saving for retirement, is completely different from buying a lottery ticket. Here\u2019s the problem: your brain doesn\u2019t really understand the difference.<\/p>\n

When you win, whether it\u2019s a $100 scratch-off prize, a Texas hold \u2019em pot or a great trade in your brokerage account, your brain rewards you. This psychological process is\u00a0identical to gambling addiction<\/a>. And it\u2019s potentially just as destructive.\u00a0Especially<\/strong>\u00a0when it comes to investing or saving for retirement,\u00a0gambling is a dangerous way to think<\/a>\u00a0Here\u2019s why\u2026<\/p>\n

The way addiction works is just brutal. As\u00a0Scientific American explains<\/a><\/em>, over time the euphoria of winning decreases. People tend to risk more and more to recapture that feeling. And when a big bet goes wrong, you can get crushed by losses. Like a steamroller smashing your wealth into dust. Worse still,<\/em>\u00a0some \u201cchase the high\u201d by leveraging their investments on margin (and we\u2019ve seen how that ends).<\/p>\n

Which brings up an important question\u2026<\/p>\n

What makes these fast profit opportunities so tempting?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook! A shiny quarter! And there\u2019s another one!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t Go Picking Up Quarters in Front of a Steamroller Photo by\u00a0Leroy Evans How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly. \u2015 Ernest Hemingway,\u00a0The Sun Also Rises Winning the lottery sounds like a dream come true, until you understand\u00a0most\u00a0people who win end up broke a few years later. (Most\u00a0don\u2019t invest their money properly\u00a0to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18769,1849,4190,690],"class_list":["post-58166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-birch-gold-group","tag-financial-markets","tag-investing","tag-risk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58167,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58166\/revisions\/58167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}