Friday 13th, superstitions & your finances

Are you worried about this Friday? It’s Friday 13th, after all.

In fact, this will be the third Friday 13th we’ve had in 2015.

Despite it being simply a date, it turns out many of us are quite superstitious about this day in the calendar.

For example, 15% of us will choose to avoid making Friday 13th our date for moving home for fear of misfortune.

A survey from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks has found superstitions run rife in Britain.

They found that nearly one in four of us are so superstitious that we refuse to open an umbrella indoors as well as avoiding stepping on any cracks in the pavement.

Here in the South East, the most popular superstitions were breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck and finding a four leaf clover will bring good luck.

What does all this have to do with Financial Planning and investing?

Earlier this year I wrote about locus of control. This describes how we view our autonomy and agency in the world.

According to research, people with an internal locus of control believe they are responsible for, and can therefore influence, outcomes in their life.

Those with an external locus of control believe they are relatively powerless pawns in the game of life, with external events having the most influence on their lives.

So those with a more superstitious nature are likely to have an external locus of control.

From a Financial Planning perspective, this could play an important role in our financial success.

[tweet_box]Worried about Friday 13th? This could influence your financial success.[/tweet_box]

We believe the majority of our clients have a high internal locus of control, with the belief they are responsible for, and can therefore influence, outcomes in their life.

It would be interesting though to compare the findings from the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks research on superstitions with responses to the same questions from our own clients, as a way of testing whether this theory is accurate.

Do you have any particular superstitions? Will you be staying safely in bed on Friday 13th?