3/28/2014 – Finances and the Aging Brain

Some recent research has shown that highly intelligent retirees—even those with no signs of dementia—find it harder to distinguish safe investments from risky ones. Compared with younger investors, those over the age of 65 “showed striking and costly inconsistencies” in their financial behavior, according to a study of 135 subjects led by Ifat Levy, a neuroscientist at Yale University who has conducted experiments on this topic.

“Train yourself not to make a lot of fast decisions,” says Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity at Stanford University. “Set up a simple plan and stick to it.”

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal.