The Most Controversial Topics in Personal Finance

Some personal finance topics are perpetually controversial. Not “let’s cordially disagree” controversial but “you have offended everything I stand for” controversial. The fact that these topics are controversial is not that interesting on its own, but understanding the reasons why they are controversial is fascinating.
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*References* https://zbib.org/ae5d4eb94b3e47aa8789d1abc44154f8
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs image by Hamish Croker
Hedonic Treadmill image from The Decision Lab

*Video Chapters*
2:51 Renting vs. Owning
7:25 Income Investing
13:25 FIRE

*Correction*
17:52 I originally said happiness increases linearly, but it increases linearly with log(income) making my statement incorrect. For example, a $10,000 income increase has a decreasing effect at higher income levels, but a 10% increase has a consistent effect. I clipped out “linearly” to avoid confusion.

A related study by one of the co-authors on the same data set, but not the study mentioned in the video, finds that control is the explanation for the observed increases in happiness with increasing log(income). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016976118

*Related Videos*
Renting vs. Buying a Home: What People Get Wrong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4H9LL7A-nQ
The Irrelevance of Dividends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5j9v9dfinQ
The Relevance of Dividend Irrelevance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iNOtVtNKuU
How to Retire Early (The 4% Rule?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BScK-QyWIo
The 2.7% Rule for Retirement Spending https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FwgCRIS0Wg

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