Help me make a financial or investment decision
When to use
The decision involves money, investments, property, or significant financial commitment.
What you'll get
A structured evaluation with specific checks for money-related psychological traps, plus a clear recommendation on what the evidence actually suggests.
The prompt
I'm making a financial decision about [DECISION]. Context: [CONTEXT — amount involved, timeframe, alternatives].
My current thinking: [CURRENT LEANING OR PLAN].
As we work through this, check for the traps most common in financial decisions:
- Am I anchored to a number that may no longer be relevant — the price I paid, the peak it reached, or the first number I heard — rather than what it's actually worth now or going forward?
- Am I holding on to something, or avoiding exiting, primarily because I don't want to crystallise a loss? Losses feel roughly twice as painful as equivalent gains feel good, which causes people to hold losing positions too long and exit winning ones too early.
- Am I factoring in past spending? Money already spent is gone regardless of what I decide now. The only thing that should matter is what happens from this point forward.
- Is my sense of what's likely being driven by recent news or vivid examples rather than actual base rates?
Ask me what you need to understand the decision. Then give me your honest assessment of what the evidence suggests I should do, and what I'd need to believe for the alternative to be the right call.Why this prompt works
Financial decisions warrant their own prompt because the specific traps — anchoring on historical prices, loss-crystallisation aversion, recency distortion — are consistent and distinct enough to name explicitly.
The psychology behind this
Loss Aversion
Read the full experiment →18_loss_aversion.mdFirst Number Wins
Read the full experiment →16_anchoring.mdThe Sunk Cost Fallacy
Read the full experiment →39_sunk_cost_fallacy.mdThe Availability Heuristic
Read the full experiment →57_availability_heuristic.md