Financial "Amygdala"

(The author is the Founder and CEO of Money Avenues, a Wealth Management firm based in Chennai. Feedback can be sent to mailfpc@ yahoo.com) 

Financial "Amygdala"...

What drives us to worry, fear and feel anxious about our financial future?

Though there are many drivers for people to plan their financial future, one significant reason is the "Fear"; worries and anxiety caused by fear about one's financial future. 


Human brain is a powerful creation which processes  tonnes of our thoughts and sends out appropriate and many times inappropriate reactions. Fear reaction is created by specific portions inside our brain called "amygdala", which means almond in latin.

-- There are some interesting studies conducted on human beings on the human fear factor. 

Recently, a 44-year-old woman who doesn't experience fear has led to the discovery of where that fright factor lives in the human brain. Researchers put out their best foot to try to scare the patient, whose name they refer just as "SM" in their write-up in the issue of the journal Current Biology. Haunted houses, where monsters tried to evoke an avoidance reaction, instead evoked curiosity; spiders and snakes didn't do the trick; and a battery of scary film clips entertained SM.

The patient has a rare condition called Urbach–Wiethe disease that has destroyed her amygdala (latin word meaning almond), the almond-shaped structure located deep in the brain. Over the past 50 years studies have shown the amygdala plays a central role in generating fear responses in various animals from rats to monkeys.

For most of us, fear seems like a negative emotion, one that stresses us out and inhibits us from trying things that might make our life more rewarding. But as the Current Biology paper makes clear, SM's fearlessness has cost her a great deal. On the most obvious level, it has left her vulnerable to all kinds of dangers. She lives in a dangerous part of a big city, and several times she has walked obliviously into potentially violent encounters. One time, she was held up at gunpoint; another time, a drug addict accosted her and held a knife to her throat. Intriguingly, though she did not feel scared during those encounters, she did report feeling angry and upset afterward. Her emotional deficit is quite specific. --

But one need not worry about this. If one has fear, worries and anxiety in the right levels it's just being a normal human being.

In essence, every one has a sense of fear and anxiety; and those are not negative as supposed to be. As seen in the case of SM, the patient went through tougher times for not feeling scared. But this is just an aberration. Human beings tend to feel fearful and anxious in different degrees. And that factor really drives us to worry about our future.

What do we fear about?

We fear, worry and feel anxious about our 

• Our careers. 
• Our money.
• Our physical lives.
• Our financial life after retirement.
• Our children's future.
• Our family's health.
  

 And these are worrisome because of the financial implications caused by them. And we tend to balance these factors by enjoying the present by shopping, planning a vacation, buying expensive things and seeking spiritual solace.... The financial crisis in 2008 taught us few things. One key learning is that the world is not going to be the same again in the economic sense. 9/11 taught us one thing. The world is not going to be the same again in terms of safety of lives.

What do we do to mitigate these factors which are fear, worry and anxiety caused by money:

We don't have control on many of these things which are created by forces in the world like economic crises, inflation and global security risks. But what we can
control is through our structured planning.

Control the Controllables:

Have a structured financial plan covering your life, investments, your future goals and goals for your kids... The planning can mitigate these risks. And remember, planning is like taking safety precautions on a flight journey. 

Plan for your -

• Life insurance.
• Wealth creation.
• Retirement.
• Children's future. 

Bottom line is that we all have "Amygdala" portions in our brain which makes us fearful, worrisome and anxious on things and they are just normal. And we don't have tools to prevent them, but we can certainly mitigate them.

Speak to Experts @ Money Avenues for your  i S.M.A.R.T financial plan and have worry free financial future.


(The author is the Founder and CEO of Money Avenues, a Wealth Management firm based in Chennai. Feedback can be sent to mailfpc@ yahoo.com)