Comments on: Bad Financial Moves Aren’t Necessarily Determined By Your Intelligence

By: Noma

Noma — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 18:12:26 +0000

This is so interesting to me. As a psychotherapist I see this all the time. I have many patients who have common sense, book smarts, and high IQs that are complete messes financially.

I think character, integrity, and discipline are all big factors, much more so than intelligence. Unfortunatly these are not global attributes. You might be disciplined in one area, but not another.

Discipline is a forbidding word. I agree with the guy at zenhabits.org that it can be easier to tackle things when we think in terms of motivation, rather than discipline.

Again, what can be really tricky is when you have motivation and discipline, but then at some point they give way, and that is a recurring problem. Then people tend to think there is something wrong with them…

By: Daisy

Daisy — Tue, 29 May 2007 14:20:13 +0000

I think it’s Discipline, actually.

And it isn’t “natural.” It’s a battle to acquire, and a battle to keep. Intelligence might help you recognize a problem. Desire might get you started. But Discipline keeps you on track. When we “stumble,” or succumb to temptation, it is because we lost our Discipline.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Sun, 27 May 2007 23:14:59 +0000

I totally agree, there is a huge difference between being able to think fast and retain a lot of information in your brain and being mature enough to control your spending and make smart financial decisions.

By: danielle

danielle — Sun, 27 May 2007 14:27:27 +0000

I always thought it was the type of smarts you had. Book smarts vs. common sense. (or, school smarts vs. learning from real life so to speak) To my husband and I, everyone we know who is our age who is deeply in debt is college educated. Whereas, he and I only have an AA degree and occupational certificates, and we are debt free and doing great.

By: Emma

Emma — Sun, 27 May 2007 04:22:06 +0000

I tend to agree that knowledge and desire are required to manage financial decisions successfully – however I think there is something else. I managed to get myself into personal debt despite having the knowledge and desire to do things differently. Maybe it’s confidence or courage or just being in a better ‘headspace’ emotionally that has made the difference to how I handle money. I feel a lot more in control of my life generally now and this is reflected in my finances.

By: lowincomelady

lowincomelady — Sun, 27 May 2007 04:07:58 +0000

This is what the book ‘The Millionaire next door’ says. Making a lot of money is not dependant on how you do at school. Your character and integrity are much more important than other factors. Cheers lowincomelady