Someone Else's Yardstick: The Psychology Behind Money

About this book

Rodrigo is 34 years old, and he spends his life buying proof that he's doing well: a US$ 1,300 watch, paid off in three installments on his credit card, a car bigger than his coworker's, a life that looks perfect in photos. His cousin Marina makes the same salary, drives an old car, and has, without almost anyone knowing it, more than US$ 42,800 saved.At a family party, no one would guess which of the two is actually getting rich.Someone Else's Yardstick follows Rodrigo over fourteen years, from the first signs that something was wrong to the day he finally understands that money was never about numbers. Each chapter takes apart, based on real research rather than opinion, a financial behavior that almost everyone recognizes in themselves. Why you compare your life to people you don't really know. Why overspending is sometimes how the brain tries to feel safe. Why "just this once" is never just this once. Why some people seem rich without being rich, while others are rich and nobody notices. And why the question "how much is enough" matters more than any investment strategy.The book follows Rodrigo's journey alongside findings from thinkers like Daniel Kahneman, Richard Thaler, Alfred Adler, and Leon Festinger. Concepts from psychology and behavioral economics become easy to recognize in your own life, without sounding academic or distant.This book doesn't offer ready-made formulas. It's about the yardstick you use to measure your own financial life, and about what changes when you stop borrowing everyone else's yardstick for that.If you've ever compared your bank account to someone else's, or bought something just to prove you didn't need anything, this book was written with you in mind. Read more