Welcome to Young Adult Financial

Imagine that it is poker night with a few of your friends. You glance around the table and notice that you’re up quite a bit of money so far—nearly triple what you paid to enter. The betting on a particular hand swings around to you, and the amount is larger than you would normally wager. On this night, however, you’re playing with ‘found money’; why not just toss in a few extra chips?

This blog discusses financial advice to help young adults with newfound independence. Much of the advice is derived from the fields of psychology and economics, which jointly form the field known as behavioral economics, but I will also use real-world examples to (hopefully) stay relevant and engaging.

Here are some questions this blog will tackle:

• What are common financial mistakes for teens and young adults? How can they correct them?

• What factors influence how people spend their money? How can people account for these factors to spend their money better?

• How should teens and young adults approach major financial decisions? What decision-making processes should they use?

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Although the questions might sound stale, posts will be peppered with scenarios that young adults frequently encounter—for example, the poker game mentioned above. By describing the situations in detail, I hope that young adults will give more thought to their financial decisions in day-to-day life, and eventually make better ones.

You might be wondering who I am and why I am qualified to give financial advice. To answer the first question, my name is Steven Adler, and I am a student at Brown University. I intend to major in economics and a track of our business program, but I’m also very interested in psychology, sociology, and human behavior.

With respect to the second question, I’m not truly qualified per se. I am not a Certified Financial Planner, nor am I a CPA, and my advice should not be taken in place of theirs. I am, however, a student with curiosity and passion for the subject, and I think that I can relate well because of my age.

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My interest in behavioral economics began with the books Outliers and Freakonomics. Since then, I have taken a few courses in psychology and in economics, and they have reignited my interest. Most recently, I made a list of interesting books for the summer and undertook it as a sort of self-improvement project. I will touch upon many concepts discussed in those books, and I hope that you find the ideas as fascinating as I did.

This blog is not a cure-all for financial decision-making—I, too, struggle with many of the concepts I’ll be discussing—but it can attempt to create some impact. I hope that this blog will be useful to at least a few readers, and I am hopeful that such an impact is enough.

Photo from above is available here.