Did you know that Retail Therapy and Comfort Food have a lovechild?
Women have a reputation for using “retail therapy” after a hard day (or week, or year), and both sexes are known to use high-fat comfort foods to soothe the soul; but did you know that Retail Therapy and Comfort Food have a lovechild?
His name [...]
Make no mistake: Borrowing from friends and family is tricky business.
At first glance it seems like the perfect situation: They love you. They’re more likely to sympathize with your need than a bank; and you’ll definitely pay the money back.
But imagine a trip to the mailbox. You mindlessly open the door and pull out a [...]
I’m Stephanie and I’m the new Community Intern at Thrive. Though I’m very interested in personal finance, my background is in education. I specialize in community-based education, providing high school and college students with opportunities to test out their classroom knowledge in the world outside school. I also conduct research to help [...]
When grown men shout accusations in the middle of presidential addresses, or jump on stage during someone’s acceptance speech to slur that another person deserved the award—well, it’s a good time for a little chat about manners.
Don’t underestimate the power of polite behavior on the road and in the workplace. What if a brush up [...]
A few timid people, who fear progress, will try to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it ‘fascism,’ sometimes ‘communism,’ sometimes ‘regimentation,’ sometimes ’socialism.’ But, in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical.
Among [...]
It’s been proven: credit cards make you spend more money.
This is because whenever we decide to buy something, there are actually two parts to the transaction, consumption (which we enjoy) and payment (which we really really don’t).
Normally, when we’re paying with cash, consumption and payment are closely tied together, so that while we do enjoy [...]
For me, I’ll still be monitoring the @SXSW topic, because it is a part of the job I’m here to do: a certain amount of schmoozing is necessary to promote your message, and frankly, the good that Thrive does for people is worth more than a little bit of my personal happiness. But I’ll also be taking it a little easier, and trusting that interested parties at SXSW will come find me instead. I’ll be geeky-looking scientist, only slightly cool, talking to whoever wants to about how we all (and Thrive) can change consumption, the politics of personal finance, and our own minds.
Excessive self-indulgence is probably not a good idea, but Keinan and Kivetz suggest that the alternative is just as bad. At the other end of the spectrum is too much self-control and excessive farsightedness. These hyperopic people view splurges as wasteful and irresponsible, and as a result avoid the very things that would actually bring them the most pleasure in the long run. And so, over time, while their indulgent counterparts feel less and less guilty about their decisions, these people who chose self-control and virtue over vice express a growing sense of having missed out on their lives.
The “behavioral profiling” that people are concerned about is centered around the relationship between the terms of their credit cards and the places that they shop. Apparently, people who used their credit cards at bargain-associated stores, like thrift shops or generic retailers, had their credit limits reduced, because the people who are more likely to shop at those stores are also more likely to be bad credit risks.
As much as I rag on the branding exploits of Unilever, I have to admit that I don’t think I’d be able to survive without brands. To me, that would be like a warped Pleasantville of sorts, a black-and-white existence with bland generic labels and aisles after aisles of cans labeled SOUP or COLA. I’m [...]
This post was written by Stephanie Cuellar Butler, Contributing Writer on December 7, 2009 
