The app for independent voices
Dr. Ted Klontz once told me: "You can't always believe what you think you've heard."
He meant it as advice for financial advisors listening to clients. But I've been turning it over in my own direction lately — prompted, honestly, by some recent writing from Derek Sivers and his book Useful Not True.
What have I told myself about money — and how much of it do I actually believe?
Most of us never go back to check. We inherited a script early, lived through a vivid episode, retold the story enough times that it calcified. Now it runs quietly in the background, shaping decisions we think we're making rationally.
The invitation I'm sitting with this week: Pick one financial belief you hold with certainty — about yourself, your past, your future — and ask how confident are you, from 0 to 100%?
Not to dismiss it. Just to loosen the grip a little.
Because a plan built on a reconstructed past and an imagined future needs some flex in it. That's not pessimism. That's just honest engineering.
For the full piece, including what Elizabeth Loftus' memory research and the Brian Williams story have to do with your financial planning, click below:
