When it comes to money matters, even the smartest of us can make some pretty dumb decisions. From falling in love at first sight with a house and hastily negotiating a price to blindly following the pack in investment dealings, life is fraught with financial choices that are settled on with gut instinct rather than a level head—moves that can, and often do, lead to costly mistakes. In order to sidestep major money blunders, resisting first impulses, though not easy to do, is absolutely crucial. This groundbreaking book gives you the tools necessary to think through fiscal issues practically so you don't continue making decisions rashly. Written by Max Bazerman, a renowned expert in the field of decision making and negotiation, Smart Money Decisions illustrates both how and why we make the decisions we do. Offering an intriguing mental audit of people's psychological relationship with money, it provides the essential understanding you need to identify your own approach to finances, recognize any inherent problems, and determine ways to overcome them. Bazerman guides you through these basic steps with the goal of permanently improving your financial decisions in a wide range of real-life scenarios, such as buying and selling a home or a car, making investments, and choosing careers. Highlighting the errors too often made in these and other situations, Smart Money Decisions presents the 10 most important money mistakes, including: Overconfidence—the engine that fuels other monetary missteps Being unprepared —"winging it" leads to mishaps that could easily be avoided Focusing on beating the other side—coming out on top shouldn't overshadow making a decision that will help you in the long run Ignoring alternatives—having your heart set on only one option isn't always the wisest strategy Packed with sound advice and expert recommendations on how to make more reasoned monetary decisions, Smart Money Decisions is essential reading for anyone who wants to stop making costly financial errors. Advance Praise for SMART MONEY DECISIONS "If you need to negotiate anything . . . from a pay increase to buying or selling a house—this book covers all the bases. What makes it even better is that Max has taught, tested, and proven his theories with thousands of executives and MBA students." —Donald P. Jacobs, Dean, J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management "Smart Money Decisions will make you think twice before reaching for your wallet. Max Bazerman provides a fascinating, easy-to-understand look at how we make money decisions and offers sound advice that will help you increase your net worth." —Roger E. Stricker, PhD, Intellectual Property Vice President, Lucent Technologies "By holding a mirror up to our faces, Max Bazerman allows us to see all those dumb money mistakes each of us had no idea we were making. Those dumb money moves, made by even the smartest among us, now exposed and put into perspective, become the springboard from which the author teaches us the solutions. More often than not, those solutions have been staring us in the face all along." —Bill Bresnan, Financial Talk Show Host/Author "It's your pocketbook that Bazerman is protecting. Be smart enough to think about his advice. You'll be entertained in the bargain." —Howard Raiffa, Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Managerial Economics (Emeritus), Harvard University Read Less