2 Analysis of Personal Beliefs and Biases What do you believe in? In the philosophical jargon, this question and its answer are sometimes referred to as justification of beliefs. Justifying beliefs means providing reasons for holding the beliefs that we are holding and holding them as strongly (or weakly) as we are. Belief in something is like a light at the end of a tunnel to guide you towards light and truth. The most beautiful thing is that we have faith in this life as human beings. Every morning when we wake up, we tell ourselves, "I hope today is going to be a good day." The three most essential beliefs that shape my biases and guide me through life are a belief in karma, my life behavior, and personal finance knowledge. Firstly, I do trust in karma. In Buddhism, people believe that the actions or deeds of a person help determine what they receive in the future or even in their next lives. For example, we, Asian people, have always been taught not to waste food because it is our blessing when there are millions of hungry people. Waste of food in this life can lead to poverty and hunger in the future or even in the next life. Along with that, I strongly believe that our future results in what we do now. For instance, James Clear (2018) shows a simple calculation that if people improve their behaviors by one percent every day, the improvement result will compound by 37% every year. Conversely, if people choose to worse one percent each day, they go down to zero per year. As Clear said, "What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more" (p. 15). To explain it, I will take the Math class as an example. People have always complained about why they have so much homework to do and why they need to repeat the same problem ten times or even more. However, scientific experiments have shown that if we practice on something so 3 many times, we will do it faster and more accurately the next time. Asian students are always given hundreds of exercises for each problem in our math class. I had used four notes book for one semester. When the High school graduation exam came, the students who had practiced frequently obviously got a higher grade than those who had practiced occasionally. Students want to get the highest score to get in the honor school they wish. James Clear quotes, "Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations." This quote motivates me to study little by little every day towards my degree. Finally, personal finance is crucial to determine your life in your 60s. People with good money habits will pay off for the rest of their lives. In my college years, there were so many workshops about time management, study strategies, research papers, etc. However, I rarely saw personal finance workshops, or not as common as other workshops. This makes me feel like educators do not treat personal finance as necessary as other issues. I have met people who go to work and spend all their salary to buy luxuries. Of course, when I asked them whether they had any personal savings for emergencies, they said "no." Hence, the question is, what will they do to cover those cases. People go broke by trying to look rich. They try to be "flashy" by wearing designer shoes, clothes and carrying thousand-dollars bags, but they cannot afford their car fix expenses. Another two statements support my point of view: "It is not your salary that makes you rich; it is your spending habits," said Charles A. Jaffe; "Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship," said Benjamin Franklin. I know other people will argue why I do not enjoy my life; I only live once. There are always two biases. One group of people said you only live once, so enjoy your life. The others suggest saving 20% of your income for emergency funds. This is a controversial topic that 4 cannot come to an end. People in each group hold different beliefs about life and money habits, and they have convincing reasons to support them. This is an example of in-group bias. Furthermore, the people in each group tend to use negativity bias to convince the other group's members to follow their faith. Negative experiences tend to affect people much more than positive ones. In specific, people will just remember the experience when their friends had new collection bags, customized shoes, or tried Salt Bae Golden Steak, but they did not. They will feel loose and embarrassed with their friends. As a result, they start to develop bad money habits like their friends. In conclusion, you can alter your thinking, and if you can change your thoughts, you can change your behaviors; ultimately, your life's consequences. Knowledge is not enough on its own, and growing your self-awareness isn't either. These two tools must be used in partnership. In life, there will be times when we face situations that betray our trust. Therefore, we must think carefully and make the right decision. Just once we break that trust, it will become more and more blurred in our awareness.