Do you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist? The “blue dot theory” could suggest that humans are hard-wired to be pessimists, after psychologists discovered that once our brains are primed to see something (such as a blue dot), we see it everywhere, even when it’s not really there. Read on to learn more about how the blue dot theory could be affecting you and how you can stop it from negatively impacting your life. The “blue dot” theory In 2017, Harvard researchers asked participants to identify blue dots among thousands, ranging from very blue to very purple. During the first 200 trials, the participants could accurately identify the roughly equal proportion of blue and purple dots. However, as the... Read More

This guest blog was written by Chris Budd, who wrote the original Financial Wellbeing Book as well as The Four Cornerstones of Financial Wellbeing. He founded the Institute for Financial Wellbeing and has written more than 100 episodes of the Financial Wellbeing Podcast. Thinking about the future can be a source of both wellbeing and anxiety. One response to this could be to concentrate on the now. Mindfulness is a popular way of achieving this, teaching us how to be in the moment. This can provide real peace of mind. Sometimes, we do need to address the future. It is coming whether we like it or not, so surely it is better to make plans! Taking a positive approach to... Read More

Opting for a “boring” investment strategy could be the route to returns that allow you to make exciting lifestyle decisions in the future. If you’re looking for excitement in your investments, read on to find out why that approach could lead to disappointments. The media can make investing seem exciting When you’re reading financial headlines, they might say things like “stock market soars in best day ever” or “the best companies to invest in right now”. In other media, investing is often dramatic too. For example, in The Wolf of Wall Street, the main character, Jordan Belfort, is shown making a huge fortune through investing and fraud. Yet, despite the perceived excitement of investing, acting on emotions, even ones that... Read More

The 2025 World Happiness Report has been released, and this year, it has highlighted the importance of social connections and giving back to your community. The World Happiness Report assesses the current state of happiness around the world, and this year’s edition revealed that Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the world for the eighth consecutive year. Read on to discover how caring and sharing could help you improve your life. Can caring make us happier? Although there was a rise in generosity during the Covid-19 pandemic, the report found that acts of kindness have decreased over the past five years. One of the report’s biggest revelations is that being kind and expecting kindness from others is... Read More

When deciding how to invest your money, it can be tempting to seek the familiar. Indeed, familiarity bias, where investors stick to what they know, is a common type of financial bias. Yet, it could lead to an unbalanced portfolio. Read on to find out why and what you can do to overcome this bias. It’s easy to see why people seek out familiar things. Sometimes the unknown can seem scary, so going to what you know may feel comforting. However, while it can feel safer, when you’re investing the opposite might be true. Familiarity bias could affect investment diversification Diversification is an investment strategy that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio to reduce risk. This could... Read More