Dollars and Sense

Why is paying for things painful?Why are we comfortable overpaying for something in the present just because we've overpaid for it in the past?Why is it easy to pay $4 for a soda on vacation, when we wouldn't spend more than $1 on that same soda at our local grocery store?We think of money as numbers, values, and amounts, but when it comes down to it, when we actually use our money, we engage our hearts more than our heads. Emotions play a powerful role in shaping our financial behavior, often making us our own worst enemies as we try to save, access value, and spend responsibly. In Dollars and Sense, bestselling author and behavioral economist Dan Ariely teams up with financial comedian and writer Jeff Kreisler to challenge many of our most basic assumptions about the precarious relationship between our brains and our money. In doing so, they undermine many of personal finance's most sacred beliefs and explain how we can override some of our own instincts to make better financial choices.Exploring a wide range of everyday topics-from the lure of pain-free spending with credit cards to the pitfalls of household budgeting to the seductive power of holiday sales-Ariely...