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One can’t give financial advice for very long without realizing that most of it is not earth-shattering insight. It usually comes down to common sense. So then the challenge becomes one of analyzing why people don’t apply common sense to their finances more often.

Temptation is a big reason, of course. One person goes over a credit limit because she is absolutely convinced she deserved a fancy vacation. Another cannot save any money because he feels he has to buy a new car every nine months. Those situations are tough to deal with because, when you confront people who do this kind of thing with reason why it is a problem, they will start out agreeing with you but then immediately segue into a long rationalization of why they only did it because the circumstances were exceptional.