The Rise Of The Robo-Advisor

Come with me if you want to be financially well-off says Robo Advisor

When I was young, I had an affinity with zodiacs. It faded as I grew up, but upon entering college, I found psychology very interesting. I think zodiacs and psychology have something in common because both act as a gateway to understanding myself as a person. Early in life, I needed zodiacs to tell me I was a certain kind of person. Later in life, I still didn't know who I was and was looking to comfort myself and I thought maybe psychology would give me the ability to understand myself.

For many aspects of life, we might need to understand ourselves and hence gain a sense of control.With technological advancements though, some may be eliminated such as the case for driving with the advancements in the self-driving cars. Giving up control is hard, but under certain circumstances, everyone can learn to let go and it helps when a computer does the driving for you.

With money, there are certain things that can be automated because we have too many weaknesses that makes us go against our very own interest. We are our own enemy. That's where robo-advisors come in. The robo-advisors will advise (and some act) in our own best interest. Take it a step further by also acting like a robot through automating actions to stay on track toward goals.

And Allah wants to lighten for you [your difficulties]; and mankind was created weak.

4. Surat An-Nisā' (The Women; 28)

 
Some of the awesome technological advance in money management are Simple Bank, Personal Capital, and Riskalyze. There are plenty and things will be much more easier for future generations. The future is bright...

Fasting And Binging

It's technically my daughters first Ramadan. She's 7 and she will have to fast the whole day. Starting around lunch time is when she starts to complain. Under normal circumstances, she never asks to eat. In fact, we have to insist that she eats. During Ramadan, she wants to break her fast as soon as she feels slight hunger. Then she made a plan for break time to eat everything in sight. Of course, once she did break her fast, she didn't act according to plan.

There are two things that are at play during fasting. Hunger and satisfaction. The combination of physical and emotional need to fill the void and feeling satisfied soon after. When we're going against food, we can probably win most challenges. But how can we win against objects, when we window-shop and have a sudden urge to buy?

It's very hard when you're going against yourself without a buffer (friend, family, spouse). I am almost always the loser when I am by myself. The quick answer if you've ever find yourself digging further emotionally to find justification to buy is to quickly remove yourself from the situation. You'll soon remove yourself from the emotions you experienced and quickly gain self-control.

PS.
Happy Ramadan.

During Ramadan, I will be taking a break from this blog, though not a complete break. I will be going through all my past posts and clean up on my poor writing to my abilities. I'll see you after Eid. Salaam.

Not Sure If I'm Going Into Debt Or Just Using My Credit Card

Philip J. Fry (Futurama) thinking.

 We all use credit cards differently. Some use it like a charge card, borrow then pay in full when is due. Some use it as a loan, borrow then pay in installments. Sometimes, we have "pain" and "reward" signals when using plastic cards. Some people feel a rewarding experience from using their credit cards. I have a "pain" signal for myself that by using an ATM card pose a security risk by having to enter a pin. A risk of my card being hacked and a whole lot of "pain" and possibility that I may not be able to get my money back. I have that signal because it'd happened to me once, my ATM was copied, hacked, and used. But for credit cards, I lack a "pain" signal and have always treated it like cash. The pain comes much later when it gets me into debt.

Step 27 takes the financial literacy approach by educating the cost of taking on debt. We need to understand the terms such as interest or APR, length of loan, finance charge, credit limit, minimum monthly payment, grace period, over the limit and late fees associated with the debt. A much more easier approach is to just avoid it completely so that we would not need to understand it at all. When we use our card, we have to know exactly whether we are falling into debt by making that swipe purchase, since credit card increase purchasing power, but not increasing our income. If we avoid it completely, we know we are not falling into debt when we are making a purchase with cash.

 An interesting part is how debt affects us not just financially, but also emotionally and physically. Are we really ready to take on a burden of back pain, migraine, anxiety and depression by getting into debt? Debt is for the financially and mentally prepared.

Or do you, [O Muhammad], ask of them a payment, so they are by debt burdened down?

52. Surat At-Tur (The Mount; 40)