The Money Mindset Podcast with Fexingo: Psychology of Money, Financial Habits, and Wealth Thinking

Lucas and Luna dismantle the popular 50-30-20 budgeting rule, arguing it's too rigid for real life. Using the example of a typical early-career professional in 2026 with high rent and student debt, they show how strict adherence can lead to guilt and poor financial decisions. They explore alternative frameworks like zero-based budgeting, the 80-20 principle, and values-based spending. Specific dat...

Episode 28 of The Money Mindset Podcast dives into a specific psychological bias: the premium we pay for comfort. Lucas and Luna explore a 2023 field experiment at a Dutch train station where travelers paid 1.20 euros more for a ticket from a kiosk versus a machine—even though the kiosk added zero time savings. They trace how this 'comfort premium' shows up in everything from subscription services...

Lucas and Luna explore the dangerous gap between how confident we feel about a financial decision and how accurate we actually are. Drawing on a 2023 study from the Journal of Financial Economics that tracked over 10,000 retail investors, they unpack why people who rate themselves 'very confident' tend to trade 67 percent more often yet earn 2.3 percentage points less per year. Lucas breaks down t...

Lucas and Luna dive into the surprising psychology behind frequent portfolio checking. Drawing on a 2023 study from the Journal of Behavioral Finance, they explain how checking your investments too often leads to worse long-term returns by triggering loss aversion and short-term thinking. Lucas shares the specific data: investors who check daily underperform buy-and-hold strategies by an average o...

Episode 25 of The Money Mindset Podcast dives into present bias — the cognitive quirk that makes us prioritize today's comfort over long-term financial gain. Lucas and Luna unpack the famous marshmallow test, then go beyond it: how the research evolved, what it means for retirement saving, and why automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans works so well. They examine a study showing that people offered...

In this episode of The Money Mindset Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the cognitive bias known as 'cash illusion' or 'money illusion'--the tendency to think of cash as inherently safer and more stable than it really is, while ignoring the corrosive effect of inflation. Using the specific example of a $50,000 inheritance left untouched in a bank account from 2010 to 2025, they show how that cash los...

Episode 23 of The Money Mindset Podcast explores the hidden bias that makes homeowners believe their house is a superior investment to stocks or bonds. Lucas and Luna unpack a 2024 study from the Federal Reserve showing that U.S. homeowners estimate their home's annual appreciation at 6.2 percent, while actual average appreciation since 2000 is just 3.9 percent. They discuss why this 'home bias' p...

Lucas and Luna explore the endowment effect through the lens of a single stock Lucas inherited from his grandfather: a regional bank holding company called First Merchants Corporation. They trace how an emotional attachment to a small position can distort rational portfolio decisions, using research from behavioral economists Thaler and Kahneman. Lucas walks through his actual decision process thi...

Why do investors hold onto losing stocks and funds long after they should sell? In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the sunk cost fallacy through the lens of a real-world example: a listener who held a $15,000 position in a retail stock that lost 60% of its value over three years. They break down the psychology behind the bias, the difference between sunk costs and opportunity costs, and a sim...

Episode 20 of The Money Mindset Podcast explores the dangerous gap between how confident your financial advisor sounds and how accurate they actually are. Lucas and Luna dig into a study from the Journal of Financial Economics showing that advisors who express the highest conviction in their stock picks underperform the market by an average of 2.3% annually. They discuss the 'confidence trap'—the...

In this episode of The Money Mindset Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the sunk cost fallacy — why our brains refuse to abandon a losing investment even when it's the rational move. Using the 2014 collapse of the Canadian dollar as a case study, Lucas explains how loss aversion and commitment bias trap investors in bad decisions. Luna pushes back with a personal story about holding onto a stock for...

Lucas and Luna explore the counterintuitive psychology of insurance: why we resist buying coverage for low-probability, high-impact events like disability or long-term care, even though these products offer the best expected value. They dig into a 2023 study from the Journal of Risk and Insurance showing that only 1 in 5 private-sector workers has disability insurance, and why behavioral economist...

Lucas and Luna explore the powerful yet invisible influence of 'money scripts'—the unconscious beliefs about money we inherit from childhood. They dive into the research of Dr. Brad Klontz, who identified four core money scripts: money avoidance, money worship, money status, and money vigilance. Lucas shares a personal story about his father's Depression-era thrift and how it shaped his own spendi...

Lucas and Luna explore the power of a financial calendar — a simple tool that helps you anticipate market-moving events, avoid emotional decision-making, and build consistent investment habits. They discuss how marking key dates like Fed meetings, earnings seasons, and tax deadlines can reframe your relationship with money from reactive to proactive. Lucas shares how he uses a calendar to track hi...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the concept of a financial autobiography — the practice of writing down your earliest money memories, your family's financial attitudes, and the moments that shaped your current money behavior. They discuss why this exercise reveals hidden biases, how it works alongside therapy and journaling, and why it's gaining traction among financial planners. The hosts...

Episode 14 of The Money Mindset Podcast unpacks the index fund revolution. Lucas and Luna explore why low-cost passive investing has beaten most active managers over the long run, using the 2017 S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) report that showed 94% of large-cap fund managers underperformed the S&P 500 over 15 years. They discuss the psychological biases behind the active versus passive debate—o...

Sunk cost bias traps us in bad financial choices because our brains hate waste. Lucas and Luna explore the psychology behind this irrational behavior, from people holding losing stocks too long to staying in miserable careers because they've already invested years. They discuss the 'Concorde Fallacy,' how professional investors rationalize throwing good money after bad, and a simple reframing tech...

In this episode of The Money Mindset Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore the concept of 'financial contagion' — how the spending and saving habits of your social circle can silently shape your own financial decisions. They dive into a 2024 study by researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, which tracked the spending patterns of 2,000 individuals over five yea...

Lucas and Luna explore the psychological case for hiring a financial advisor even when you're perfectly capable of managing your own money. They dive into the concept of 'advice alpha'—the 1.5 to 4 percentage point net return boost that advisors can provide through behavioral coaching, tax-loss harvesting, and rebalancing discipline. Using the Vanguard Advisor's Alpha framework and a 2022 DALBAR s...

In this episode of The Money Mindset Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore why spending money on experiences that intimidate you—like a solo trip, a challenging class, or a risky investment in yourself—often delivers the highest psychological return. They anchor the discussion in a 2021 study from San Francisco State University showing that people who bought a 'scary' experience reported 40% higher life...

This episode explores the 'ludic fallacy' — the cognitive bias that makes us think investing is a game of luck like a lottery. Lucas and Luna unpack a 2024 study from the Journal of Behavioral Finance showing that 61% of new retail investors treat high-beta stocks like lottery tickets, focusing on improbable upside rather than expected value. They discuss how the rise of zero-commission trading an...

Lucas and Luna explore why spending money on experiences—concerts, travel, cooking classes—yields more lasting happiness than buying material goods. They dive into the psychology of anticipation, the fading affect bias, and how our memories edit out the boring parts. Lucas cites a 2003 study by Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich showing that 57% of people report greater happiness from experiential...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the endowment effect—the behavioral bias that makes people overvalue what they already own, from stocks to sneakers to real estate. Using the classic 1990 Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler mug experiment, they break down why sellers price items more than buyers are willing to pay, and how this distorts everything from portfolio management to salary negotiations....

Episode 6 of The Money Mindset Podcast challenges the conventional wisdom that saving is always safe. Lucas and Luna explore the concept of 'over-saving' – a behavioral and financial risk that quietly erodes wealth. Using the case of a Japanese widow who saved her entire salary for 30 years only to lose purchasing power to deflation and low interest rates, they unpack the hidden costs of hoarding...

We explore the psychological concept of the 'hedonic treadmill' — the tendency for human happiness to revert to a baseline despite income increases. Lucas and Luna discuss how this phenomenon keeps high earners feeling financially insecure, using real data from lottery winners and a famous Harvard study on happiness. They unpack why a $50,000 raise can feel like nothing after six months and offer...