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The Psychology of Money

Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

By Morgan Housel

Paperback £14.99 / $19.99
eBook £11.99 / $14.99
Hardback £22.00 / $27.00
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The Psychology of Money

Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness

By Morgan Housel

Jacket text

Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.

Money—investing, personal finance, and business decisions—is typically taught as a math-based field, where data and formulas tell us exactly what to do. But in the real world people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a meeting room, where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together.

In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics.

Psychology of Money Trailer from Harriman House on Vimeo.

About the author

Morgan Housel is a partner at The Collaborative Fund and a former columnist at The Motley Fool and The Wall Street Journal. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, winner of the New York Times Sidney Award, and a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.

Reviews

It’s one of the best and most original finance books in years.

Jason Zweig

Morgan Housel’s new book clarifies – with razor sharp and accessible insight – that building wealth is a mindset problem, not an investment problem. This is the first book any investor should read; in conjunction with a good index fund, becoming wealthy lies within everyone’s grasp.

Tim Hale, Managing Director at Albion Strategic Consulting and author of Smarter Investing: Simpler Decisions for Better Results

Few people write about finance with the graceful clarity of Morgan Housel. The Psychology of Money is an essential read for anyone who wants to make wiser decisions or live a richer life.

Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of WHEN, TO SELL IS HUMAN, and DRIVE

Morgan Housel is that rare writer who can translate complex concepts into gripping, easy-to-digest narrative. The Psychology of Money is a fast-paced, engaging read that will leave you with both the knowledge to understand why we make bad financial decisions and the tools to make better ones.

Annie Duke, Author, Thinking in Bets

Morgan Housel is one of the brightest new lights among financial writers. He is accessible to everyone wanting to learn more about the psychology of money. I highly recommend this book.

James P. O’Shaughnessy, Author, What Works on Wall Street

The Psychology of Money is bursting with interesting ideas and practical takeaways. Quite simply, it is essential reading for anyone interested in being better with money. Everyone should own a copy.

James Clear, Author, million-copy bestseller Atomic Habits

Housel’s observations often hit the daily double: they say things that haven’t been said before, and they make sense.

Howard Marks, Director and Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital & Author, The Most Important Thing and Mastering the Market Cycle

Media coverage

From MoneyWeek:

As Morgan Housel put it in his book – The Psychology of Money – when building wealth: “The first idea – simple, but easy to overlook – is that building wealth has little to do with your income or investment returns, and lots to do with your savings rate.”

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From IOL:

Having recently enjoyed reading Morgan Housel’s “The Psychology of Money” I was reminded of the crucial role compounding can play in multi-generational wealth creation. While the stories about arguably the greatest investor of our time, Warren Buffet, are legion, this one I didn’t know. By James Newell

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From Business Day:

In his book “The Psychology of Money,” Morgan Housel dedicates a chapter to wealth, greed, and happiness. He emphasises that our behaviour during both good and bad times, especially the bad, plays a significant role in how well we manage money. Housel explains that pessimism has become the norm, which is why losses tend to… Read more »

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From Making Media:

Today, we are going behind the scenes with a master of his craft, Morgan Housel. In the investing world that Matt and I are from, there are few – if any – who make better content than Morgan. His blog has been a personal favourite for years and his first book, The Psychology of Money,… Read more »

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From The Motley Fool:

This lines up well with what former Fool.com writer Morgan Housel wrote in his best-selling book The Psychology of Money: “[T]he ceiling of social comparison is so high that virtually no one will ever hit it. [A]ccept that you might have enough, even if it’s less than those around you.”

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From The Compound and Friends:

On episode 93 of The Compound and Friends, Michael Batnick and Downtown Josh Brown are joined by Chris Davis and Morgan Housel to discuss the big wave of AI coming, the most important chart in the stock market, SVB insiders facing scrutiny, the worst startup investment ever, and much more!

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From Microsoft Start:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/discover-the-essential-top-10-finance-books-every-investor-must-read/ss-AA18dhAH

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From Big Think:

As financial writer Morgan Housel wrote in his popular 2020 book, The Psychology of Money, at face value, this spending habit among the poorest Americans seems absurd: “Forty percent of Americans cannot come up with $400 in an emergency. [Low-income lottery players] are blowing their safety nets on something with a one-in-millions chance of hitting… Read more »

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From Portfolio Advisor:

“Volatility is the price of admission,” so goes the quote from Morgan Housel’s book, The Psychology of Money, “The prize inside is superior long-term returns.” No one could have missed the recent volatility. But where to find the prize? Potentially absolute return funds.

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Contents

Introduction: The Greatest Show On Earth

1. No One's Crazy
2. Luck & Risk
3. Never Enough
4. Confounding Compounding
5. Getting Wealthy vs. Staying Wealthy
6. Tails, You Win
7. Freedom
8. Man in the Car Paradox
9. Wealth is What You Don't See
10. Save Money
11. Reasonable > Rational
12. Surprise!
13. Room for Error
14. You'll Change
15. Nothing's Free
16. You & Me
17. The Seduction of Pessimism
18. When You'll Believe Anything
19. All Together Now
20. Confessions

Postscript: A Brief History of Why the U.S. Consumer Thinks the Way They Do
Endnotes
Acknowledgements



Rights

The following language rights for The Psychology of Money have been sold:

  • Albanian
  • Arabic
  • Brazilian (Portuguese)
  • Bulgarian
  • Complex Chinese
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Dutch
  • Estonian
  • French
  • Georgian
  • German
  • Greek
  • Gujarati
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Indian English language reprint
  • Indonesian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Kannada
  • Korean
  • Lithuanian
  • Macedonian
  • Malayalam
  • Marathi
  • Mongolian
  • Nepali
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Serbian
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Thai
  • Turkish
  • Ukranian
  • Vietnamese

Other language rights are currently available although many are already under discussion or offers have been made. If you would like to enquire about rights please contact Charlotte at rights@harriman-house.com

The TV & film rights have been optioned by Cavalry Media

Published: 08/09/2020
Edition: 1st
Pages: 256
Formats: paperback - ISBN 9780857197689
ebook - ISBN 9780857197696
hardback - ISBN 9780857199096
audio - ISBN 0000000000036
Media enquiries

If you’d like to get in touch with the author for interview or comment, or you’d like a review copy of this book, please contact us at pr@harriman-house.com or call +44 (0)1730 233870.

Rights

For information on available rights, please contact rights@harriman-house.com

Bulk purchases

We offer discounts for bulk purchases. Please contact specialsales@harriman-house.com for a quote.