Financial and Life Planning Resource Directory

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Mind: Decision-making style
Consumers/clients
	Benjamin, Daniel J. et al, Do People Seek to Maximize Happiness? Evidence from New Surveys
		National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2010, $5.00 http://www.nber.org/papers/w16489 The authors find that people generally make choices that they perceive will maximize their “subjective well-being,” but that there are systematic exceptions to this rule.
	Chen, Yivvei, et al, "Age Differences in Trade-off Decisions: Older Adults Prefer Choice Deferral", Psychology and Aging, June 2011 (Vol. 26, No. 2)
		http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pag/26/2/269/ The authors come up with results that may be significant for advisers: older people are more likely than younger people to put off multiple-choice decisions, and also more likely not to regret it.
	Feldman, Daniel C., and Beehr, Terry A., "Three-phase Model of Retirement Decision Making, A", American Psychologist, April 2011 (Vol. 66, No. 3)
		http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/66/3/193/ Feldman and Beeh organize prominent theories about retirement decision making around three different types of thinking about retirement: imagining the possibility of retirement, assessing when it is time to let go of long-held jobs, and putting concrete plans for retirement into action at present.
	Gustman, Alan L., et al, Financial Knowledge and Financial Literacy at the Household Level
		University of Michigan Retirement Research Center, September 2010, Free http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/papers/pdf/wp223.pdf The authors provide evidence that financial literacy and numeracy may not greatly improve consumer decision-making.
	Hansson, Patrick, et al, "Adult Age Differences in the Realism of Confidence Judgments: Overconfidence, Format Dependence, and Cognitive Predictors", Psychology and Aging, September 2008 (Vol 23, No. 3)
		http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=main.doiLanding&uid=2008-13050-005, Free The authors find that older adults exhibit more overconfidence in decision-making, but may compensate for it with greater knowledge.
	Hastings, Justine, and Mitchell, Olivia S., How Financial Literacy and Impatience Shape Retirement Wealth and Investment Behaviors
		University of Michigan Retirement Research Center, October 2010, Free http://www.mrrc.isr.umich.edu/publications/papers/pdf/wp233.pdf Hatings and Mitchell present evidence that poor financial decision-making is more closely correlated with impatience over results than with financial illiteracy.
	Marion, Jack, "Can Seniors Make Wise Decisions?", Integrative Adviser, August 2008 (Vol. 1, No. 2)
		http://www.aiflp.org/pdfs/IntegrativeAdviserNo0102.pdf, Free Analyzes recent literature, concluding that decision-making powers probably do get worse for some other-wise normal seniors. More research is needed on both the magnitude and tim-ing of age impaired decision-making as well as developing ways to cope with the impairment.
	Mata, Rui, et al, "Learning to Choose: Cognitive Aging and Strategy Selection Learning in Decision Making", Psychology and Aging, July 2010 (Vol. 25, No.2)
		http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=browsePA.volumes&jcode=pag The authors report that in their tests older adults showed poorer decision performance compared with younger adults. In particular, older adults performed poorly in an environment favoring the use of a more cognitively demanding strategy.
	Morin, Rich, and Cohn, D'Vera , Women Call the Shots at Home; Public Mixed on Gender Roles in Jobs
		Pew Research Center, September 25, 2008 http://pewresearch.org/pubs/967/gender-power Morin and Cohn's report shows that in married couples women tend to make more of the decisions, including financial ones.
	Reed, Andrew E., et al, "Older Adults Prefer Less Choice than Young Adults", Psychology and Aging, September 2008 (Vol 23, No. 3)
		http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2008-13050-018 Older adults demonstrated a distinct preference for fewer choices than younger adults, in six different domains tested by the authors.
	Seymour, Ben, and Dolan, Ray, "Emotion, Decision Making, and the Amygdala", Neuron, June 2008 (Vol. 58, No. 5)
		Seymour and Dolan suggest that influences that are often assumed to be emotional are actually Pavlovian responses that reflect prior experience, and that their influence in making economic decisions may be more beneficial than harmful.
	Torke, Alexia M., et al, "Substituted Judgment: The Limitations of Autonomy in Surrogate Decision Making", Journal of Internal Medicine, September 2008
		http://www.springerlink.com/content/m732r10050300047/?p=0e390451d64247feb2dd28382851974b&pi=36 The authors argue that the use of “substituted judgment” where advance directives have not been provided is “insurmountably flawed” and that alternatives (of which they suggest two) should be considered.
	Wood, Stacey, et al, "Numeracy and Medicare Part D: The Importance of Choice and Literacy for Numbers in Optimizing Decision Making for Medicare's Prescription Drug Program", Psychology and Aging, June 2011 (Vol. 26, No. 2)
		http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pag/26/2/295/ The authors show that “numeracy” (comfort and skill with numbers) leads to significantly better decision-making at all ages. This may have relevance to other sorts of decisions as well..
	Zauberman, Gal and Kim, B. Kyu , Time Perception and Retirement Saving: Lessons from Behavioral Decision Research
		Pension Research Council, 2010, Free http://www.pensionresearchcouncil.org/publications/document.php?file=924 Zuauberman and Kyu present a discussion of psychological mechanisms that impair people’s ability to make decisions related to delayed outcomes, particularly as this affects retirement.
Advisers
	Klement, Joachim, "Flaws of Our Financial Memory, The", Journal of Financial Planning, August 2010 (Vol. 23, No. 8)
		Klement discusses neuroscientific findings that help explain faults in our memory that in turn affect our ability to make wise financial choices.