Christine WongFounder, Zenshin Collective Pte Ltd · Trauma Informed Coach for Couple relationships, Careers and Business

CNA Money Mind How Bad Investment Decisions are Affected by Childhood Experiences ft. Christine Wong

25 May 2020 · 2 min

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1:59

In this MoneyMind segment, hosts introduce research showing that the first five years of a child's development shape brain architecture and personality. They argue that early childhood experiences also affect financial behaviour later in life. Guest Christine Wong explains that children often internalise their parents' self‑doubt and lack of confidence; for example, a father who feels "not good enough" can unconsciously pass that mindset to his child, leading the child to distrust their own decisions. This low self‑trust becomes emotional baggage that surfaces in investment choices, causing investors to act out of fear—such as exiting positions too quickly and incurring losses. The conversation highlights the importance of recognising these deep‑seated psychological patterns to avoid repeating harmful investment habits.

Chapters

Hello and a warm welcome to MoneyMind. Research has shown that the first 5 years of a child's development are the most important. The quality of experiences shapes how the brain develops and determines just what sort of person he or she is going to be. But did you know that childhood experiences also have an impact on how you invest? But first, Chok Eng Yut delves into human psychology and learns how being aware of your childhood We want the best for our children.
We send them for enrichment classes. We make sure they eat right. But in our pursuit for the best, some parents may have neglected one very important aspect. Bad experiences in early childhood have the potential to negatively affect a person for life. The best way to avoid bad experiences is to make sure they happen in the first place.
For example, when you are small, your father feels that he's really not good enough and not very successful and does not trust himself too much. Somehow, unconsciously, we are also identified with similar behaviours. That means not trusting ourselves, not trusting our decisions.
The person brings all this stress and emotional baggage into his or her investment decisions too. And can make some bad choices.
Because of all this not feeling good enough, or feeling that they may fail, you know, or they may cause further stress, then they start to make— they start to exit very fast. So some of them actually lose a lot of money because they exit very fast.
Because we're all emotional beings, it's not possible to eliminate all our emotions from our investments. After all, We still need to feel good about any investment decision we make.