Goals-Based Financial Planning: How Simple Lists Can Overcome Cognitive Blind Spots

Goals-Based Financial Planning: How Simple Lists Can Overcome Cognitive Blind Spots

Ray Sin, Ryan Murphy and Samantha Lamas

Journal paper

Journal of Financial Planning

2019

• Prior research has shown that behavioral biases may inhibit investors from identifying and prioritizing investing goals that are important to them. • A nationally representative study was conducted to understand if a simple behavioral technique would nudge investors away from using unreliable, top-of-mind notions when it comes to creating investing goals; and if a more sophisticated technique is better at prioritizing investment goals than a simple one. • Asking people to self-report their investing goals is insufficient. About 26 percent of the participants in the study changed their top goal when prompted with reminders about other goals. • On average, using a more sophisticated ranking technique did not lead to any appreciable difference in how investment goals were ranked, suggesting that when it comes to prioritizing multiple goals, a straightforward rank ordering suffices.