With his book Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes, top financial advisor Bert Whitehead has provided us with a personal finance book filled with practical tips from the field of behavioral finance.

In addition to basic advice on asset allocation (and a compelling argument for the use of fee-only financial advisors), he explains how, as the title suggest, our financial dysfunctions can get in the way of achieving goals.

The most important contribution Whitehead makes is his differentiation between endogenous and exogenous factors effecting your financial well-being. Basically, exogenous factors are the ones that most financial sites (including this one) and newspapers focus on: The things we can't control that don't directly involve us. Where will interest rates go? Where will the Dow be in 10 years.

Whitehead argues that these things are impossible to predict and that, furthermore, they're not important. Endogenous factors -- education, spending, marriage, health -- are far more important. He writes that "most people could avoid the most common financial dysfunction altogether if they knew how to do it".

It's pretty rare that an original personal finance book comes out, and Why Smart People Do Stupid Things with Money certainly covers a lot of familiar territory. But the pop psychology element and discussion of the dark side of the financial services industry make this well-worth adding to your library.

Book review: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things with Money originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.