If you have loans, the first thing you want to do is say, "Okay, look I have a credit card, if I really need to borrow, I have this emergency money that I can get, but for now there is no reason for me to keep cash at zero percent interest rate and at the same time, pay all of this money out. So, I think people need to figure out quickly how to pay loans and how much cash they should really keep.
Dan ArielyWith everything you do, in fact, you should train yourself to question your repeated behaviors.
Dan ArielyThe people who need to overcome temptation to the highest degree have the hardest time doing it.
Dan ArielyOne of the big lessons from behavioral economics is that we make decisions as a function of the environment that we're in.
Dan ArielyNot all debt is bad. From time to time we should get into debt when there's a good reason for that.
Dan ArielyWe usually think of ourselves as sitting the driver's seat, with ultimate control over the decisions we made and the direction our life takes; but, alas, this perception has more to do with our desires-with how we want to view ourselves, than with reality.
Dan ArielyIn the U.S., I think there is an ideology of not telling kids what to do. Nobody to tell you who to marry, not tell you what job to pick. You're your own person. You have the freedom to choose, including the freedom to fail in magnificent ways. And I think that's the big difference. In other countries there is basically a social norm about saving that is passed from generation to generation. In the U.S. there isn't.
Dan Ariely