A good rule of thumb is to assume that everything matters.

I'm all for empowerment and education, but the empirical evidence is that it doesn't work. That's why I say make it easy.

LTCM lost money when Russia defaulted on a certain class of bonds, and then they had other investments like on the spread between two different kinds of shares of Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. Now that seems completely unrelated to Russian bonds. But they were related because other hedge funds saw similar discrepancies and they were all making similar bets.

People exaggerate their own skills. they are optimistic about their prospects and overconfident about their guesses, including which managers to pick.

A good rule of thumb is to assume that everything matters.

Is there a market for somebody selling a credit card that helps people pay down their balances? I think the question is yes. But it would have to be sold by a bank that's really willing to invest in being a trusted partner with its consumers, because they will make less money on each consumer.

The assumption that everybody will figure out how much they have to save and then will just implement that plan is obviously preposterous.