How Thinking About Money Can Affect Clients’ Investing Decisions
May 28, 2019
Elesa Zehndorfer
There are moments in your clients’ lives when they realize money can indeed buy happiness. It’s the joy they feel when they get the unexpected bonus at work. Or the cash in their hands when they sell a car. Or the pleasure when a stock they took a risk on quickly doubles or triples in value. Money delivers a rush. The way they feel at those times is a physiological response to money. That’s because when they think about money, it can exert a neurological effect on their brains so seductive that it literally matches what happens to their bodies when they think about love or sex—some of their most primal of urges. It’s no wonder, then, that research from behavioral economists and neuroscientists confirms it can be difficult to remain rational when it comes to investing behavior. Clients are seeking that rush, time and time again. My field of study, physiology, sheds fascinating light on how the body deals with these seductive effects. Let’s investigate why evolution hardwires clients to react emotionally rather than rationally when it comes to money, and how they, as investors, can tame their inner beast and resist the allure of quick profits from the next cryptocurrency.
The Money Effect
From a physiological perspective, when we think about money, it activates the same pathways in our brain that are activated when we think about love or sex
The Desire Of Desire
A client's thoughts and feelings about money likely started when they were a child and found a quarter on the sidewalk, and it continues today when they see an investment unexpectedly increase in value. The rush is particularly alluring, especially when they believe there’s more of it to be made quickly and easily—like during the dot com run-up 20 years ago, or cryptocurrency today. Money has been referred to as the “desire of desire”. From a physiological perspective, a craving or longing for money activates the exact pathways that are stimulated when clients think about or engage with the first flush of love or sex. Potentially addictive, it powerfully clouds their rational decision-making capacities, flooding their brains with dopamine. When this happens, clients can be tempted to ditch their well-planned, long-term strategies in hopes of making a quick gain.
When clients think about money, they experience a stimulating, pleasurable sensation as their limbic system becomes engaged. As they enjoy daydreams of a retirement spent on a sail boat, or a relaxing lifestyle living by a lake, for example, the neurotransmitters dopamine and oxytocin actively stimulate their brains. The downside? These chemical reactions can motivate them to seek out instant gratification of those dreams as quickly as possible—an instinct that has wreaked havoc on 401(k)s and other retirement accounts the world over. Investors, who otherwise seem rational, can at times, abandon their long-term strategy to acquire immediate rewards—a new boat, an RV, or a vacation—after being affected by these physiological drivers. Frequently, the “rush” drives riskier decisions (Bitcoin, for example), and can significantly harm long-term outcomes.
Why, you might ask, might clients’ physiology betray them in such a way?
Capturing The Evolutionary Spirit
Gordon Gekko, in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film, “Wall Street,” famously remarked that “Greed, for want of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” And he was right. Mostly. What we refer to as greed today is better understood as an evolutionary response that allowed us to maximize our chances of survival in ancient times. Greed, it has been said, “begins in the neurochemistry of the brain,” representing an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. Turn back the clock some 50,000 years to Paleolithic times. This powerful instinct allowed our hunter-gatherer ancestors to protect and provide for their families with the “fear, protection seeking and renewed aggressiveness” required of their often short and brutish life, rewarding them with empowering testosterone and pleasure-inducing dopamine and oxytocin when they slayed a beast or successfully defended their tribe. In modern times, however, these survival instincts can lead clients to make genuinely ill-founded financial decisions because they enliven their desires for immediate gratification, subsequently motivating them to act—even though it’s often better, in an investing context, to stay put. They may also cause clients to doubt sound investing decisions, resulting in needless anxiety and stress.
Working It Out
The great news for investors is that there are ways of tempering these powerfully seductive, primal instincts.
You Can Help Them Avoid Snap Decisions
Suggest to clients that when they’re feeling the urge to make a quick gain on the latest investment trend that they call you first. Your perspective can help them make decisions that will serve their best interests long term.
Exercise Can Help Calm Down A Money Rush
There are some other steps clients can take to tamp down their money rush before making a decision. For example, physical exertion stimulates dopamine and acts like a drug in an even more powerful way than money. Every day physical exertions such as hiking, walking their dog, swimming, or even chopping logs, causes their body to release amphetamine-like chemicals, such as phenethylamine and the cannabinoid anandamide, into their brains that can dampen the desire for dopamine from an unnatural source, such as money. These solutions are basic, but we’re talking here about basic human physiology. Knee bends, stretching, and deep breathing exercises, an invigorating swim, or simply exploring that new hiking trail all offer excellent means of clearing a client’s head if they feel overwhelmed by financial pressures or if they have a meaningful financial decision to make. In short, just one session of physical exercise—particularly in the great outdoors—can carry profound effects.
Date Night
Money can be so primally alluring that it can mimic the sensations of romantic attraction, so there has never been a more powerful argument to invest in real romantic pursuits with loved ones. A fun date night can help a clients keep their mind off money.
Sleep On It
Interestingly, rest, to the investor, is as crucial as exertion. As value investor Seth Klarman so sagely noted, “ultimately, nothing should be more important to investors than the ability to sleep soundly at night.” A study backed up this sentiment, finding sleep to be “a biological necessity… without it, there is only so far the band will stretch before it snaps, with both cognitive and emotional consequences.” Only one bad night of sleep will inhibit a client's memory and tamper with their ability to integrate new data with existing knowledge. It will also ramp up stress hormones, down-regulate dopamine, and even potentially compromise a client's IQ. The takeaway? Clients should never make big financial decisions when they’re tired. The phrase “sleep on it” carries literal, powerful connotations when it comes to money.
Something More Exciting
Famed economist John Maynard Keynes first remarked that individuals are driven by “animal spirits,” a salient observation that cuts to the heart of our often-primal relationship with money, and our evolutionary-driven hard wiring as a species that is defined by a daily and, in terms of survival, necessary pursuit of pleasure. For the modern investor, this often means that even if they have rationally and confidently chosen a long-term, actively managed investing strategy, such as mutual funds, they might still feel anxious, stressed, or seduced by the latest Bitcoin or ETF gold rush. They may worry about losing out on a big profit, which makes them doubt their well informed, albeit less immediately exciting, approach. The great news is that understanding the physiological mechanisms that lie behind these feelings and emotions can help clients make smart lifestyle choices that will benefit their long-term investing strategies.