behaviour
The End of History Illusion
The rule
We badly guess how much our future selves will change what they want. So rigid lifelong money plans tend to trap us.
Where it flips
The trap on the other side is using "I might change" as an excuse to commit to nothing and just drift. The fix is a firm direction with soft details. Keep saving and investing steadily, but avoid all-or-nothing bets that only one version of you would ever want.
People easily admit they have changed a lot in the past. Yet they assume they are now done changing. Your goals, your city, your family, and your taste for risk at forty may look nothing like today. Locking yourself into an extreme, do-or-die plan built for who you are right now often means regret later. Build in some room to shift course without disaster. That flexibility is worth more than squeezing out the last drop of perfection.
A worked example
At 26 Haridya vows to save so hard that she'll retire by 40 on a bare ₹15,000 a month. Then at 33 she wants marriage, travel, and a home. A slightly less extreme plan would have bent with her life instead of leaving her feeling cheated. [illustrative]
How to spot it
- ·Assuming today's goals are your permanent goals
- ·Extreme plans with no room to change your mind
- ·Locking money away in ways that punish any life change
Morgan Housel · The Psychology of Money