"Dollars and Sense," by behavioral economist Dan Ariely and Jeff Kreisler explains that people tend to approach money irrationally.But to build wealth, we have to out-think our emotions.To do it, we have to be aware of psychological pitfalls like"opportunity costs" and the "endowment effect."Saving money is notoriously harder than it seems. Things pop upcar repairs, wedding gifts, invitations to concertsand suddenly our good intentions go straight out the window.So if you're trying to save more and spend less, you'd do well to stop telling yourself how important it is for your future well-being. Instead, you've got to trick yourself."Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter" is a new book by Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely and lawyer-turned-comedian Jeff Kreisler. The authors outline several ways in whichpeople tend to approachtheir finances irrationally, and offer a series of creative strategies for becoming better money managers.Below, Business Insider has rounded up five of the simplest and most compellinginsights from the book.SEE ALSO:Many people struggle to build wealth for the same reason ' and there's an easy fixWe don't consider where else our money could goScientists use the term "opportunity costs" to describe alternatives: If you spend money on one thing, you can't spend it on another. And if you take the time to think about all the things you're necessarily giving up when you spend a sum of money, you might be less inclined to spend it. It's not easy, but it works.This advice goes back to what Jesse Mecham observes in his forthcoming book "You Need a Budget." If you earmark specific sums of money for specific needssay, $100 a month for car troubleyou'll be less likely to dip into those funds than if you simply designate the money as a general "emergency fund."We think of money as relative, not absoluteThere's a hypothetical story in "Dollars and Sense" that illustrates perfectly how we justify certain expenses. Here's a summary:You go to buy a pair of $60 sneakers and find out the same pair is on sale for $40 at a store five minutes away. Most people would travel five minutes to save the $20.Then you go to buy patio furniture for $1,060 and find out the same set is on sale for $1,040 at a store five minutes away. In this case, most people would not travel five minutes to save the $20.That's because we see every expenditure as relativethe first is a 33% savings and the second is a 1.9% savings, even though we're saving $20 in both cases.The authors write: "When relativity comes into play, we can find ourselves making quick decisions about large purchases and slow decisions about small ones, all because we think about the percentage of total spending, not the actual amount."We mistakenly think our possessions are worth as much to someone elseThe "endowment effect" describes our tendency to overvalue the things we own.The authors use another hypothetical story to explain how the endowment effect can work against us.A couple is selling their longtime family home and thinks it's worth $1.3 million. The real estate suggests they list it at $1.1 million, noting that the house needs a lot of work. The sellers and the agent go back and forth about how much the house is really worth.If the couple had held their ground and refused to list the house at the suggested price, they might never have sold it. Their emotional attachment to their home would have effectively blinded them to the home's objective value.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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